Diamonds Collection

Diamonds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 9, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Stardust
• ASIN: B00005MM00
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,216 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #69 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Doo Wop

Track Listings

1. Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots

2. Smooch Me

3. Why Do Fools Fall in Love?

4. The Church Bells May Ring

5. Love, Love, Love

6. Ka-Ding-Dong

7. Soft Summer Breeze

8. Little Darlin'

9. Words of Love

10. Zip Zip

11. Silhouettes

12. Daddy Cool

13. The Stroll

14. Straight Skirt

15. High Sign

16. Don't Let Me Down

17. Kathy-O

18. Happy Years

19. Walking Along

20. She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

One of the leading cover groups of the mid-'50s, the Diamonds adapted current R&B hits into pop gold of their own. Hailing from Toronto, the Canadian quartet (consisting of Ted Kowalski Phil Leavitt, Bill Reed and Dave Somerville) signed with Mercury in 1955 and immediately zoomed up pop playlists with covers of The Willows' 'Church Bells May Ring,' and their biggest hit of all, a sanitized version of the Gladiolas hit 'Little Darlin'.' Fronted by David Somerville, the quartet hit with an original, the smooth dance outing 'The Stroll.' After weathering major personnel changes, the Diamonds notched their last hit in 1961. Somerville remained active as a solo artist for a time, and the Diamonds often toured the oldies scene. 25 tracks.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Collection of all the hits, June 12, 2005

By 

Dawn (Willowdale) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamonds Collection (Audio CD)

This full length CD not only contains the Mercury tracks but also includes the harder to find Coral titles - excellent sound quality.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALL Their Hits Including Those Not Available On The Mercury CD, August 31, 2007

By 

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Diamonds Collection (Audio CD)

Stardust Records of Canada, whose multi-artist compilation series Treasured Tunes and Vintage Instrumentals are easily among the best such collections on the market today (unless you're an audiophile who seeks only "pristine" sound reproduction), provides ALL 16 of their Billboard Pop Top/Hot 100 singles, whereas the Mercury "Best Of" does not.

The missing hits included here are: Love, Love Love [# 14 R&B/# 30 Billboard Pop Top 100 in summer 1956], Soft Summer Breeze [# 34 Top 100 in October 1956 and the A-side involving Ka-Ding-Dong, the uncharted flip of High Sign [Don't Let Me Down], the double-sided 1958 hits Kathy-O [# 16 Top 100] and Happy Years [# 73 Top 100], and the failed Mercury singles Straight Skirt, Sneaky Alligator, and Walkin' The Stroll.

Inside are four pages of liner notes written in 1993 by Dave Booth of Showtime Music Archives in Toronto and another nice shot of the group taken in 1959. The sound quality is, like everything produced by Stardust, not perfect, but certainly tolerable.

One of three renowned vocal groups formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (the others being The Crew Cuts and The Four Lads), this quartet is often maligned as being among those "opportunistic" recording artists who rode to success by covering the selections of black recording artists. Which, of course, is a load of hogwash. "Covers" as such had been around for years, and in the 1930s, 40s and early 50s it wasn't uncommon to see upwards of 6 to 8 charted versions of the same tune on as many different labels. That was the spirit of free enterprise at work, and why should the colour of the artist or group coming out with the song first be a factor?

It's also interesting to note that The Diamonds had these seven of their hits cross over to the R&B charts where, in all but one instance, they scored higher than on the Pop charts: Love, Love, Love (# 14 R&B/# 30 Top 100 - a cover of The Clovers # 4 R&B/# 30 Top 100 in 1956; Ka-Ding Dong (# 8 R&B/# 35 Top 100 in late 1956 - a cover of The G-Clefs # 9 R&B/# 24 Top 100 that same year; Little Darlin' (# 2 R&B/# 2 Top 100 in early 1957) - a cover of The Gladiolas # 11 R&B/# 41 Top 100; Words Of Love (3 12 R&B/# 13 Top 100 in summer 1957 - a cover of the Buddy Holly failed single that year on Coral; Zip Zip - # 12 R&B/# 16 Top 100; Silhouettes - # 6 R&B/# 10 Top 100 in late 1957 - a cover of The Rays # 3 R&B/Top 100 hit that year (the flipside, Daddy Cool, was also the B-side to The Rays' release on Cameo; The Stroll (# 4 Top 100/# 5 R&B).

Their appeal, therefore, clearly spread across the various aspects of the listening audience and buying public. Quite frankly, they have every right to be in the R&R Hall Of Fame as many of the slugs in there now.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most complete collection available, June 12, 2005

By 

Larry Burton (Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamonds Collection (Audio CD)

I found the sound quality on this disc to be quite satisfactory and the Collection is better than any other product available.