Customer Reviews

Anthology

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great to see Steve have a hand in his own Anthology, and a nice 31 tracks. On the downside, many of the tracks are from lacking vinyl & some of his charted hits are missing...not exactly a proper "Anthology" now is it!? Regardless, I don't forsee anything else coming out legitimately soon so...this will do.

If you don't who Steve Alaimo is, then you never saw the after school teen show from the mid sixties, "Where the Action Is! Now subtract a star! This CD crams 31 cuts on to one disc, and includes 6 of his 9 charted hits (yes, the best ones) plus it has the hard to find "I Don't Know", possibly the best thing he ever recorded. It has a great Jamaican ska beat and a cool horn work. What I found most interesting was that every cut has totally different styling that can be identified with a major star of the era. (HINT: the first and last tracks are BobbyDarin). Further, on "Amerikan Music" Steve imitates some of the popular singers of the time, it's hard to put a finger on an "Alaimo" style. I'd been looking for "I Don't Know" for many years so I was pleased with this disc. Once you listen, you'll understand why Steve never became a big star. Music buffs may have a problem with a couple of tracks that are in rough mono. If you don't know what mono is, subtract another star!

I remember Steve from Where the Action Is - a nice looking guy with a folk rock sort of voice. I always really liked "Everyday I have to cry some" which is track 21. The anthology is very well thought out and really showcases Steve's voice. Now, if only there were a Donna Loren anthology!

I did like most of the content of "The Anthology" but it tells only part of the story... In order to get many of the swinging, twisting, rocking, soul sides, you need the Marginal CD "Hits & Rarities," a 33-track quasi-boot that contains great sides not in this "Anthology." Among those are the tremendous B-side to "Everyday..." -- the legendary "Little Girl," as well as 2 great versions of Chuck Jackson's "I Don't Want To Cry." Other great tracks in the Marginal disc are "Twistin' The Blues" (reworking of Carl Perkin's "Boppin' The Blues"), and the rollicking "Home By Eleven." Oops!...almost forgot the 60s film tune "Girls, Girls, Girls" and the REALLY SWINGING "That's What Love Will Do." Yes, this Marginal CD is a European "boot" and the mastering is quite uneven at times and some tracks are CLEARLY from vinyl and not tape but this will have to do as most of these sides will never appear any other way. Add the Marginal CD to the Hot/Henry Stone tunes and you get a better picture!

The biggest problem with this compilation is the lack of early material from Steve's days on the Marlin and Dade labels. He cut some great rocking sides before moving on to Checker, and those sides would have worked well here, instead of the lounge lizard tracks. It's not as if Hot couldn't lease those tracks, since they were originally recorded for Hot's owner Henry Stone!

Still, there is a lot to like here. "Happy", produced by Ray Stevens, is excellent Nashville pop (with uncredited backing by the Marvells, featuring Annette Snell). "Pardon Me" is P.F. Sloan's "My First Day Alone" done soulfully. "Nobody's Fool" is a good reworking of a Dan Penn tune, produced by Chip Moman at American Studios.

I do want to correct some errors in the review that follows: The reviewer confused Alaimo's Imperial and ABC stints. He recorded for Imperial in 1960 and 1961, and moved on to ABC-Paramount in March 1964. (Alaimo remained with ABC until early 1967, when he moved on to Atco). And it's not fair to say that his version of "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" lost out in the charts to Sounds Orchestral. The latter version was already a hit when Alaimo cut his vocal version, so they were never really competing covers (unlike the case of "So Much Love", where Alaimo and Ben E. King did compete for air time).

There are some good tracks here, but some GREAT tracks have been left out: Home By Eleven, 1 X's 1 Ain't Two (a funky swampy Mickey Newbury tune), One Woman, etc. And where are the liner notes? I wrote the notes that were supposed to go with this album, but they were left out (possibly because I concentrated so much on Alaimo's full history, while these tracks are pretty much only from 1962 through 1971).

Alaimo covered a lot of ground in his recording history: rockabilly, R&B, a full album of ska tunes way back in 1964, teen pop, soul, lounge swing, and swampy pop. You won't get the full spectrum of Alaimo's artistry here, but at least it's a start.

Jeff Lemlich Author, "Savage Lost: Florida Garage Bands, The 60s & Beyond"

Other reviews allude to the notion that Steve Alaimo, born in Rochester, N.Y. on December 6, 1939, was a One-Hit Wonder, that being Every Day I Have To Cry which hit # 46 on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 in early 1963 for the Checker label. To most of those who put out multi-artist compilations of One-Hit Wonders, he wouldn't even make their list as they tend to regard anything that failed to make the Top 40 - or even the Top 30 - as a non-hit.

However, when you consider that, for every song that made it into the Top/Hot 100 in any given year there were upwards of four that did not, and that Billboard created, in late 1959, a special "Bubbling Under" chart to chronicle those that hit # 101 to # 125, then Steve Alaimo, in fact, had nine hit singles from 1962 to 1972 for four different labels. The problem with this so-called anthology is that they only give you six and just two of the B-sides.

