Five Satins - Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 CD

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 songs Recorded between 1962 & 1967. Includes liner notes by Steve Kolanjian. Skeeter Davis has had two phases of her career: the first as part of the duo, the Davis Sisters, with Betty Jack Davis (they weren't really sisters, by the way) in the pre-rock & roll era, and the second as a solo Nashville country crossover artist in the 1960s. The Davis Sisters recorded one bona fide classic, "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know," which was a huge hit in 1953, and Skeeter mirrored it with a classic of her own in 1963, the weepy and resigned "The End of the World," which features a perfectly measured vocal from Davis, which manages to overcome the pathos inherent in the lyrics. This collection of solo sides reveals the formula Davis followed pretty clearly, merging plaintive country material with injections of big pop hooks, all sweetened with Nashville strings. Try to pick up a compilation that features a selection of Davis Sisters' songs -- in addition to the solo stuff -- to get a complete picture of this intriguing singer. ~ Steve Leggett Skeeter's biggest and best "pop" recordings are highlighted in this very special CD. Most tracks appear for the first time since their original release on records! Tracks include A Summer Song, Don't Anybody Need My Love, Don't Let Me Stand In Your Way, Liner Note Author: Steve Kolanjian. Recording information: 06/08/1962-05/01/1967. Producers: Chet Atkins, Anita Kerr, Felton Jarvis. Compilation producer: Eliot Goshman.

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 CD music Ruby & the Romantics have been poorly served by best-of collections, which are too brief and skimpy. This two-CD, 42-song set goes too far in the other direction, and not everything on here is exciting or worthy of multiple listens by any means. Still, too much is better than too little, and this does thoroughly cover the prime era of the original lineup at Kapp from 1963-1967. On the plus side, this convincingly demonstrates that there was more depth and quality than is commonly acknowledged to a group that is often remembered only for one song ("Our Day Will Come") or regarded as a lightweight pop-soul group. There are numerous good blends of girl group Brill Building pop and smooth soul (and, often, light to heavy touches of bossa nova) on disc one in particular. Star tracks include the soaring Van McCoy composition "When You're Young and in Love," the doo wop-indebted "Moonlight and Music" (penned by the Romantics' Leroy Fann), the obscure Bacharach/David ballad "I Cry Alone," the booming uptown soul production of "Does He Really Care for Me," the delicate bossa nova of "Our Everlasting Love," and, above all, the delicious "Hey There Lonely Boy," eventually reworked into a number two hit in 1969 by Eddie Holman as "Hey There Lonely Girl." Unfortunately, much of disc two is stuffed with dull covers of pop standards that filled out their early LPs. If the standards were omitted, this would be a highly credible and varied anthology, staking a fair claim for the band as an underrated outfit in the poppiest segment of early soul. For the record, all but one of these tracks date from their stint with Kapp; oddly, one post-Kapp cut, the 1968 ABC single "No More," is thrown in too. ~ Richie Unterberger And if you're a fan, your day HAS come! Here are 42 classic Kapp tracks dating from 1963-1966-by far the most comprehensive collection ever-nicely annotated and remastered. Includes Our Day Will Come; Young Wings Can Fly (Higher Than You Know); Our Everlasting Love; Baby Come Home , and more. Liner Note Authors: Malcolm Baumgart; Mick Patrick.

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 buy CD music Recorded between 1965 & 1977. Includes liner notes by Colin Escott. The Very Best of O.C. Smith concentrates on the former Count Basie singer's R&B years spent with Columbia -- between the late '60s and early '70s -- including "Little Green Apples" (number two pop, 1968), "Baby I Need Your Loving" (number 30 black singles, 1970), "Daddy's Little Man" (number nine black singles, 1969), "Primrose Lane" (number four adult contemporary, 1970), "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (number 38 black singles, 1971), and "Friend, Lover, Woman, Wife" (number 25 black singles, 1969). At 23 tracks, it provides an extensive overview of the period being covered, including significant album cuts. The disc is the best Smith overview available, topping Collectables' Greatest Hits/Help Me Make It Through the Night combo. ~ Andy Kellman The late pop singer with the velvety sound that made him a superstar in the 60's and 70's...this great collection features his big hit "Little Green Apples" plus "I'm Your Man," "That's Life," "Beyond The Next Hill," "The Season," "The Son Of Hickory Hol Producers include: Allen Staton, Jack Gold, Jerry Fuller, Snuff Garrett, Thomas Shepard, Johnny Bristol. Compilation producer: Eliot Goshman. Audio Mixer: Eliot Goshman. Liner Note Author: Colin Escott. Recording information: 09/20/1965-??/??/1977. Arrangers: Ernie Freeman Combo; H.B. Barnum; John Guerin; Al Capps; Mort Garson; Torrie Zito.

