Cameo Parkway 1959-1964: The Best Of Bobby Rydell CD

Personnel: Bobby Rydell (vocals); Dave Appell, Joe Sgro, Bob DiNardo, Joe Renzetti (guitar); Dan Dailey, George Young , Fred Nuzzillio, Buddy Savitt (saxophone); Jimmy Wisner, Roy Stragis (keyboards); Pete Cozzi, Joe Sher, Ellis Tollin, Bobby Gregg (drums); Blanche Norton, Vivian Dix, Willa Ward (background vocals).
Liner Note Author: Jeff Tamarkin.
Recording information: Bell Sound Studios, New York, NY (01/1959-09/1963); Cameo Parkway Studio (01/1959-09/1963); Capitol Recording Studios, New York, NY (01/1959-09/1963); Mira Sound, New York, NY (01/1959-09/1963); Pye Recording Studios, London, England (01/1959-09/1963); Radio Recorders, Hollywood, CA (01/1959-09/1963); Reco-Art Sound Recording, Philadelphia, PA (01/1959-09/1963); RPL Studios, Camden, NJ (01/1959-09/1963); United Recording, Hollywood, CA (01/1959-09/1963); Western Recorders, Hollywood, CA (01/1959-09/1963).
Abkco's 2005 collection The Best of Bobby Rydell: Cameo Parkway 1959-1964 is the first time Rydell's biggest, best hits have been issued on a legitimate CD and while this is a long overdue release -- it's hard to believe that it took 20 years into the CD revolution for this and other Cameo Parkway recordings to be released -- it is a very well-executed collection. At a generous 25 tracks, this has all of Rydell's big hits -- "Kissin' Time," "We Got Love," "Sway," "Wild One," "Volare," "Good Time Baby," "The Cha-Cha-Cha," "Forget Him" -- along with a good selection of smaller hits and his better singles. Much of this does sounded dated -- it's teen idol from the early '60s, so it's no surprise that it sounds like its time -- but that's part of the fun of this music: it evokes its time and while some of the backing vocals are a little overblown and some of the songs are a little silly, it still remains an infectious good time. Rydell's best songs are on the four-disc Cameo Parkway 1957-1967 box set which was released earlier in 2005, so anybody that has that set may not need to dig deeper into his back catalog, but listeners wanting more of one of the biggest teen idols of the early '60s will find plenty to like on this disc. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Collecting recordings from throughout the first five years of early-1960s heartthrob Bobby Rydell's career, this compilation features his first hits, like the Doc Pomus composition "I Dig Girls," standards like "That Old Black Magic," a wide variety of Brill Building classics like "The Third House (In From the Right)," and one early Lennon and McCartney composition, "A World Without Love." Significantly, Rydell's version of the latter song lost out to Peter and Gordon's British Invasion hit--the onetime teen idol was one of many U.S. pop stars supplanted by Beatlemania.