Search - Five Satins :: Five Satins Sing Their Greatest Hits

Some Folks Are Hard To Please

09/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some reviewers are ticked over the omission of Our Anniversary and I'll Get Along Somehow. Yes, they did those songs on one of their vinyl albums years ago, but this is labeled, after all, "The Five Satins Sing Their Greatest Hits." And like it or not, a "hit" was then regarded as a single release - initially on 78 rpm and then on 45 rpm - that did well enough in sales, air play, and juke box play to get an artist onto the various Billboard charts - whether Pop, Country or R&B.



THAT is what they all strove to achieve because THAT is what put them on the map, so to speak. And this group had 7 charted hits (three of them with the same song) and, along with their B-sides, they're all here. From the perspective of a collector of hit singles it just doesn't get any better, and this is one time Collectables did it right.



Their first, In The Still Of The Nite, was written by group member and lead singer Fred Parris [the others were Al Denby, Jim Freeman, and Eddie Martin with pianist Jessie Murphy], and recorded in a New Haven church basement. For my money I can't think of a more beautiful ballad to emanate from the mid-1950s. With the upbeat The Jones Girl as the flipside, and first released on the Standard label before being picked up and re-released as Ember 1005, it made it to # 3 R&B and # 24 Billboard Pop Top 100 in the fall of 1956. It's also been written in several places that it "continues to hang somewhere in the air over New York City." I can believe it.



With Parris in the Army and stationed in Japan, Bill Baker sang lead on their next hit, another tender ballad called To The Aisle, which, b/w the jumped-up I Wish I Had My Baby, reached # 5 R&B and # 25 Top 100 in August 1957. More than a year would then pass before their next hit, Shadows, billed to The 5 Satins. By now Parris was back and had replaced Baker and, with his lead, Shadows peaked at # 27 R&B and # 87 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in November 1959 b/w an equally-slow tune, Toni My Love.



Early in 1960 Ember re-released In The Still Of The Nite and it charted again, going to # 81 Hot 100 in January. Five months later they reached back to an old Bing Crosby hit and saw I'll Be Seeing You level off at # 79 Hot 100 in May b/w A Night Like This. Their last charter for 21 years then came in 1961 with yet another re-release of In The Still Of The Night which, with the added words "/I'll Remember" on the label, made it to # 99 Hot 100 in January.



Parris then formed a new group, The New Yorkers and, for the Wall label, had a # 69 Hot 100 called Miss Fine in May 1961 b/w (At Night) Dream A Little Dream. In 1975 he emerged again, this time as Black Satin Featuring Fred Parris, to take Everybody Stand And Clap Your Hands (For The Entertainer) to # 49 R&B for Buddah Records, b/w Hey There Pretty Lady.



Then, in 1982, Fred Parris & The Five Satins had a medley called Memories Of Days Gone By reach # 71 Hot 100, The songs covered were: Sixteen Candles/Earth Angel/Only You (And You Alone)/A Thousand Miles Away/Tears On My Pillow/Since I Don't Have You/In The Still Of The Nite (I'll Remember). The dlip was Loving You (Would Be The Sweetest Thing). Twelve years after that, on August 10, 1994, To The Aisle feature vocalist Bill Baker died of lung cancer at age 58.



I can't find any fault with this great CD which has to be one of the best bargains offered by Amazon.

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Fantastic to dance to when you are "in love."

ellen price | Alton, Illinois United States | 03/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember these songs playing everywhere when I was quite young. I had an older brother, who with his friends, would play them all the time. Of course I was too young to be "in love" but I can still remember my brother and his friends dancing to them and looking as if they could hold each other all night. Now I have this copy for myself and I can't get enough of it! It is also nice to buy a CD that has all good songs on it, not just a few. Hats off to the "FIVE SATINS!""

In The Still Of The Nite wasnt all

ellen price | 02/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though this group could be concidered a one hit wonder group, they had more material than any other one hit wonder......I especially like the songs "I Aint Gonna Dance" and "You Can Count On Me""