Search - The Four Lads :: Moments to Remember: The Very Best of the Four Lads

Best Four Lads compilation

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 07/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Easily the best Four Lads compilation CD, this disc is another excellent production of the independent Taragon Records. With a generous 21 tracks, it covers the entire range of the Four Lads Okeh and Columbia output from the early 50s through their final top-100 single "Happy Anniversary" in 1959. All the major and most of the lesser hits are presented here chronologically in superb sound quality given the vintage of these recordings. Tracks 15 through 21 are in true stereo with the remainder in mono. Includes 6-page flopover liner notes outlining the group's musical history. Quintessential fifties music presented in its very best form."

THE definitive Four Lads collection

Bruce R. Gilson | Wheaton, MD United States | 09/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every hit song that the Four Lads made (except for a few that were really the Four Lads and someone else, like "Cleo and Me-O" with Jill Corey or "Cry" with Johnnie Ray) is included in this collection, including BOTH versions of "The Mocking Bird" (yes, two different versions charted, several years apart!)



It includes their biggest hits and some less-popular songs (like "There's Only One of You," my personal Four Lads favorite).



If you like the sound of this group, this CD is a must-buy. None of the other "best of..." collections compares to this one."

Taragon Almost Had It

Bruce R. Gilson | 08/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With each previous release of Four Lads compilations I lamented the omission of some of their early hits and held out hope that someone would soon produce a more definitive album. Then, in 2000, Taragon came out with this one which is easily the best collection of their hit singles to ever hit the market. And yet, with 21 selections, even they stopped just agonizingly short of completing the picture for us completist junkies.



Don't get me wrong. I was delighted to see both versions of their first solo hit after working with Johnny Ray. The Mocking Bird, also known as Going Home, and taken from Dvorak's New World Symphony, was first done in 1952 with minimal accompaniement by Eddie Safranski and Ed Shaughnessy [# 23]. The same version charted again in 1956 [# 67] on the Epic label. Then, in 1958, they recorded it again, this time with Joe Mele & His Orchestra [# 32].



All the other early 50s hits are here too, from Somebody Loves Me [# 22 in 1952 with the Mitch Miller Orchestra] to Rain, Rain, Rain with Frankie Laine [# 30 in 1954], as are almost all their hits throughout the early years of R&R. Beginning with Moments to Remember, # 2 in 1955 with Ray Ellis & His Orchestra and kept from # 1 only by the phenomenal success of Mitch Miller's Yellow Rose Of Texas, right through to 1959's Happy Anniversary, which peaked at # 77 that November.



The sound reproduction is excellent on all tracks and there is a complete discography of the contents along with three pages of liner notes by Colin Escott.



BUT, whereas they give us both sides of the double-sided hits Standing On The Corner [# 3] b/w My Little Angel [# 22], and A House With Love In It [# 16] b/w The Bus Stop Song (A Paper Of Pins) [# 17] - both from 1956 - they omit the flip of No, Not Much - I'll Never Know - which hit # 52 on its own on February 1956, as well as The Fountain Of Youth which made it to # 90 in May 1959.



Those two, along with the "follow-along" hit It's So Easy To Forget which backed Who Needs You? in 1957, would have made this a 5-star 24-selection CD in the eyes of completist collectors everywhere. Even so, it is a wonderful collection of the songs of Canada's best singing group of that era [ahead of The Crew Cuts and The Diamonds] and for those not hung up on gathering ALL the hits, this is a 5-star CD.



For the record, the group came back in 1968/69 for United Artists to post two Adult Contemporary hits, A Woman reaching # 26 in December 1968 b/w Where Do I Go, and a cover of Gary Lewis & The Playboys'1966 # 1, My Heart's Symphony, which topped out at # 38 in June 1969 b/w Pardon Me Miss. Those remain singularly hard to find on CD."