Customer Reviews

The Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll, Volume 2: Hot 100 Hits From 1954-1963

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This is an amazingly comprehensive series by the UK's premier reissue label, and like volume one, concentrates on pre-British Invasion rock and roll (1954-1963) with an emphasis on artists who worked with small independent labels. There are lots of hits here (14 of these hit the Top 10), but they are mostly one-hit wonders. Only six of these artists charted more than once in the Top 40 and only two charted more than twice. But all that means is these are not artists who have already been anthologized ad nauseam.

Many of these songs will not be found on other anthologies, such as Jimmy Charles' "A Million to One" (No. 5), The Halos' "Nag" (No. 25), The Hollywood Flames' "Buzz Buzz Buzz" (No. 11), or The Bell Notes' "I've Had It" (No. 6). There are also a handful of singles that never cracked the Top 40, like The Willows' "Church Bells May Ring" and the Gladiolas' "Little Darlin'" (both of which would be made into hits by The Diamonds), and The Videls' "Mister Lonely" (not to be confused with Bobby Vinton's hit "Mr. Lonely").

And there are huge hits here, too. Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs' "Stay," The Silhouettes' "Get a Job," and The Hollywood Argyles' "Alley Oop" all went to No. 1--the latter two sold over a million copies each.

Overall, the song selection is great. Seven of these songs (7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 18 and 23) were included in Dave Marsh's book "The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made." And with an unheard of 30 tracks, this collection is sure to satsify all fans of early pop music. As with the previous volume, the booklet is well done with lots of info on the artists and the songs and the sound quality is excellent. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

In this second installment of the benchmark "Golden Age..." series, Ace delves deeper into the vaults to come up with even more rarities than found on volume 1. "You" by the Aquatones, "Oh Julie" from the Crescendos provide some great listening of tunes seldom heard elsewhere. Digging even deeper, Ace has found the likes of Kenny Dino's "Your Ma Said You Cried..." and the Videls' original version of "Mr. Lonely".

As accomplished in the earlier volume, the best tape sources were unearthed for these tracks making for an exceptional listening experience for these long-lost memories of the innocent age of American rock and roll. All tracks appear in mono with the exception of "You Belong To Me". The twelve-page booklet rounds out the piece with interesting notes on the tracks included.

Ace has offered truly a collector's essential with this superb new volume in their outstanding "Golden Age... " series

I am a enthousiastic collector, and have almost all the Time Life rock n roll stuff, as well as Eric Records cds of this era. Although they are essential to any 50s 60s collection, nothing can top ACE series.
I could comment like this on all the 50s remasters of this fabulous record label, not only their other editions, but especially the Golden Age of American Rock n roll. I can not add anything to the positive reviews than simply summing up my personal view:
30 tracks per cd, and sometimes! (Time life is also excellent, but you get 15 per cd!)
excellent booklets with background info (not surpassed by any label).
not the same old songs over again, but many rare and still excellent tracks!
last but not least amazing sound quality.
So although you might have some songs there on other collections, it is for above mentioned points alone worth it to always have an ACE copy as well.

The Golden Age Of American Rock `N' Roll, Vol. 2 has thirty tracks more to add to this great CD series! The sound quality is excellent and the artwork is fine, too.

There are several particularly great hits on this fully packed album. The opener is hot: Lonnie Mack's "Memphis" has great guitar playing that you won't soon forget! The Duprees sing a gorgeous, special type of torch song with their awesome hit "You Belong To Me." The backup harmonizing on "You Belong To Me" makes the number only that much more beautiful. Moreover, I especially like The Videls singing "Mister Lonely." Great harmonizing--and man, what a great melody this is!

Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs's "Stay" rocks smooth and steady with great chorus backup; Maurice never sounded better, either! Billy Bland sings a sweet tune, "Let The Little Girl Dance," which has a great musical interlude even if it is all too brief. Great brass, too!

The Gladiolas sing their Latin flavored "Little Darlin'," which is guaranteed to rock you with its natural energy and great rock feel; and The Hollywood Argyles sing "Alley Oop" very well as they bat this one straight out of the ballpark! Another rockin' tune on this album would have to be "Get A Job" by The Silhouettes. Excellent!

The artwork impresses me; and the liner notes come in the form of a booklet telling us about the songs and the artists.

Overall, the second CD in this series of American Rock `N' Roll will not disappoint you. As another reviewer correctly points out, there are quite a few rarities on this album; and this increases its value. I highly recommend this for fans of early American rock and roll.

As I say in my review of Volume 1, this is easily the best such series ever conceived. On either side of the Atlantic Ocean, and that includes those from Bear Family, Time-Life, Collectables and other "pretenders" to the throne.

Here the selections range from 1956's In The Still Of The Nite by The Five Satins and The Willows' version of Church Bells May Ring, to 1964's California Sun by The Rivieras. And all are original renditions with impeccable sound quality. And once again you get a full 10 pages of fascinating track-by-track liner notes written by noted music historian Rob Finnis in 1993.

Yes, as with Volume 1, some of the tracks are repeated on many other compilations, but also as in that initial release, you get several that will not be that easy to find anywhere else, especially in this quality. From my viewpoint, these would be: Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night by Kenny Dino (# 24 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in 1961); Wild Weekend by The Rockin' Rebels (# 8 Hot 100 in 1962); Down The Aisle Of Love by The Quintones (# 18 Billboard Pop Top 100 in 1958); the hilarious Nag by The Halos (# 25 Hot 100 in 1961); You by The Aquatones (# 21 Top 100 in 1958); and That's Life (That's Tough) by Gabriel & The Angels (# 51 Hot 100 in 1962).

In addition to the informative artist-by-artist background notes, the insert also contains photographs of The Crescendos, Aquatones, Videls, Silgouettes, Gabriel And The Angels, The Willows and Kenny Dino. On the back of the jewel case is a discography of the contents showing artists, composers, and both U.K. and U.S. label details and chart positions.

I ALREADY HAVE VOL. 3 THIS ONE IS JUST AS GREAT.

All good music and the quality is right up there. I was very glad to be able to get two songs I have not been able to get Wild Weekend, and Buzz Buzz Buzz. Glad that I found them here.

30 pre-Beatles American Rock songs.
Some will be very familiar to almost everyone, some will draw a surprised recollection, and some you'll be hearing for the first time.
The sound quality is outstanding. Ace has made these sound as good in digital as they did in analog.
The booklet is witty , well-written , and revealing.

a must for the lover of oldies and doo wop all originalrecordings great sound quality. worth every cent i paid for them but by far the best bargain was the encyclopedia of doo wop box set 4 cds and the encyclopedia of doo wop book. this has some real hard songs to find like dear one by the scarletts and sweetest one and my juanita by the crests pretty little girl by the monarcs and at $47 it was a steal.i have rhinos doowop box set #1 it cost me almost $80 at half the price this is every bit as good if not better.a must for doowop lovers.love that amazon for having these great songs available for those of us that grew up with this music.

I was so happy to get this volume. I Now have the entire Golden Age Of American Rock'n'Roll series. Although I'm only 20 this is my favorite type of music and these songs bring back fond memories for me. I love the songs "Nag", "Rockin In The Jungle" and especially "In The Still Of The Night". These are some classic doo wops. What I love about this disc is that It has a mix of classic songs and hard to find minor hits. Very nice