Customer Reviews

The Best of Johnny Maestro: 1958-1985

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Well it's about time! You've heard that voice on the radio for decades now. In the late fifties as lead singer of the Crests he sparkled on great doo-wop sounds like "Step By Step", "The Angels Listened In", "My Juanita" and of course "16 Candles". In the early sixties he hit the charts again as a solo artist with terrific tunes like "Model Girl" and one of my personal favorites "What A Surprise". And then in the late sixties Johnny Maestro formed a great new group he dubbed Brooklyn Bridge. That group hit the charts with memorable numbers like "Blessed Is The Rain", Rogers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" and of course the #3 smash "The Worst That Could Happen" from 1968. You will find all of these and so much more on Shout Factory's wonderful new 2006 anthology "The Best of Johnny Maestro 1958-1985". This is a collection that is long overdue!!!
After all these many years Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge remain wildly popular in the New York/New Jersey and New England area. And what's not to like? At age 66 Johnny Maestro is still getting it done with one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in rock and roll. Check out the two acapella numbers on this disc. Great stuff! You are also sure to enjoy tunes like "Trouble In Paradise" and "A Year Ago Tonight". The fact of the matter is that there is no a bad song among the 15 tracks on this disc. What prevents this collection from being a five star offering is Shout Factory's inexplicable failure to include one of the most popular Brooklyn Bridge hits "Welcome Me Love". No Johnny Maestro collection can be considered complete without that one. But all in all this is a really fine collection. These are the original Coed and Buddah recordings you enjoyed in your youth. I can highly recommend it! If you are looking for other Johnny Maestro recordings might I suggest Collectables 2004 release "Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge Today". This was the groups first new studio recording in decades. Either way you can't go wrong. Long live Johnny Maestro!

I really do like this CD! How can you not? Johnny Maestro has always been one of the best vocalists of any rock era, but how in the world can you have a 'BEST OF' and not include 'Welcome Me Love', one of the Brooklyn Bridge's greatest songs? Also missing is ;Your Husband, My Wife;. There are lesser, more unknown songs included here. For shame. For that, 4 stars.

Johnny Maestro's voice is up there with Frankie Lymon and Michael Jackson as one of the greatest pop singers of all time; emotion, dynamics and precise phrasing. When he started out the group included Judy Dross the sister of another great pop singer (although wasted on sub-par material) Luther Van Dross. When I first saw him at The Steel Pier in Atlantic City, the Black members of the group had been replaced with white singers and a bass guitar taking the doo-wop bass parts. The Brooklyn Bridge is a great show ("Welcome Me Love") is missing here but he was outstanding on the recent PBS special. What an enduring talent!

This is one of the best CD's I own. Everytime I listen to it, I go back in time and smile. He was one of the best and his beautiful voice is greatly missed by this fan. I always looked forward to "You'll never walk alone" at the end of his concerts as it seemed he did it better and better each time. I am thankful it is on this CD. R.I.P. Johnny.

johnney was amazing the tapes were great i play all of them all of the time i want more i love doopop i want some dion

i like johnny maestro. what a great voice he had. i was sad to found out that he had die...

If you are reading this, you probably didn't wander in here by accident. You probably already know who Johnny Maestro is, one of the greatest singers of the 50's and 60's with that voice--powerful, melodic, crystal clear and of incredible range. Few singers of that two-decade period were his equal: Tony Williams of the Platters, Johnny Moore of the later Drifters, Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers, Roy Orbison, and Gary Puckett are the only ones who come to mind.
But you know all this and you know these songs are great, so why I am I giving you this review? It's to counter the critics who gave this CD only 4 stars because of song omissions. Yes, I agree with them that the CD would've been even better with Your Husband, My Wife and Welcome Me, Love, but this CD is perfect in its own right! No collection of "Best Of" is ever complete to everyone. In fact, I would've added to this CD the Crests' Pretty Little Angel, Flower of Love, I Thank the Moon, and Beside You. The problem is not that this CD lacks great recordings but that there are too many great recordings by Johnny Maestro to fit in a CD of this size.
If you haven't purchased this by now, what are you waiting for? And no, I'm not a shill for the album producer. I just think highly of this CD. Great, great recordings!

I recently purchased three of Johnny Maestro's cd's, to replace albums lost during a flood in 1979. I had not heard most of these songs for close to 30 years. After hearing them on my xm radio, I went on a quest to find the music that I loved so much, and my searching led to Amazon, which had my wanted music, and much more, at a reasonable cost. I now cruise at night, the top open, and for a little while, I am 18 again. I encourge anybody who wants their youth back, for even a short time, look over the offerings of Amazon, and return to your youth. I am very happy, that I found Amazon, and can again, enjoy music from my teens. KHS,Sr.