Search - Various Artists :: Lost Male Hits of 50's

Lost, now found

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 05/13/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of a pair of "Lost Hits of the 50s" compilations, this disc gathers up some easily available tunes on CD along with a number of seldom- and never-found male performances of the mid and late 50s. Every song included here was a top-100 charter with the exception of "Jo-Ann" by the Twin-Tones, a song successfully sold as by the Playmates. Though the title is mostly accurate (overlooking the one non-hit), all these tunes come only from the RCA family of labels, ie. RCA and Vik and do not represent tracks from across various other labels. One other glitch here is the inclusion of Rod Lauren's "If I Had A Girl", a song that technically charted in early '60, but who's counting? With the large number of seldom-anthologized sides included here, this piece makes an excellent contribution to filling the gap in the availability of early rock-and-roll-era 45s on CD. Sound quality is good to excellent and surprisingly, several of the tracks (7,10-13,17,18) appear in stereo although a few of these are the more primitive binaural stereo of the era. The only serious downfall here is the complete lack of liner notes on the included tracks with the liner notes booklet limited to a detailed track listing. Shortcomings aside, this does provide an excellently produced collection of many rarely heard tunes on CD."