Customer Reviews

At Play with the Playmates: Golden Classics

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

 

 

The Playmates are, unfortunately, best known for their "hit" Beep Beep. They say in Latin "Non es Disputendum" or there is no arguing about tastes. Well sorry to say that I find "Beep Beep" an insufferably annoying novelty song. So how does a CD featuring a song that I find thoroughly obnoxious earn four stars? That's because if "Beep Beep" is everything bad about an era, the Playmates song "Wait For Me" is everything that's good about their era. "Wait For Me" features lovely vocal harmony and skilled arrangement unheard in today's popular music. Unlike the rediculous "Beep Beep" and it's little mash Rambler challenging a Cadillac, "Wait For Me" tells an intricate and touching tale. Unlike most story telling songs, "Wait for Me" never lets its lyrics interfer with its music. "Wait For Me" alone is worth the price of the CD.

Dude, this is some of the better yet least known 50s music you'll ever find. "What is Love" and "Joanne" are hugely underrated among that genre. Let's not even get into "Beep, Beep" which also is way cool.

With one foot firmly planted in novelty antics, and the other moving into Modern vocal territory, the Playmates leave an interesting legacy at a time when disparate genres were converging to form the teen expression of the 1950s: rock 'n' roll. The Playmates are not the best vocalists of their era, nor do their arrangements reach the dynamic height of the Drifters or Connie Francis records. Still, there is something musical on this CD that is worth noting.

Novelty songs had their place throughout the '50s and '60s in pop music, with several charting respectfully. "Beep Beep," by the Playmates, was not only the group's biggest hit, but a novelty classic that sounds down-right experimental in hindsight. The Playmates achieved a comedy that might not have been considered hip or cool in their day (in contrast with the hip-shaking of Elvis Presley or the swagger 'n sneer of Gene Vincent & his Blue-Caps), but their brand of barbershop pop was sentimental and suburban, without being redundant.

Alongside "Beep Beep," Collectibles represents all of the Playmates cuts you'll ever need. "Wait for Me" is a magical ballad vocal and "Joanne" is one lovely teenage paeon, predicting the Venus-vibe of future teen crooners like Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Other highlights include "What is Love?" and "The Day I Died." I find it interesting to see how their ideas started to come together in a chronological order. Multiple listenings are required, but you will get the point with one good listen.

While Jo-Ann only went to #19 nationally, it was a much bigger hit in my area and I actually had it on a 45 RPM. This is typical fun late 50s and early 60s music. I, too, have to laugh at some of the reviewers who think that since they never heard of the Playmates that they musn't be any good. What arrogance!! Of course, whether one likes this music or not is purely a matter of opinion, but negative criticism by the clueless is really quite amusing.

To all of you negative comment writers this one is for Uncle Carl Cicchetti(the guy in the middle of the motor scooter) . Carl Cicchetti is a phenominal musician as was his late brother Chic and their father. The Playmates music were what America was calling for in the 1950's....
Carl Cicchetti is an classic American musical artist whose talent is truly one of a kind...he is a wonderful uncle too.
Tim

That one of the reviewers probably wasn't around when Beep Beep climbed up the charts in 1958 is evidenced by the reference to the "mash Rambler." Actually, the car doing the annoying beep beeps was, as everyone who WAS around at that time well knows, a Nash Rambler, the 1950s version of a Suzuki Swift. As with almost all novelty tunes, the "novelty" wore off pretty quick, but even so it remains one of the better such songs from that era, right up there with Witch Doctor and The Purple People Eater.

Clearly, this trio had comedy on their minds first and foremost, having started out in 1953, after all, as The Nitwits. After changing their name to The Playmates in 1956, it took two years and a contract with the new Roulette label before they had their first hit, a cover of The Twin-Tones RCA Victor E.P. release Jo-Ann which made it to # 19 Billboard Pop Top 100 in March 1958.

The follow-up Let's Be Lovers didn't do nearly as well, only reaching # 87 that May, although their third hit that year, Don't Go Home, made it back into the Top 40, settling in at # 22 in July. That was followed by another severe dip when The Day I Died petered out at # 81 b/w While The Record Goes Around. The up-and-down trend then continued in December with Beep Beep reaching # 4 b/w Your Love.

In April 1959 the flip-flopping trend continued with Star Love topping out at # 75 on what had become the Billboard Pop Hot 100. All their hits to date had the backing of Hugo Peretti and his orchestra (of Hugo & Luigi fame).

The upswing then saw What Is Love? rise to # 15 in August with the backing of Joe Reisman's orchestra, followed by several failed singles. It wasn't until late 1960 that they returned to the charts with Wait For Me, a # 37 in November, again with Reisman and his orchestra, who also backed them on Little Miss Stuck Up which peaked at # 70 in March 1961.

Their only charted hit not included in this CD (which contains the original liner notes from their vinyl LP At Play With The Playmates) is their last, Keep Your Hands In Your Pockets, which fizzled out at # 88 in July 1962.

They had a nice, pleasant harmonizing sound which, on some cuts, puts one in mind of another trio that had been around since the early 1950s and who also leaned towards comedy - The Gaylords. In dishing out nine of their ten hits plus two B-sides this is one of the better offerings from Collectables, complete with their usual excellent sound quality. But they SHOULD have made room for that one lonely hit. Of course, that's also their calling card in most releases.

Why listen to mimics of the era when you can get the real thing?

My favorite song and the one that made me search for this album is 6. Beep Beep. The story of the little Nash Rambler keeping up with the Cadillac.

However the whole album is full of songs of the era. Some remind you of malt shops others make good driving songs. I am not one for over analyzing.


Beep Beep

Beep Beep is indeed a classic. Not sure about the rest. Can someone tell me which "Beep Beep" is on this cd? The one I have, on the "Bop Rock'N'Roll" compilation is bowdlerized into being about a limousine and a bubble car. Rather than about a Cadillac and a Nash Rambler! Ruins the whole furschlugginer thing, if you ask me.

"Little Miss stuck-up," with its horrid k.p. overtones, marks 1961 as a nadir in popular music, unmatched again until 1987. To me it is inconceivable that anyone would have this reprehensible album in their home.

I found this album's link on a Worst Album Covers site, and upon reading the reviews was shocked to discovered that I know a Playmates song. "Beep Beep" was a standard on Dr. Demento's playlist back in the 70's. That sort of says it all.