Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 6, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B000BQL2FA
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,521 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Come Back My Love - The Cardinals

2. The Glory Of Love - The Five Keys

3. Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind - The Five Keys

4. Love Walked In - The Flamingos

5. Twilight Time - Platters

6. Blue Velvet - The Moonglows

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. For Sentimental Reasons - The Cleftones

2. The Girl I Love - The Cadillacs

3. I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers

4. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters

5. Come Softly To Me - The Fleetwoods

6. Chapel Of Dreams - The Dubs

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. A Wonderful Dream - The Majors

2. Village Of Love - Nathaniel Mayer And The Fabulous Twilights

3. The Angels Listened In - The Crests

4. It Happened Today - The Skyliners

5. My Own True Love - The Duprees

6. Love Came To Me - Dion

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Shout! Factory celebrates the golden era of vocal groups with Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats, a 3-CD set filled with doo wop ballads and rockers from the ’50s and early ’60s. This companion set to the 2005 PBS special is a blast from the past that’s a must-own for anyone who loves doo wop.

Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats features a stellar list of artists, including The Miracles, Dion, The Drifters, The Shirelles, and many more. The set contains 60 tracks, including classics by The Platters ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"), Phil Phillips with The Twilights ("Sea of Love"), The Fleetwoods ("Come Softly To Me"), The Tokens ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight"), The Five Keys ("The Glory Of Love") and many others. Vocal Group Greats also contains a number of essential rarities unavailable on any other doo-wop box. The set comes in deluxe digibook packaging with detailed liner notes by award-winning music critic Bill Dahl.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There must be doo wop in heaven, December 12, 2005

By 

Travis Dubya McGee Bickle "elitist duffer" (Texas Quail Hunting Camp) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats (Audio CD)

Nice and nicely done...I never grow tired of hearing this stuff. The artistry and love on display here will never fail to brighten up your day...

Docked a star for not being quite as comprehensive and lovingly annotated as the similar Rhino boxes...In general though, Shout! Factory are really producing some top-notch comps these days. Look out, Rhino, they're nipping at your hindquarters...

Classics like "60 Minute Man" and "Work with Me Annie" will always bounce, whatever height they're dropped from, and are easily worth the price of admission, but it's all great.

An excuse to break out the beer, even on the most dismal of winter days...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, January 21, 2007

By 

Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats (Audio CD)

My set has 3 CDs with 20 songs each plus a bonus CD with 12 songs packaged within & not advertised on the outside. The collection does include a large number of great doo wop groups--but not necessarily their best or even memorable songs. If you didn't get the bonus disc, don't worry, you didn't miss much. Many of its songs are "B" sides of singles--the ones that didn't make it. In the entire set, there are quite a few songs I have no recollection of--though some are pretty good. Yes, the cover lists all the artists & titles, but I got this set as a gift so...I don't want to look a gift set in the mouth. There are a couple songs that I've heard more recent versions of. It was interesting to hear the originals of Blue Velvet & Deep Purple. The discs seem to get better as they go on--I liked #3 best. That said, there are some great tunes here: The Lion Sleeps Tonight, This Magic Moment, Twilight Time, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, etc. I enjoyed perhaps 40% of the songs. The recording quality varies a bit too, from fine to barely acceptable IMHO. The album includes a short write-up insert on the history of doo wop as well as listings of each song/artist/company/how well it did on the charts (e.g. pop, R&B, etc.). Interestingly, many of the songs did not do all that well on the charts--even some of the very familiar ones. Still, this is an easy way to collect a fair number of doo wop songs without downloading them. But then you'd get to pick what you wanted. That's the price of getting a fixed set.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars POOR Reprocessed Phony Stereo, June 5, 2006

By 

Kevin J. Roberts - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doo Wop: Vocal Group Greats (Audio CD)

I got as far as the first few tracks and heard obvious reprocessed stereo (they did NOT have stereo doo-wop in early 50's!!). Some sound like compressed MP3s. This may have been expected on budget vinyl LP reissues 30-40 years ago, but not today! This is a terrible shame. The original mono recordings sound 1,000 times better. Phony stereo is PHONY.