Customer Reviews

Art Laboe's Memories Of El Monte: The Roots Of L.A.'s Rock And Roll

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The El Monte Legion Stadium was located in a small suburb of Los Angeles and during its heyday of the fifties through 1960's was the venue for the best Rock & Roll shows in So. California. This disc features acts that have played El Monte during those years and some acts that simply sound like they should have headlined there. Most of these songs are taken from the record of the same name that was released in 1960 and produced by the legendary L.A. disc jockey Art Laboe. Laboe has also produced this CD with added tracks to give a feeling of spaning more years of El Monte stage shows. Art Laboe is also the originator of the "Oldies but Goodies" Lp's and probably the father of the phrase. This then is an "Oldies", recording in its truest form. Some of the acts were only known in the L. A. area, like Jim Balcom and Sonny Knight. Other acts were national Rock & Roll headliners like Billy Stewart and Earth Wind and Fire. If you remember "El Monte", or Art Laboe with his radio show from the drive-in where he played requests from teenagers as they sat in their cars after school eating hamburgers. If you are into "oldies", and are tired of the same old records on the radio, then pick this Cd for your collection.

As someone who will soon turn 60 years old, I can totally relate to this CD. A friend gave me a copy of his CD and I now ordered 2 more as gifts. The friend who gave this to me is 71, he's more like a 17-year-old when this music plays. He was born and raised in East LA and I wasn't too far away.

These songs are great!

Excellent CD, had one previously and lost it. Had to buy another! Received quickly and in excellent shape.

My wife frequently went to the El Monte and this album brought back so many memories. She really, really liked this. There were a few songs that weren't big hits back then, that are on the album, but overall this was very well worth the $.