And that's too bad, especially when you consider that he holds a record of sorts, albeit one that he would likely rather not own. In the annals of Billboard Pop Hot 100 history he has the most Pop hits without even one making it into the Top 40, although two did do reasonably well on the Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) charts, introduced by Billboard in late 1961. Cast Your Fate To The Wind, which peaked at # 89 Hot 100 in June 1965 for ABC-Paramount, and When My Little Girl Is Smiling, a # 72 Hot 100 in July 1971 for Entrance, topped out at # 22 and 27 AC respectively.

His initial hit, in March 1962, was a cover of Nat Kendrick's Mashed Potatoes with Part 1 reaching # 81 Hot 100 b/w Part 2. Neither is included here. Then came the above-mentioned Every Day I Have To Cry, followed in October 1963 by a cover of The Highwaymen smash, Michael, which saw Part 1 go to # 100 b/w Part 2. Again, neither side is included, nor is the B-side to his best hit, Little Girl (Please Take A Chance With Me). All of these were released on the Checker label.

In late November, he had Gotta Lotta Love peak at # 74 Hot 100 for Imperial Records b/w Happy Pappy, and once again both sides are left out of this "anthology." Early in 1965 he re-surfaced with ABC-Paramount where he had Real Live Girl, from the Broadway musical Little Me, top out at # 77 Hot 100 b/w Need You (another omission). Then came the above-mentioned Cast Your Fate To The Wind, a cover of the 1963 instrumental hit for The Vince Guaraldi Trio (# 22), and a # 10 instrumental smash again in 1965 for Sounds Orchestral. Even a vocal cover by Shelby Flint would do better than Steve's # 89 as hers hit # 61 in 1966. They do include his B-side here, Mais Oui (not Mais Qui as indicated above).

His last of three ABC-Paramount hits then came in May 1966 when So Much Love staggered to a # 92 Hot 100 b/w Truer Than True (not here). The star of TV's Where The Action Is in 1965-1966 then popped back into the lower regions of the charts in October 1966 when he teamed up with Mark Lindsay and Keith Allison, both formerly with Paul Revere & The Raiders, and took Melody For An Unknown Girl to # 74 Hot 100 on the Parrot label billed as The Unknowns. The flip of that was Keith's Song. Neither side is here.

It would then be almost five long years before he returned to the singles charts, this time with Entrance Records, with When My Little Girl Is Smiling, which ran out of steam at # 72 Hot 100 in July 1971 b/w Gemini (again, not included). Both sides of his last hit are here however, as the novelty tune Amerikan Music (pronounced Am-er-ee-can) finished at # 79 Hot 100 b/w Nobody's Fool.

And that would be it for the man who would become President of Vision Records in 1987. A cousin, Jimmy Alaimo, would own family bragging rights as one of three hits he had while a member of The Mojo Men, Sit Down, I Think I Love You, did crack the Top 40 at # 36 in early 1967 for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label.

What we need is a proper anthology from the likes of Eric Records or Ace of London with all 9 hits and their B-sides. Meanwhile, this is the closest you'll find, although the sound quality could have been much improved.

I only accessed this spot to see where I could find "Everyday I Have to Cry Some", and I find (gasp) an anthology?!!! I thought after the aforementioned song that Dick Clark took Steve Alaimo in and gave him a job! I really liked his one "hit" (although it never cracked the Top 40) but I never expected to find someone touting his "charted" hits. He recorded the albums "Twist with Steve Alaimo" and "Mashed Potatoes" but Chubby Checker (another Dick Clark minion) and DeeDee Sharp had those franchises sewed up; the albums flopped. Then came his one hit. I know he wrote some and went on to do some successful record producing and I am glad for him. But, puh-leeze! His ill-advised imitations of other singers are ridiculous. Buck Owens' "Love's Gonna Live Here" as Bobby Darin might have sung it? "Blowin' in the Wind", a Dylan song by way of Peter, Paul and Mary? "New Orleans", a Gary U.S. Bonds hit? And "Wild Side of Life" from antique country singer Kitty Wells? Was he trying to throw out a lot of grenades and hoped one would hit its target? Jeez! Even "Everyday I Have to Cry Some", while well-produced, doesn't sound like the original. Three stars is generous, even for a Sagittarian Dragon. (I just threw that in).

Steve Alaimo based on this career sampling cd should have been one of the giants in rock and roll. But small labels with little promotion dollars kept this artist in the shadows. However this Cd gives the buyer a chance to hear what they missed first time around. Great singing, a variety of different types of music makes this a 5 star album!

Steve co-wrote with Greg Allman what is probably one of the most well known and best Allman Brothers songs ever - "Melissa", which appeared on the Eat A Peach album. He also wrote "God Rest His Soul", about Martin Luther King's assasination, which was recorded by Greg and Duane Allman before they formed the Allman Brothers Band. Originally pretty hard to find, the song was released on the Allmans box set, "Dreams", and is well worth checking out. An excellent song and perfect vehicle for Greg Allmans soulful voice. Steve may not have charted very high, but he did write some very fine tunes.

Steve co-wrote with Greg Allman what is probably one of the most well known and best Allman Brothers songs ever - "Melissa", which appeared on the Eat A Peach album. He also wrote "God Rest His Soul", about Martin Luther King's assasination, which was recorded by Greg and Duane Allman before they formed the Allman Brothers Band. Originally pretty hard to find, the song was released on the Allmans box set, "Dreams", and is well worth checking out. An excellent song and perfect vehicle for Greg Allman's soulful voice. Steve may not have charted very high, but he did write some very fine tunes.