Customer Reviews

GREATEST HITS

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Whether or not, as legend has it, Len Barry actually sang with The Bosstones in 1958 on their rocking Mope-Itty Mope for the Boss label (uncharted) is open to conjecture, but as the lead singer with the racially-mixed Dovells, and recording for Parkway, the man born Leonard Borisoff in Philadelphia on June 12, 1942, had three Top 40 Billboard Pop Hot 100 hits in 1965/66 - right at the peak of the British Invasion - one of which crossed over to the R&B charts.

After failing briefly as a solo artist at Mercury he moved to Decca where he hit the charts in June 1965 with the # 84 Hot 100 Lip Sync (To The Tongue Twisters), a novelty tune along the lines of The Clapping Song, b/w At The Hop "65" on Decca 31788. He then followed in November with the smash 1-2-3 which rose to # 2 Hot 100 and # 11 R&B b/w Bullseye on Decca 31827. Four more charters followed in 1966: Like A Baby - # 27 Hot 100 in February b/w Happiness (Is A Girl Like You) on Decca 31889; Somewhere (from the broadway production West Side Story) - # 26 Hot 100 in April b/w It's A Cryin' Shame on Decca 31923; It's That Time Of The Year - # 91 Hot 100 in June b/w Happily Ever After on Decca 31969; and I Struck It Rich - # 98 Hot 100 in September b/w Love Is on Decca 32011.

No further hits ensued, including You Baby which was his last cut for Decca, but he did carry on with his stage act for a while, doing his best James Brown imitation. Other work at Buddah and Paramount [in the U.K.] in the early 1970s failed to produce any more hits.

Purely in terms of his six charted singles, this effort, despite offering 29 tracks, comes up short compared to the 1995 Taragon release which offers all 6 in just 11 tracks, as it omits his last two as well as their B-sides in favour of more obscure cuts. And for that I had to deduct 2 stars.

It is 2009, and Len Barry last topped the charts over 40 years ago. The former lead singer of the Dovells whose hits included "The Bristol Stomp" ans "You Can't Sit Down", had a very short but successful solo career that followed his Dovells stint. With very little of Len's solo material in print, this 29 song collection is a must have for all those who have been longing for a quality Len Barry greatest hits cd. All the recordings are original and the sound quality is quite good, considering the age of the recordings. His monster hit "1,2,3" starts the cd off, and is followed by many great covers like "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", "Like A Baby", "Sweet Soul Music", "Into Each Life", "Don't Throw Your Love Away" and some rare live cuts like "Mickey's Monkey", and "Reach Out I'll Be There". Len Barry was one of the first successful blue eyed soul pop stars of the sixties, and this Philadelphia native was not bashful about singing his riffs with a soulful Motown like delivery. The only negative about the cd is a lack of liner notes. Len Barry is at least deserving of an autobiographical essay, that should have been part of this 29 song retrospective. Having said that, I still recommend this cd to one and all, who were around during those awesome pop days of the sixties, because this disc is one of only a few Len Barry cd's that remain available, with this being the most comprehensive solo Len Barry collection ever.