Customer Reviews

Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits: 1959

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Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits: 1959 is a budget priced CD that still manages to give us ten great rock and roll hits from 1959. The quality of the sound is excellent and I like the diversity of the artists.

Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife" starts the album with a bang; this elegant tune has everything you could want--great vocals by the masterful Bobby Darin coupled with a big band style arrangement. The musical arrangement has just a touch of rock and roll flavoring to it and it all works very well. Bobby never sounded better; and his excellent diction bolsters his performance very nicely.

Listen also for "Venus" by the great Frankie Avalon. Frankie sings "Venus" with all his heart and soul; and the backup vocalists harmonize to perfection. The theme for "Venus" is very beautiful and even catchy; it makes great use of the percussion and brass. "Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price has a strong rock and roll hit with a fine musical interlude; Lloyd Price sings this passionately and he never misses a beat. Great!

Elvis comes on with his VERY rockin' tune, "A Big Hunk O'Love;" Elvis sings this brilliantly and the backup vocalists do well, too. The musical arrangement makes good use of the piano, percussion and more to turn in a walloping performance. "A Big Hunk O'Love" is easily a major highlight of this album.

"Happy Organ" by Dave 'Baby' Cortez is an excellent tune that just may make you want to jump and dance wherever you are; that's some music on "Happy Organ!" There's also The Crests doing their beautiful and unforgettable hit, "16 Candles." "16 Candles" remains one of my very favorite numbers from this era of rock and roll; I could never forget the magnificent lyrics and the sensitive way The Crests handle this tune.

Overall, Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits: 1959 gives us ten great hits and you're bound to love at least most of them if not all of them. The CD has very high quality control indeed! I highly recommend this for fans of early rock and roll; and people who are just finding out about early rock and roll would do well to consider buying this CD.

At times more "pop" than "rock and roll" (note the CD's title), this CD faithfully captures the essence of the Billboard pop charts in 1959. The swinging "Mack the Knife" stands next to a gritty Presley rocker, "A Big Hunk O' Love," and with some hard-to-find gems rounding things out, this CD is worth investigating. All original versions.

these songs are the originals but they're all in stereo?
i think they were first recorded in mono and rhino remixed them.

i can remember hearing all these songs on a big old zenith radio in the kitchen even in the mid '60's they still played 'em in between the 'beatles'.
the reviewer 'eric' has a good short history of them all so it's accurate.
cool sounds of early rock n'roll times

They're authentic and original. Frankie Avalon's "Venus" provided the obligatory East Coast entry of fluff, "Charlie Brown" the comedy of a class clown (not a bully as one reviewer asserts). the hugely popular "Kansas City" a theme SO popular you could get sick of it (the song surely inspired Paul McCartney but the Beatlee' take on it was an entirely different song), Elvis' "Big Hunk of Love" along with Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee" the true ROCK tunes (the flipside of the Elvis single, "My Wish Came True", was high on the chart too) and Johnny Mastrangelo (Maestro) and the Crests provides a classic. I say go for it.

The sole reason I bought this CD is because of the song "Sleep Walk" by Santo and Johnny. I love Brian Setzer, but his cover went wrong somewhere and it just can't tough this awesome classic. The mournful and melancholic combination of electric and pedal steel guitars is intense and magical.
But that's just the last track. Along the way, I got to revisit 9 other great songs that I know and love from oldies radio (which oddly, don't seem to get much airplay any more). Of the 10, I already had "Mack the Knife" in my Bobby Darin collection, but the rest of the songs in this CD are great when you're not looking to buy entire packages by other artists. Well, I'd like to have more from Paul Anka, but the rest of the collection suits me just fine for now.

this is a pretty good cd, it has a lot of good songs and it's enjoyable to listen to over and over again. This cd rocks with great classical rock and roll songs. Awesome cd. you gotta listen to it.