"For the hardcore country fan in the 50s, 60s and 70s, when a song was declared #1, it was a big deal. The fact is the song may have been #82 on the broader pop music chart where most record sales were reflected. Well, "Walk On By" by Leroy Van Dyke, in case you didn't know, is according to Billboard Magazine the #1 selling country song OF ALL TIME. It also was in the Top 5 on the Pop chart. That song, the kind you can play over and over again, is on this package along with its similarly-themed "If A Woman Answers (Hang Up The Phone)" and Leroy's other biggie "The Auctioneer". He also gives a good rendition of songs made popular by other singers. This is a package of music well worth the price. If you want only one set of Van Dyke songs, this is the one."
Greatest Hits Plus
Ronald George Reagan | Steele, MO | 07/02/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In addition to having some of Van Dyke's biggest hits including "Walk On By", "Dim Dark Corner", etc., this also includes some other worthy album cuts from his days at Mercury including country standard "Heartaches By The Number" as well as the Pat Boone chestnut "Love Letters In The Sand". Van Dyke's great voice was capable of taking songs that weren't his own & making them anew for him all over again. A fine example of this is the demo version of "Fire Ball Mail" in which he absolutely cooks. Again, as I've said on other reviews, I don't know where Mercury Nashville is on this one, but again, we can stand up and applaud Bear Family (remember, a German company by the way) for giving us this. A hope would be that Bear will find time to do the rest of Leroy Van Dyke's 60's catalog including his days with Decca/MCA and the Kapp label."
A nearly Forgotten star
Jess | Coal Country, PA | 01/10/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Leroy VanDyke has got to be one of the most underrated voices ever to grace the Country Music charts; and, like many of his generation, is nearly forgotten today. This album contains 13 tracks of all original recordings, inlcuding his two most famous (and instantly recognizable) songs: "Walk on By", and "The Auctioneer". Besides these two obvious inclusions, there are some simply amazing numbers included here: "Happy to be Unhappy" (really showcases his voice); "If a Woman Answers (Hang up the Phone)"; and "Big Man in a Big House". Along with the signature Leroy VanDyke numbers, his covers of "Faded Love" and "Heartaches by the Number" are excellent. This is an affordable CD, and one any traditional (real) Country Music fan should not be without."
Too Much Missing From A 30-Track CD
Eclectic Revisited | 09/08/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Among those of us whose hobby it is to gather together hit singles from among the R&B, Pop/R&R and Country genres it's the consensus that the list of those artists whose hit singles are toughest to find would definitely include Leroy Van Dyke, a one-time livestock auctioneer just after his discharge from the Army in the 1950s. One probable reason is that, for his 19 charted singles, there were seven different labels involved.
There are, currently, just three of his CD compilations on the market, two from Bear Family of Germany titled The Auctioneer (with 15 tracks) and Walk On By (with 30 tracks) as well as one from Mercury Nashville, also titled Walk On By (with 13 tracks). For some reason, Amazon has chosen to show the same reviews for both Walk On By releases, whereas I suspect each of the other reviewers were focusing only on the Bear Family release.
I know that the original version of Auctioneer, his first hit done while with Dot Records, is only on that Bear Family release mentioned above, together with its flipside, I Fell In Love With A Pony-Tail. Released early in 1957, the A-side climbed to # 9 Country/# 19 Billboard Pop Top 100 in January. It would seem that everything else on that Bear release also emanated from his Dot years, but Auctioneer was the only one to achieve hit status.
The version in this collection is not the original, but rather a re-make done while under contract to Mercury, where his next hit didn't come until late 1961. But what a hit. Walk On By surged to # 1 Country that fall and stayed there for 10 solid weeks, spending a total of 37 weeks on those charts while also climbing to # 5 Billboard Pop Hot 100. Its flipside was My World Is Caving In, also here.
Any follow-up to that debut was going to suffer by comparison, but If A Woman Answers (Hang Up The Phone) did well enough, going to # 3 Country and # 35 Hot 100 in the spring of 1962 b/w A Broken Promise (also here). After that, however, it began to get a little tougher. Black Cloud could only manage a # 16 Country in January 1963 b/w Five Steps (not included here), and from this point on he would have no further Pop cross-overs.
Early in 1964 he took a Bobby Bare-penned tune, Happy To Be Unhappy, to # 50 b/w Now I Lay Me Down, and in March had Night People go a bit higher, reaching # 34 b/w Baby (Where Can You Be). Again, Bear Family left out this B-side and, in fact, does not include one more of his remaining 13 Country hits or their flipsides in a 30-track compilation. Indeed, they don't appear to be anywhere else in CD-format at the moment.
Among the missing is his last with Mercury, Anne Of A Thousand Days, which peaked at # 40 in January 1965 b/w Poor Guy, He then moved over to Warner and, in late 1966, saw Roses from A Stranger make it to # 34 b/w Before I Change My Mind, followed in the spring of 1967 by I've Never Been Loved (# 66) b/w Less Of Me. Then, in January 1968, he closed out his Warner stint when Louisville became his fifth-best Country charter by going to # 23 b/w There's Always Tomorrow.
Next up was Kapp Records where, in late summer 1968, You May Be Too Much For Memphis, Baby made it to # 69 b/w Road Of Love, and late the following year The Crack In My World topped out at # 56 b/w We'll try A Little Bit Harder in December 1969. His next, and final Kapp hit didn't come until the summer of 1970 when An Old Love Affair, Now Showing managed only a # 63 b/w Bells.
It was also in 1970 that he moved on to Decca, and in December had Mister Professor stall at # 71 b/w People Gonna Turn You Off. Fourteen years after crashing onto the scene with the fast-paced The Auctioneer, the hits were hard to come by, and it was no different with his next Decca charter, I Get Lonely When It Rains, which, coming in the fall of 1972, struggled to a # 62 b/w Party Girl. Then, in keeping with his pattern of three hits with each label, which began with Warner, he then closed out his Decca years with I'd Rather Be Wantin' Love, a # 69 in early 1972 b/w My Mind Is On You.
Three years later he re-emerged at ABC where Unfaithful Fools could only reach # 79 b/w What Will You Do Now, Mrs. Jones? that May, followed late in the year by Who's Gonna Run The Truck Stop In Tuba City When I'm Gone, which peaked at # 75 early in 1976 b/w There Ain't No Roses In My Bed. That was released by ABC/Dot, bringing him back to his roots. So too was his final hit, Texas Tea, which reached # 77 in May 1977 b/w Las Vegas Girl.
Not a bad collection overall, but in the final analysis there is simply too much left out by Bear Family in a 30-track release to warrant more than 3 stars.
"
Don't walk on by
A. G. Farmer | Palmerston North, New Zealand | 02/27/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Was hesitant in purchasing this CD but am glad I did, good quality and all his major hits are here. So don't walk on by but buy this you will be glad you did"
