Customer Reviews

The Complete Original Hits

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Before rock and roll took over the airwaves in the late 50's, musical styles stayed well insulated behind walls of segregation, as did much in society. R'n'b tunes were often sanitized by mainstream pop artists to make them acceptable to the much larger white market. Some saw this as stealing while others noted that it gave this music a bridge to a much wider audience. Georgia Gibbs was one such performer who reworked some r'n'b tunes of the day and turned them into substantial pop hits. Whatever your view of this practice may be, her renditions of these songs did put them into the consciousness of many people who would otherwise not even know of their existance. And while to some they may seem to be a corruption of the original music, they were well-crafted pop ditties that stood on their own merit.

Here, Hit Parade Records gathers together 23 of Gibbs' recordings in a package dubbed the "Complete Original Hits of Georgia Gibbs". While the term complete is debatable in that it includes only those tunes that made it as far as the top 40 (with two exceptions), it does provide the most comprehensive collection of Gibbs' work to date. The tracks span the period from her first major hit in 1950, "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd've Baked A Cake" up through her take on "The Hula Hoop Song" in 1958. Though not charting singles, her versions of "Ballin' The Jack" and "Great Balls of Fire" are also included.

This piece is another quality effort by the Hit Parade label with a generous 23 tracks, an informative eight-page liner notes booklet and remarkably clean sound for recordings of this vintage. No reference to the source recordings is given so whether these tracks are taken from vinyl, tape, or other digital source or some combination thereof is unknown. Nevertheless, the sound quality is very clean for the most part, the exception being track 23.

This piece offers a welcome replacement for the now out-of-print Mercury compilation from several years past.

The CD entitled The Best Of Georgia Gibbs - The Mercury Years gives you 20 of the 25 hit singles she posted for that label from 1950 to 1957, plus a couple of B-sides and three E.P. selections.

And while this one repeats 14 of those selections, you also get nine hits that are not included in the Mercury Years release, these being tracks 3, 8, and 16 (her hits while with Coral), along with these Mercury hits missing from that other CD: Good Morning Mr. Echo (# 21 in June 1951); Rock Right (# 36 in April 1956) and Tra La La (# 24 in December 1956). Also included is her last Billboard Pop Top 100 hit single, The Hula Hoop Song, which Reached # 32 in October 1958 for the Roulette label.

Georgia did have one more hit, that being Let Me Dream which made it to # 37 on the Adult Contemporary charts in February 1966 on the Bell label. That remains very hard to find.

For any true Georgia Gibbs fan, this should be purchased in conjunction with the Mercury Years release. In addition to the superb sound quality (all in glorious original mono), you get six pages of fascinating liner notes written by Greg Adams together with three more photos of Georgia at various stages of her career and, on the back, the chart performance of each selection (only label details are missing).

I read about Georgia, never having heard her music. Part of her fame comes from her shift from the pop sounds of the early 50s to the early rock era. She has a dramatic voice such as on the opening tango "Kiss of Fire." The booklet on this Hit Parade label release is excellent, giving chart information like "(If I Knew Your Comin') I'd've Baked a Cake" went to #5 while "Dance with Me Henry" went to #1. Songs like "Tweedle Dee" put a smile on your face as Georgia belts, "Give me all the love you've got." "Seven Lonely Days" I knew from Patsy Cline's recording about eight years after Georgia went to the top ten. "I Want You to Be My Baby" pops with energy. "Cry" is a classic song that has been recorded by a diverse singers like Timi Yuro, Jackie Wilson, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee, Crystal Gayle, Ray Charles, Paul Anka & Lynn Anderson. In Georgia's version the melody is lovely with some early 50s harmonies in the background, "If your sweetheart sends a letter of goodbye, It's no secret, you'll feel better if you cry." While I appreciate the early recordings, the mid-50s material really captures my attention. "Sweet & Gentle" has a peppy cha cha beat while "Somebody Bad Stole de Wedding Bell" tries on calypso. Fred Ebb gets a writing credit on the sizzling "Kiss Me Another." "Tra La La" is a bouncy track, "You're as sweet as a candy bar. ... You're as cute as a movie star." "Rock Right" sets my toe tapping and puts a smile on my face. The set concludes with Georgia's version of "Great Balls of Fire" where she blasts some ripe rock & roll, although the sound clarity is a bit below the standard of the rest of the album. This good set covers this expressive singer's career in the 1950s. Enjoy!

Don't get me wrong, this is a great CD compilation of Georgia's hits but sadly it only contains those that made the TOP 40 of the Billboard charts. So at least 4 of her Billboard TOP 100 chart hits are missing: Goodbye To Rome (Arrivederci Roma) no. 51), 24 Hours a Day ( no. 74), Silent Lips (no. 65) and I'm Walking the Floor Over You (92). The Cashbox chart listings which were equally as important as Billboard in the 1950s also list others.

Great to see some tracks not in other official releases. A great CD.