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 album for sale Otis Williams & the Charms were purveyors of fine, primitive R&B-influenced doo wop in the '50s. Their biggest pop hit was 1954's "Hearts of Stone" (later given the dubious honor of being covered by Pat Boone), but they also struck gold with "Ivory Tower" and the super cool and not very P.C. "Ling, Ting Tong." The 25 tracks on Collectables' The Very Best of Otis Williams and His Charms are all solid gold doo wop, some of the best being the rollicking Leiber & Stoller-penned "Bazoom (I Need Your Lovin')," a bopping cover of Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight," the peppy "Dynamite Darling," and the achingly sweet "Could This Be Magic." Anyone who digs the Coasters should be sure to investigate these guys, because they share the same lighthearted charm (if not the same overall quality). This is also the best collection on the market for the group, gathering up all their best songs in a well-sequenced presentation with fine sound quality to boot. ~ Tim Sendra One of the best known classic Doo Wop songs of all-time 'Hearts Of Stone' was recorded by Cincinnati vocal group, Otis Williams & The Charms in 1954. The group was a mainstay on the R&B charts in the 1950s. Otis Williams continues to perform and as a deserving true pioneer of R&B, was inducted into the United Group In Harmony Hall Of Fame in 2000. 'Ling, Ting, Tong', 'Two Hearts' and 'Ivory Tower', included in this collection, were all top ten hits for Otis Williams & The Charms. 25 tracks. Collectables 2003. Liner Note Author: Victor Pearlin.

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 CD music There was more than one Maxine Brown greatest-hits collection prior to this 2002 release, and no doubt there will be others in the future. On its own merits, though, it does a good job of assembling her best-known material, focusing on her mid-'60s recordings for Wand, which yielded the bulk of her best and highest-selling sides. One small advantage this does have over prior collections, such as Kent's fine Oh No Not My Baby: The Best of Maxine Brown, is that it does include her two key pre-Wand hits released on Nomar in 1961, in their original versions: "All in My Mind" and "Funny" (the versions on Oh No Not My Baby are later re-recordings). Otherwise, it's mostly top of the line mid-'60s pop-soul, including her biggest and best singles of the era: "Oh No Not My Baby," "Ask Me," "One Step at a Time," and "It's Gonna Be Alright," as well as good non-hits like "One in a Million," "Gotta Find a Way," "Put Yourself in My Place," and "Since I Found You." There aren't any of her recordings with Chuck Jackson, which might miff some fans, as some of those singles charted. But really, those duets weren't up to the standard of her best solo work, so it's not a significant flaw in focus. It's not a major gaffe, but two songs identified as previously unissued -- "Baby Cakes" and "Slipping Through My Fingers," both bearing the songwriting credit of Otis Redding -- have in fact shown up on previous Brown compilations, the first on Oh No Not My Baby, the second on Tomato's Maxine Brown's Greatest Hits. ~ Richie Unterberger Recorded between 1961 & 1967. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Liner Note Author: Bill Dahl. Compilation producers: Cary E. Mansfield, Bill Dahl.

Original Master Tapes Collection, Vol. 2 buy CD music For audio quality alone, this 23-song collection is worth picking up -- the Five Satins' vocals always sounded good, but you get the real sense of the presence of the backing band as well as the richness of all of the voices on this edition (except on "All Mine": the band never showed for the session, and the track was released a cappella as a result, and may be the prettiest song here other than "In The Still Of The Night"). The 22 songs on this CD, all derived from the earliest extant session masters of each, cover the bulk of the Five Satins' history with Fred Parris as lead singer -- this is the group's classic period, making this release all-but-essential when the quality of the audio is taken into account. This disc is about as close as Collectables Records has gotten to matching the quality of the workmanship on such releases as Bear Family's Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, Cadillacs, and Orioles boxes -- about 50 years of hiss and degrading sound is stripped off of the songs at hand, though one must concede that the group's Ember Records sides, from late 1956 and 1957, benefit more from this treatment, as they were better recorded than their early Standard label sides. ~ Bruce Eder Liner Note Author: Victor Pearlin.