Customer Reviews

All His Early Hits- And More!!!!

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This CD includes most of the songs from Johnny Tillotson's first 1960 LP (Cadence CLP 25052). Eleven of the twelve songs that appeared on that LP are included here. And of course many other songs are included. I purchased this CD in the late eighties. Its possible that ACE has updated this CD slightly, my track listing numbers do not match what is currently listed by Amazon. My track listing is as follows (with stereo notes):

1. Poetry In Motion (stereo)

2. It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin' (stereo)

3 Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On (stereo)

4.Without You (mono)

5. You Can Never Stop Me Loving You (mono)

6. Well I'm Your Man (mono)

7. Dreamy Eyes (mono)

8. True True Happiness (mono)

9. Love Is Blind (mono)

10. Why Do I Love You So (mono)

11. Never Let Me Go (mono)

12. Earth Angel (mono)

13. Princess Princess (mono)

14. Jimmy' Girl (mono)

15. His True Love Said Goodbye, (Little Sparrow) (mono)

16. Cutie Pie (mono)

17. She Gave Sweet Love To Me (stereo)

18. What'll I Do (mono)

19. I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You) (stereo)

20. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (mono)

21. Out Of My Mind (mono)

22. Empty Feeling (mono)

23. Judy Judy Judy (mono)

24. Funny How Time Slips Away (stereo)

25. Very Good Year For Girls, A (stereo)

26. Lonely Street (stereo)

27. I've Got A Feeling (mono)

28. Lonesome Town (mono)

29. I Fall To Pieces (stereo)

30 Poetry In Motion (studio chat only)

Note that track 30 sounds like some sort of mistake. It is full of studio chatter and hum. This track causes clicking sounds on every CD player I've tried it on, as though it were miss-tracking. I don't know if the CD is defective, or something went wrong in the mastering process. This track is not listed on Amazon's list. Could it be that ACE dumped this song due to some mistake and then issued an updated version?

For the record, the following songs appeared in true stereo on the 1960 Cadence LP: Cutie Pie, Earth Angel, Jimmy's Girl, Princess Princess, Pledging My Love, Why Do I Love You So and Little Sparrow. Since they appear in mono on this CD, it could mean the stereo masters were lost. Too bad.

I bought this Cd and find that NEITHER cut of Poetry In Motion is the original hit release. Also, Pledging My Love (which hit the Hot 100 as the flip of Earth Angel) is missing completely which has caused me to buy other albums in search of this elusive title. Otherwise, it's an exellent compilation!!

Dozens of 60's compilations include "Poetry in Motion" by Johnny Tillotson, as well as Lesley Gore's "It's My Party", The Cascades' "Rhythm of the Rain", Petula Clark's "Downtown" or Gene Pitney's "I'm Gonna Be Strong".

The name of Johnny Tillotson is always associated to his hit "Poetry in Motion", a good song, but there is much more of Tillotson worth listening and even better than "Poetry in Motion".

His sweet and calm voice is ideal for soft-rocks or pop ballads as "Without You", "Dreamy Eyes", "Empty Feeling", "Jimmy's Girl", "Out of My Mind", or his pop rendition of the R&B song "Earth Angel". His roots were in country music, his country songs also have that pop touch that makes them sound fresh today, among them I mention "It Keeps Right on a Hurting" (written by him, covered by Elvis Presley in 1969 for his album "From Elvis in Memphis", later covered by Billy Joe Royal), "Funny How Time Slips Away", "I Fall to Pieces", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On".

These titles are among his early recordings, there are more CD reissues from his years with the MGM label which followed these ones. I couldn't find any CD with his 70's recordings for Buddah and United Artists, last year I read that a CD with Johnny Tillotson's new recordings (including pop, country and rock songs) was nearly ready to be released, I still don't find it.

Listening to a very good and quiet voice singing pleasant melodies with fine orchestrations, will please you. Just sit down, relax and enjoy this music.

"Poetry in Motion" brings back images of my later high-school days, and a 6-transistor radio (which I still have). Janet (Whiting), if you ever read this, "Earth Angel" reminds me of you...the "I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you" part. Wow, forty years and I still remember. And also like a fool, I gave away a 45 of "Why Do I love You So" with "Never Let Me Go" on the flip side. If you graduated from high school in 1960 or 1961, this CD will bring back those days.

Johnny's roots were in country music but he signed for Cadence records (the label famous for the early Everly Brothers recordings) and recorded some brilliant pop music. His biggest hit, Poetry in motion, made number two in America but did even better in Britain, where it was a number one hit. The B-side (Princess princess) is popular with Johnny's fans and can be found here.

Johnny's subsequent releases made little impact in the UK but he had two more American top ten hits (Without you, It keeps right on a-hurting) and had other notable American hits with Send me the pillow that you dream on (which nearly made the UK top twenty - his biggest UK hit after Poetry in motion), You can never stop me loving you (a UK top ten hit for Kenny Lynch) and I can't help it if I'm still in love with you (a Hank Williams song).

Johnny sometimes wrote his own material and it is worth noting that of his own songs, It keeps right on a-hurting (one of his big American hits) has been covered by Elvis Presley. Johnny also co-wrote Judy Judy Judy, which he sang in the movie Just for fun. Later, Petula Clark recorded a French version of the song titled Oublie oublie oublie.

Johnny had to leave the music business for a while to do duty in the army (just as Elvis had done). When he returned, he signed for a different record label and tried to establish a career as a country singer but met with only limited success. All the tracks that really matter pre-date his spell in the army and can be found in this magnificent compilation.