Tracklist
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01. Talk To Me Baby - Johnny Scoggins With The All American Boy's Orchestra & Chorus
02. Money Back Guarantee - Max Falcon
03. Casual (Instrumental) - Carnations
04. I Love You Baby - Donnie Bowser
05. Friction Heat - Bonnie Lou With Lew Douglas, His Orchestra & Chorus
06. Just Another Lie - Jackie Shannon With The Cajuns
07. High Blood Pressure - Johnny Scoggins
08. Lovin' Up A Storm - Cecil Mack Aka Cecil McNabb
09. All American Boy (alt take) - BobBare
10. Wild Bird - The Jive-A-Tones
11. Knock Me Out - Unknown
12. You Say - Johnny Scoggins With Luke Brandon & His Orchestra
13. Skull & Crossbones - Sparkle Moore With Dan Belloc And His Orchestra
14. Tiger - Sparkle Moore With Dan Belloc & His Orchestra & The Dick Noel Singers
15. Go Steady With Me - Glenn Mooney
16. Sputnik No 2 - Bill Parsons With The All American Boy's Orchestra
17. Educated Rock'n'Roll - Bill Parsons With The All American Boy's Orchestra & Chorus
18. Whatcha' Gonna Do Now - BobBare
19. Old Black Joe - Cecil Mack Aka Cecil McNabb
20. Rain Silver Dollar - Bing Day with Dan Belloc's Orchestra
21. A Trip Around The World - Bill Parsons
22. Tuff-E-Nuff (Instrumental) - Luther Brandon & His All American Boys Orchestra
23. The Stomp - Bob & Jimmy
24. Rockin' Old Man - The Charmaines
25. I'm Hangin' Up My Rifle - BobBare With Johnny & The Jokers
Compilations that dig into the vaults of relatively minor rock & roll independent labels are like digging your fist into a Halloween trick-or-treat bag. Whatever you come up with, you know that it's going to be varied and that not all of it will be to your taste. If this 25-track assortment of 1957-1962 singles on the Fraternity label, with a half-dozen previously unissued tracks thrown in, doesn't yield many delicacies, at least there aren't any candy-coated razor blades. Just two names here made it big: Bobby Bare, who recorded the hit Elvis Presley satire "All American Boy" for Fraternity in 1958 (though Bill Parsons got the credit on the label), and Jackie DeShannon, who was going by the name Jackie Shannon when she recorded for the company. DeShannon's 1959 single "Just Another Lie," done with the Cajuns when she was a teenager, is one of the best cuts, with a smoky sax and equally smoky, unmistakably DeShannon vocal on a reasonably gutsy, bluesy grinder. Bare is heard on a tamer, less-impressive previously unissued take of "All American Boy" and also via his 1959 single "I'm Hangin' up My Rifle" (an unsuccessful sequel to "All American Boy," following Elvis on his return from the army) and the previously unissued mediocre rocker "Whatcha' Gonna Do," complete with King Curtis-styled sax. There are issued and unissued cuts by Parsons -- the real Parsons, not Bare under Parsons' name -- with more novelties that try to recapture the talking-rock & roll flair of "All American Boy" without success. Otherwise, this is a pretty generic cross section of early rock & roll, slanted toward instrumentals to rockabilly pop. Undoubtedly the best of the lot is Sparkle Moore's 1957 single, "Skull & Crossbones," whose exaggerated yelping vocal qualifies it as one of the best female rockabilly records. Oddly, one of the better cuts, the Elvis Presley-styled reverbed rockabilly of "Knock Me Out" is credited to "Unknown," as it's not known for sure who the singer was.
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