Golden Age CD Review
Various Artists
Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Follow-up Hits
Ace CDCHD 1190
**
Lovers of the teen-driven music that made the 1950s and 1960s so exciting will already be aware that Ace Records’ genre-defining Golden Age series has advanced to Volume 11, so this oddball off-the-wall release comes as something of a surprise. As the title suggests, the collection comprises 30 follow-ups to big American hits—all of them making the US Hot 100, despite very few comparing favourably with the artists’ best-known chart successes.
Back in the rock ‘n’ roll era, not many record labels would take a chance and deviate from a winning formula so the majority of these cuts have a similar feel to their smash-hit predecessors. A case in point is Rock’n’Roll Is Here To Stay, Danny and the Juniors’ follow-up to their 1957 chart-topper At The Hop. The pounding piano intro and doo-wop vocals are straight out of the same mould, yet the track established itself as a top 20 favourite through sheer exuberance and its jive-happy sound. It would later feature in the chilling movie of Stephen King’s best-selling horror tale Christine. There are several other reasonable facsimiles: a young Mexican named Ezekiel Montanez who, as Chris Montez, had placed Let’s Dance in the top five on both sides of the Atlantic, also scored heavily with Some Kinda Fun, while Rockin’ Robin star Bobby Day soared into the charts once more with the chirpy The Bluebird, The Buzzard And The Oriole, and instrumental hit-makers Santo and Johnny successfully replicated the haunting steel guitar sound of Sleep Walk on their melodic Tear Drop. But how many of the legions of pop-pickers who elevated New Orleans rocker Ernie K. Doe to the US chart summit with his comic cut Mother-In-Law were tempted to buy the subsequent Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta? Not many—and one listen to this dire ditty will tell you why. True, Dion and the Belmonts and Gene Vincent contribute decent offerings, but in the main this compilation consists of also-rans and will appeal mainly to completists who own the rest of the Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll series. If you want the big hits and cool tunes, check out Volumes 1 to 11. Bob Kilbey