Customer Reviews

Golden Classics

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

 

 

Much of the music on this CD is good enough to merit at least a four star rating. But the sound is so atrocious throughout and the packaging so flimsy (though Mark Marymount's essay is very good considering the space limitations he was obviously under)I just can't rate it any higher. In many ways it's typical of the Collectables' Records catalogue giving listeners great music they can't find nearly anywhere else presented in a manner belittling to the music the label is trying to preserve.

That's a real shame because the Pentagons are a group that deserve to be heard. They only had one song reach the national Top 50, "To Be Loved (Forever)" but they deserved much better. The group's leader Kenneth Goodloe had an exquisite tenor evocative of no other singer in the era except for maybe Ben E. King and he took more chances than King with his phrasing. In his use of melisma and his growls, Goodloe anticipates soul singers like Aretha, Garnett Mimms, and Solomon Burke just a few years later. In fact with Jimmy Haskell's orchestrated backing tracks, the Pentagons' best music provides a link between Doo Wop and soul. With a break here or there they could have been easily as big as the Drifters (whom the group echoes in its gorgeous harmonies)or if they'd have started a few years later somebody like the Four Tops.

Sadly, though not all of the material here is great. Tracks eight through eleven appear to be recorded after the groups "heyday" and might even be Goodloe solo tracks. They are routine soul numbers missing all the elements of the group's earlier songs featured on the rest of the album. And even among those early cuts there's piffle like "I Like the Way You Look at Me". Even there, it should be said it's well performed piffle.

At the group's best on "To Be Loved (Forever)", "Until Then", I'm in Love" and especially "I Wonder(if Your Love Will Ever Belong to Me)" the group achieves a wonderful soulful yearning quality. Goodloe's emotionally open ended writing style is on evidence in every one of these cuts. "I Wonder" though deserves special mention. The group harmonizes a wonderfully unique "zim zim zom" line that reminds you that the nonsense syllables in Doo Wop are really an imitation of instruments born from impoverished young kids on a street corner. The effect is marvelous. But when you add Goodloe's vocal and lyrics above Haskell's tasteful orchestration you understand the beautiful interior language that is Doo Wop. It's not silly or inane; it's the feelings in your heart that no conventional words can communicate.

I liked the arrival of the Pentagons cd it was quick. As soon as I received it I must have played the cd over and over at work and at home. Wonderful and easy listening I enjoyed at both work and home and in the car as well. I remembered this group when I was young so it brings back happy memories in my childhood as well. I use to always call a request on the radio for the song "I Wonder If Your Love Would Ever Belong to me", that is my favorite Pentagons song. Thank you once again.