Best of [Original recording remastered]

Gary US Bonds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 28, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002U50
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,903 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Appears To Be An Error In Track Listing, August 12, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Gary U.S. Bonds (Audio CD)

With all due respect to one reviewer, unless Rhino put out two CDs on Gary U.S. Bonds in 1990, then this is the same as the one I have in front of me. The cover of mine, titled The Best Of Gary U.S. Bonds, shows him jumping, pointing to his name across the top, and with a clock face just below his name. The CD itself is also shown as a clock face with the hands, of course, pointing to a quarter to three. The issue number on mine is Rhino R 70971, licensed from Legrand Records. I note from the above information that it also shows Rhino as the distributor.

Having said that, the contents are exactly the same with only the order in which they appear being different. Inside are five pages of liner notes, with a fold-out showing Gary in front of a blown-up $100 bond. Three more nice shots of him are also included, while on the reverse is a partial discography of the contents [no chart details].

Born Gary Anderson in Jacksonville, Florida in 1939, he was signed to Legrand by Frank Guida and saw his first hit, New Orleans, reach # 5 R&B/# 6 Billboard Hot 100 in late 1960 b/w Please Forgive Me. For his next hit, which didn't come until the summer of 1961, he borrowed the melody of A Night With Daddy which had just "bubbled under" at # 111 Hot 100 for The Church Street Five. Renaming it Quarter To Three, it reached # 1 on the Hot 100 and # 3 R&B b/w Time Ole Story. Both hits had been billed to U.S. Bonds, as was Not Me, released in February but which failed to chart. That's in this volume, while the two B-sides to his first two hits are not.

After that he would be billed as Gary (U.S.) Bonds on all remaining releases, starting with School Is Out [# 5 Hot 100/# 12 R&B in August 1961 b/w One Million Tears], School Is In [# 28 Hot 100 that November b/w Trip To The Moon], and Dear Lady Twist in late December/early January 1962 [# 5 R&B/# 9 Hot 100 b/w Havin' So Much Fun - the only B-side included in this set].

Late in the spring of 1962 he again borrowed from another song, in this case the calypso tune Shake, Shake Senora (Jump In The Line) and, as Twist, Twist Senora, it hit the # 9 Hot 100 slot in May b/w Food Of Love. A couple of months later Seven Day Weekend from the film Trad-Dad reached # 27 Hot 100 b/w Gettin' A Groove, and in September Copy Cat finished at a lowly # 92 Hot 100 b/w I'll Change That Too.

Although that would be his final Legrand hit single, the label continued to issue recorded material but none of it brought him back to the charts. These included Where Did The Naughty Little Girl Go? in December 1962, No More Homework [August 1963] and Perdido (Parts 1 & 2) that November, Do The Bumpsie in November 1965, and Take Me Back To New Orleans in April 1966. All are here at the expense of the B-sides of some that DID work for him. Making matters worse for something blaring "The Best Of" the cuts Soul Food, I Wanna Holler (But The Town's Too Small), and Lover's Moon were never previously released. All of which is why I reluctantly deducted one star since it would have been much more preferable had they included the missing B-sides.

Meanwhile, demonstrating his fondness for Country, Bonds also wrote the 1971 Johnny Paycheck hit She's All I Got, and in 1981 made a comeback with EMI America when This Little Girl reached # 11 Hot 100 in June b/w Way Back When, followed by the old Moon Mullican Country hit from 1947, Jole Blon, which reached # 65 Hot 100 in August b/w Just Like A Child. He then closed out his chart career in the summer of 1982 with, appropriately, Out Of Work. Produced by Bruce Springsteen and Miami Steve (Little Steven) Van Zandt [as were the other two EMI America hits], and featuring Clarence Clemons on sax, it peaked at # 21 Hot and # 82 R&B b/w Bring Her Back.

An exuberant, exciting performer, his tunes had everyone happily dancing and singing along in the early 1960s until, that is, an avalanche known as the British Invasion rudely shoved him and many more like him to the sidelines.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sound all his own., May 19, 2010

By 

majormusiclover - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Best of Gary U.S. Bonds (Audio CD)

This c.d. is exactly the same tracks as
"The best of Gary U.S. Bonds", by rhino in 1990.
Here are 18 tracks of all original 1960s Gary U.S. Bonds music.
From 1960 to 1962 Bonds had 8 songs chart, all are here.
He had five songs make the top 10.
He is most remembered for "A quarter to three" #1 in 1961.
This is a great collection of Bonds music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sound all his own!, May 19, 2010

By 

majormusiclover - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Best of Gary U.S. Bonds (Audio CD)

Gary U.S.Bonds had 8 songs make the chart from 1960 to 1962.
All of those hits are here.
Later in 1981 & 1982 he had 3 more songs chart, those are not here.
This is a good greatest hits c.d.
All of Bonds music sounded like a party going on.
This was a sound all his own until some other artists started to copy his approch.
He even has a song about that fact, "Copy cat", his last song to chart in 1962.