ANGELS:BEST OF

The Angels | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: POLYGRAM
• ASIN: B000001EML
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,188 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Girl-Group Must Have For Any Serious Collector, March 30, 2008

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of The Angels (Audio CD)

This leaves the Collectables offering on The Angels (My Boyfriend's Back) in the dust, as it includes all six of their hit singles and four of the B-sides, omitting only the two that backed their first two hits for the Caprice label.

Since the contents are not shown above I have listed them here for your information: 1) My Boyfriend's Back (full version); 2) He's So Fine; 3) 'Till; 4) (He Is) The Kissing Kind; 5) Little Beatle Boy; 6) I Adore Him; 7) Thank You And Goodnight; 8) The Guy With The Black Eye; 9) Why Don't The Boy Leave Me Alone?; 10) World Without Love; 11) Wow Wow Wee (He's The Boy For Me); 12) Dream Boy; 13) The Boy From Crosstown; 14) Snowflakes And Teardrops; 15) Has Anybody Seen My Boyfriend?; 16) Guess The Boy Don't Love Me Anymore; 18) Cry Baby Cry; 19) (Love Me) Now; 20) Jamaica Joe; 21) My Boyfriend's Back (single version)

This is one "girl group" that had to be the most transient of all from that era in terms of personnel. Starting out as The Starlets were Phyllis "Jiggs" Allbut, her sister Barbara, and lead Linda Jansen who all appeared on their first hit, 'Til, in late 1961 [# 14 Billboard Pop Hot 100 b/w A Moment Ago], and Cry Baby Cry early in 1962 [# 38 Hot 100 b/w That's All I Ask Of You]. The backing on all four sides was by Hutch Davie & His Orchestra, who also backed Linda Scott on most of her hits - among other artists. Those are the two B-sides missing here.

When nothing else worked, they moved to Smash with a new lead singer, Peggy Santiglia, replacing Jansen just in time for their huge hit, My Boyfriend's Back, which rose to # 1 Hot 100 and # 2 R&B in late summer 1963 b/w (Love Me) Now (both the album and the hit single versions are included here). Later that year I Adore Him topped out at # 25 Hot 100 b/w Thank You And Goodnight (# 84 Hot 100), and in early 1964, just as the first wave of the British Invasion began dominating the charts - especially The Beatles - Wow Wow Wee (He's The Boy For Me) just missed getting into the Top 40, settling for # 41 Hot 100 b/w the delightful Snowflakes And Teardrops, which might have charted as well under different circumstances.

From there the group spent time as a studio back-up for Lou Christie on his late 60's hits Rhapsody In The Rain and Painter, by which time Barbara had been replaced by Lana Shaw, once with The Serendipity Singers, and Peggy by Debbie Swisher, who had previously been a part of The Pixies Three. In 1971 Peggy became the lead for the group Dusk on their moderate hits Angel Baby (# 57 Hot 100 in early 1971) and I Hear Those Church Bells Ringing (# 53 Hot 100 in summer 1971).

So, if their "sound" appears a little different from cut to cut you know why. Enjoy this one as you read the five pages of background notes written by Don Charles in March 1996, and get another shot of three gorgeous girls at the height of their career.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best comp on these girls, May 17, 2003

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

Most notoriusly known for their vengeful anthem, "My Boyfriend's Back", the Angels did have several other hits, "Til" and "Cry Baby Cry" being the best known. This collection of 21 tracks contains these plus their other charting singles - "Wow Wow Wee" and the two-sided charter "I Adore Him" b/w "Thank You And Goodnight". Making up the remaining tracks are failed singles, album cuts and both the longer stereo album and mono single versions of the aforementioned "... Boyfriend...".

While the success of "...Boyfriend..." was never duplicated, many of the Angels' songs were the product of, and had the trademark sound of, the songwriting team of Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer, who, as a group, went on to perform as the Strangeloves. And while many of these tracks, showcasing the often but not always so innocent quintessential 60's girl group sound, may sound juvenile and dated now, they do provide an interesting and revealing reminder of what drove much of the teen-oriented music of the early 60's.

This collection from Polygram is generally well-done with overall good sound quality and much stereo (tracks 13,20,21 appearing in mono, 3 and 18 electronically rechanneled for effect). In addition, the liner notes booklet provides a detailed history of the group.

While at the time of this review, the CD version of this piece is out of print, it is still available on the secondary market and though there are other collections available for the Angels, this is the one to get if you can.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALL the HITS are here in this c.d. - "THE MERCURY CHRONICLES", April 26, 2010

By 

majormusiclover - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ANGELS:BEST OF (Audio CD)

All the Angels 60's hits are in this quality 21 track c.d.
This is a comperhensive collection of the Angels original 60's hits among some album cuts.
The Angels, typically remembered for singing about their 'tough' boyfriends
makes some of these songs sound rather juvenile today.

But if you grew up with this music, you may have loved every word.
The Angels sang that vengeful song "My boyfriend's back" with a passion,
and on this c.d. is included yet another chapter of that saga with "The guy with the black eye".

The Angels sang of true love, dreamy boys, woodys, heartbreak, crying, and vengance.
One of the Angels songs that is very hard to find, and is here is "I adore him".

The early 60's was still somewhat a time of innocence,
and sometimes the words weren't as important as the music,
AND THE MUSIC WAS GOOD!

This is the 'hits' and B-sides that are here.
1. "Till" 1961.
2. "Cry baby cry" 1962.
3. "My boyfriend's back" b/w "(Love me) now" 1963.
4. "I adore him" 1963.
5. "Thank you and goodnight" 1963.
6. "Wow wow wee (he's the boy for me) b/w "Snowflakes and teardrops" 1964.

Included is a nice ten page booklet of liner notes
with an overveiw of the Angels career.
From 1961 to 1964 the Angel had six songs chart,
all six are here and 2 of their 4 b-sides.

There is actually only 20 different songs here,
because "My boyfriends back" is here in both the 'full lenght' and 'singles' versions.

The Angels music has been hard to find,
This 'Mercury' Chronicles compilation by PolyGram Records in 1996,
is a wonderful pocket of their music to own.

FOOTNOTE: The 2 MISSING b-sides are "Amoment ago" and "Thats all I ask of you",
which are the b-sides of their first two singles.
They can be found on the 14 track c.d. "My boyfriends back"
by The Angels "A Golden Classics Edition" on "Collectable label".

That c.d. repeats only 4 songs, and gives ten different songs that are not on this c.d.
The Angels do a good job on that c.d. with some songs that are less juvenile,
such as "Sentimential journey", "Cotton fields", and "Everybody loves a lover".
It's a great C.D. to go with this one.