Customer Reviews

A Golden Classics Edition: The Newbeats

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I especially love this group and know them all very well. They were wonderful showmen on stage. I would love to see these songs re-released, my sixteen year old grand-daughter loves them and won't give me back my CD of their music. You see, the lead singer with the high falsetto voice is my brother (Larry Henley). Of course that is not his natural voice, but it had a new sound. He also is a famous writer now, he wrote the great song "The Wind Beneath my Wings" so he is still going strong.

I am sitting here listening to this CD. I can't believe I found an album by this group. I thought the world had forgotten them. All the songs are the originals and the sound is great. If you liked the Newbeats, then this is the record for you.

Collectables continues their curious habit of deliberately tweaking the noses of completist collectors by leaving off at least one legitimate hit from almost every "best of" compilation in their library. In this instance it's the group's last charted hit - Groovin' (Out On Life) which reached # 82 Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970.

The other six Hot 100 hits for The Newbeats are, however, included, as are five of the flipsides, the only one of those missing being Too Sweet To Be Forgotten which backed Shake Hands (And Come Out Crying) - a # 92 Hot 100 in March 1966 and their second-last hit single.

Brothers Dean and Mark Mathis started out as a duo and, in 1959, had a # 42 Hot 100 hit with their cover of the Travis & Bob hit Tell Him No for the small Bullseye label. In the early 1960s they added Larry Henley who latched onto the falsetto sound so popular at the time with artists like Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons and Lou Christie for their initial hit, Bread And Butter, on the Hickory label. That shot to # 2 Hot 100 in the fall of 1964 b/w Tough Little Buggy, kept from the top spot by Where Did Our Love Go [Supremes], The House Of The Rising Sun [Animals] and Oh, Pretty Woman [Orbison].

Their follow-up - Everything's Alright b/w Pink Dally Rue - didn't fare quite as well, but in November it reached a respectable # 16 Hot 100. They remained in the Top 40 - barely - with their first 1965 release, Break Away (From That Boy), which peaked at # 40 b/w Hey-O Daddy-O [a # 118 Hot 100 "bubble-under"]. The second 1965 release, (The Bees Are For The Birds) The Birds Are For The Bees topped out at # 50 in April b/w Better Watch Your Step.

Later that year they had their second-best hit when Run, Baby, Run (Back Into My Arms) went all the way to # 12 Hot 100 b/w Mean Woolly Willie. After the hits petered out Henley recorded as a solo for the Capricorn label without success, while Dean and Mark continued recording as The Newbeats for Playboy Records - again without ever reaching the charts.

A super collection which is only kept from a 5-star rating by this completist collector due to that one, lonely missing hit.

This album is definitive Newbeats. The group has tried to incorporate many different singing styles into their music... obviously trying to "find" themselves as it were. The man imitating the soprano ladies voice is copied right out of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, but other songs emulate The Beach Boys, and yet others show similarities to Fats Domino. Overall though, it was a very entertaining and toe-tapping album. I highly recommend it for those "buffs" with their oldie-but-goodie collections.