Search - Various Artists :: Treasured Tunes, Vol. 1

Kudos To Stardust Productions Of Canada

09/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This series of ten CDs, along with their Vintage Instrumentals issues, are among the best such collection of oldies on the market today, ranking right up there with Hard To Find 45s On CD, and Hey! Look What I Found [the latter also from Canada].



First released in 1995, each CD contains two pages of liner notes [unlike Hey! Look What I Found which contain none], and generally-speaking the quality of each selection is superior. Not as good as Eric's Hard-To-Find releases, mind you, which are excellent in that respect, but adequate for all but the most hopeless audiophile.



With the exception of The Pick Up (which was a charter only in Canada for Conway Twitty during his Mercury R&R years) all are original Billboard singles hits for the artists concerned, from 1956's The Auctioneer by Leroy Van Dyke (# 9 Country/# 19 Billboard Pop Top 100) to 1966's Born A Woman by Sandy Posey (# 12 Billboard Pop Hot 100).



Considered "hard to find" would be Mitchell Torok's 1959 re-make for Guyden of his 1953 Country hit, Caribbean (# 27 Top 100 in late summer 1959) - but not as hard as that original Abbott release which hit # 1 Country in late summer 1953; Angela Jones by Johnny Ferguson and a tune penned by John D. Loudermilk that went to # 27 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in spring 1960; Cool Shake by The Del Vikings featuring Gus Backus (# 9 R&B/# 12 Top 100 in late summer 1957); and Tobacco Road by The Nashville Teens (# 14 Hot 100 in 1964)."

Hard To Find Hits Are Hardly Audiophile

K. JOHNSON | 03/20/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"OK, upfront, the quality of this series isn't up to Ace or Eric standards. But it's better than the Mavis compilations. Given that, probably the only reason for buying these less-than-perfect CD's is that they contain tunes which are difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere.



Mitchell Torok's 1959 version of "Caribbean" is a good example. "Treasured Tunes Volume 1" is about the only compilation CD that includes it, along with 19 other hits, some of which also aren't that easy to find on CD. If enough of these selections are among your all-time favorites and you can get it at a reasonable price, then don't hesitate to buy this CD. It cleans up pretty well with a bit of EQ."