IRVING FIELDS TRIO: BAGELS AND BONGOS

Original Released on LP Decca DL 78856 (1959)

HAPPY STRINGS - HAPPY HITS (1967)

Yesterday And Today "Butcher" Cover - The Story

Original Released on LP Capitol T 2553

MONOPHONIC (US 1966, June 20)

(in Record Collector nº 368, November 2009)

LAWRENCE WELK'S "BABY ELEPHANT WALK"

Original Released on LP DOT DLP 25457 (1962)

THE FOUR LOVERS: "JOYRIDE"

Original Released on LP RCA Victor LPM 1317

MONOPHONIC (US, September 1956)

THE JOHNNY BURNETTE ROCK 'N' ROLL TRIO

Original Released on LP Coral CRL 57080 (1956)

WE ARE THE CHANTELS

Original Released on LP End 301 (1958)

The first LP ever issued on the End label was a natural product of the success of "Maybe," one of the great ballads to come out of the rock & roll boom and one of the most beloved R&B singles ever to emanate from the orbit of label owner George Goldner. For the album, all Goldner did was assemble the two sides of each of the existing six Chantels singles, but it's still a pretty impressive body of music, a fact that makes it a tribute to producer Richard Barrett. "Maybe" is the best song here, to be sure, with a career-making performance by Arlene Smith, but the rest of the album is not to be ignored: "The Plea" (co-authored by Smith and Barrett), which offers shimmering backing vocals by the group and a memorably passionate lyric; the radiant "Come My Little Baby," with its exquisite chorus and a honking sax solo thick enough to cut with a knife; the bluesy "Congratulations," with its "lead" bass instrumental arrangement; the ethereal ballads "Prayee," "He's Gone," and "I Love You So" — even Richard Barrett's attempt to emulate "Maybe," "Every Night (I Pray)," is worth hearing as a refinement and expansion of the hit.

[Note: This album was originally released as We Are the Chantels, with the image below of the five-member group on the cover; such were the racial sensitivities of the time, however, that it was withdrawn and reissued in 1959 with the same catalog number and the title The Chantels, packaged in a more innocuous cover depicting two white teenagers standing next to a jukebox.] (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

THE INSTRUMENTAL SIDE OF NAT KING COLE

Original Released on LP Capitol W 689 (1956)

This is a spectacularly colourful and Cole-erful all-piano instrumental album. The royal digits flash across the keyborad with more joyful abandon than in anything Cole had recorded since the 1940s. Nelson Riddle's orchestra proves to be the most perfect partner that Cole would have after Oscar Moore and Johnny Miller. In effect, PIANO STYLE is a double whammy - some of his best keyborad work and in a completely unique setting. The pianist is obviously inspired by the new format, and responds with some of his most animated and inspired playing. As Cole said at the time, «this is the first real serious piano work I've done in a long time»