Donna who? Let's hear it for "the rest"!
uthungus | San Francisco, CA | 07/23/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Now don't get me wrong by my title - I do love Donna Loren and her many singing works (see my other review of her "at this CD's time, yet unreleased" set). But I think the makers of this collection felt they needed to mention her as a "feature" here (along with the Blossoms and others) to give it a boost. Not necessary at all! Her two contributions - "Muscle Bustle" and "Dream World" aren't even two of my favorites of hers by selections.
But you know what? There is so much other fun and great stuff here by lesser-known names (all tracks here being from the Challenge Label), you don't have to care that much! This is the biggest set of works by the Blossoms (6 of 28 overall tracks) and the cleanest cuts of the Delicates I've heard - my only samples of them being from the scratchy "Poodle Skirts/Pony Tails" sets to date. It seems many were catching on to the "Wall of Sound" and lots of great interpretations! Among my favorites "The Boy I Love" - Renee Medina; "Come on Everybody" - Delicates; "Crying on my Pillow" - Dorothy Berry and the powerful cover of 50s pop tune "A Little Bit of Soap" - Yvonne Carroll. I really expected another enormous "explosion" with the gigantic beat buildup from "I Want to Get Married" - Delicates, but then this trails off in to a beautiful soul tune.
Also very cute and peppy songs too, like: "You Haven't Seen Nothing (till you've seen my new boyfriend)" - Dee Dee Young; "Good-Bye Ginny" (mistitled "Jimmy") - Panda Berry; "Love Bells" (ting-a-ling-a-ling!) - The Galens; "I Gotta Tell it" - Blossoms and the sweetest of all being "Date Bait" - Diane Maxwell. The only track here credited from the late 1950s ('59) and you can easily tell by the beat. "...I hear your motor comin' down the street, so I rush to the door with lightin' on my feet...!" Even the "Un-PC risky" track "Chinese Lanterns" fails to offend where many songs crossed some lines of ethnic slur, IMO.
Lastly and always fun to me as a collector are those "sound-alike" songs that seemed to be separated at birth from others...! The one that succeeded here is "How Long Must This Fool Pay?" - Yvonne Carroll sounding suspiciously a lot like "Every Little Bit Hurts"! Oh well! If a good song can go around once more in another form, why not?
"
Track Listings (28) - Disc #1