Three-way value
Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 10/05/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Loco-Motion bookends this compilation, first in the huge hit by Little Eva, who also devised the dance that became such a craze, and finally in the name of the band who provide the only selection not by Little Eva, The Locomotions, a Philadelphia group featuring Leon Huff. They provide the song inspired by the dance and which was named Little Eva in her honour. Midway we also get the throw-away cash-in Old Smokey Loco-Motion.
Subtitled The Complete Dimension Recordings, it lives up to its name well, the only omission I could spot being the single Heigh-Ho which was a duet with Big Dee Irwin and therefore technically doesn't count, although room has been found for four other collaborations with Big Dee, including the hit Swinging On A Star.
This album is valuable in three ways: first, as a collection of Little Eva's best solo recordings (she was also sang with the Cookies, and they in turn sing on a number of her records) between 1962 and 1965; secondly as a representation of some of the best recordings on the short-lived Dimension "girl group" label which Don Kirshner formed in 1962; and thirdly as a veritable Goffin and King songbook. They were staff writers for the label and their names appear on all but ten of its 29 tracks.
Little Eva was the only artist to have an album released on Dimension. Produced by Gerry Goffin it was called L L L L Loco-Motion and included Loco-Motion and the hit follow-up Keep Your Hands off My Baby (added to the album's second pressing). It also had her versions of Goffin and King songs originally given to the Drifters, Ben E King, Bobby Vee and the Shirelles, as well as covers of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do and the Crystals' Uptown (both Brill Building songs). One oddity was the West Side Story number I Have A Love. The album came out in mono and ghastly electronically-channeled stereo - the complete album is here in mono.
Little Eva also devised another popular dance, the Turkey Trot, and there are a number of turkey references in the songs including, of course, on the big hit Let's Turkey Trot (farmyard noises by the Cookies). Other A-sides were the excellent The Trouble With Boys, Let's Start The Party Again, which gets into Lesley Gore territory, and Wake Up John (written by Chip Taylor). Get Him, recorded at the same sessions as Wake Up John, remained unreleased until 1988. These records have an infectious charm and innocence that derive from their ephemeral intent but that can still be fully enjoyed today."
