Customer Reviews

Apollo Sessions

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In response to the question "who were the best black singing groups during the mid to late 50s" - the beginning of the Rock Era - and the first names to pop up will invariably be The Platters, the Drifters, Coasters, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers and Hank Ballard & The Midnighters. Then, after a bit of thinking, someone will mention The Flamingos, Moonglows, Olympics, Cadillacs and Little Anthony & The Imperials. Then it'll be a bit longer before the names The Five Satins, The Cadets [or Jacks as they were also known], and The Rays are offered.

Great groups all, but somebody had to pave the way, and in the early part of the 1950s the pathfinders were groups like The Clovers, Dominoes, Five Keys, Ravens, Spiders, Four Tunes, Charms, Larks and early incarnations of the later successes such as The Drifters, led by the incomparable Clyde McPhatter, The Royals [who became The Midnighters, and The Robins who would transform into The Coasters.

Also in this elite group were The '5' Royales, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and consisting of cousins Lowman and Clarence Pauling [replaced part way through their career by Obadiah Carter], Windsor King, and brothers Eugene and John Tanner. They might not have been what you could call fabulously successful, but in 1953/54 they had five huge R&B hits, backed by Charlie "Little Jazz" Ferguson & His Orchestra. Baby Don't Do It and Help Me Somebody - two #1s - spent a combined 31 weeks on the charts in 1953 [the flip of the latter, Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, also went to # 5 R&B]. Later that that year Too Much Lovin' [Much Too Much] went # 4 R&B and in 1954, when their tenure with Apollo ended, they took I Do to # 6 R&B.

All are on this fine set, as are the other B-sides - Take All Of Me, the wonderfully wicked Laundromat Blues [my baby's got the best machine ... the best washin' machine in town ... just relax and take it easy while the machine goes round and round ..." and Good Things which, in my opinion, should have charted as well - it's that good.

With their new label, King, they found success a little harder to come by, taking almost three years to find another charter before scoring with Tears Of Joy (# 9 R&B) and Think (# 9 R&B and # 66 pop) in 1957. Unfortunately, this being a compilation of their stint with Apollo these two are not included. But even so the CD is a must for anyone interested in the music of one of the most influential singing groups of that era. In addition to fine sound quality, there are two pages of liner notes written by Mark Marymont.

There is not a single track on this alblum that I don't at least like, if not absolutely love. This alblum contains the song "laundromat blues", which was one of the many songs blacklisted for radio play back then because it was thought too racy for the day. Heck, It's kind of racy by today's standards as well! The rest of the songs on this cd are very different however. They are soulful ballads full of pure soul and emotion. "Help me Somebody" is a prime example of this. I can picture the lead singer with a death-grip on the mic, belting out this wondeful song. This alblum is pure vocal R&B soul.

There is not much I can add to the avid collector from Ontario's informed review except to say if you are at all interested in the wonderful music from this era this is a must-have CD. After fifty-five years not hearing the recordings I can still sing the lyrics to Good Things and Laundramat Blues. They are gems.

Nice to see The Five Royales being recognized as the fine group they were.

Thank you for your thoughtful review, Richard. I just listened to samples of this talented group and about fell off my chair. I purchased it straight away! These songs came out around the time I was born. I'm a hunter of old NYC recording studios. These gentlemen recorded at the old Beltone Studios on W. 31st St. in the Big Apple just up the street from where I once lived. It's fun to go 'round the city and visit the old studio haunts where the Greats recorded. Everyone seems to be recording at home these days - chemistry and spontaneity are lacking from exploiting multi-track recorrding capabilities that are afforded those with home DAW's, but not during these sessions! This is the real deal. These live performances are right in your face, up close and personal with all the intensity that went into the performances. They were forever captured over fifty years ago before the term R&B was coined for us to be able to kick off and chill after a hard day. Wow! Great sound, great tunes, great arrangements and great performances. In my opinion, music just isn't happening these days like it was back then. The spirit is missing. Listening to this makes my hair stand on end; it's that GREAT!!! I just had to have it in my collection. They just don't cut tracks and make records like this anymore. If this goes out of print, I'll be happy to have grabbed one for myself! This is really cool, man. These cats were light years ahead of our time!