Search - Curtis Lee :: Pretty Little Angel Eyes - Golden Classic Edition

Run-Of-The-Mill Early 60s Vocalist

Luisito Joaquín González | 09/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Curtis Lee's lack of commercial success [he only had two charted singles] can be attributed to two things: he wasn't as good as the countless similar-sounding male vocalists of his day [the ubiquitous Bobbies (Darin, Rydell, Vee, Vinton), Freddy Cannon, Brian Hyland, Tommy Roe - just to name a few]. And, perhaps more significant, unlike many of those artists, he didn't work for a large label [both his hits were on Dunes].



In fact his biggest hit, Pretty Little Angel Eyes, owed its high ranking [# 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in summer 1961 b/w Gee How I Wish You Were Here) more to the backup group The Halos and their bassman Arthur Crier, and the production expertise of Phil Spector, than the talent of Mr. Lee. Indeed, that same group helped Barry Mann's Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) reach # 7 Hot 100 that same summer, and nothing else he did without them amounted to much either.



In Curtis Lee's case, that much was evident when his next release a couple of months later, Under The Moon Of Love, managed to reach only # 46 Hot 100 in November (b/w Beverly Jean) without The Halos, even though Spector produced that as well.



Like Fabian, he had the looks, but an average, country-sounding voice could not sustain him on the charts for long. But from the point of view of a collector of hit singles, Collectables avoids their usual pattern of leaving out something significant by including both sides of his two hits.

That alone rates 5 stars.

"