Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

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

 

 

This is a great CD.. if you like 60's surfer rock, you should own it. period.

Theme from Hawaii five-O and Walk Don't Run are 2 of my favorites.

This is standard fare for the early Curb CDs - minimal number of selections [in this case 11], frugal liner notes [ten lines], no discography, and one selection [track 11] which does not fit the category of "hit" - either minor or great.

Considering that The Ventures had exactly 16 charted hits in North America (including two on the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts) between 1960 and 1974, how difficult would it have been to omit track 11 and add the following missing hits: [Theme From] Silver City [# 83 Hot 100 in September 1961]; The 2,000 Pound Bee (Part 2) [# 91 Hot 100 in January 1963]; Walk - Don't Run '64 [# 8 Hot 100 in August 1964 and a slightly different arrangement than their original 1960 hit]; Secret Agent Man [# 54 Hot 100 in March 1966]; Skylab (Passport To The Future) (# 38 AC in 1973); and Main Theme From "The Young And The Restless" (# 47 AC in 1974)?

As for the so-called liner notes, Don Ovens says "From [1960] through 1972, the group struck the best selling charts with 36 hit singles and 37 hit albums!" Now, maybe Mr. Ovens is referring to some obscure chart performances that few of us are aware of [Japan perhaps where they were wildly popular?], but I do know for certain that the Bible of the charts - Billboard - only credits them with 14 Hot 100 hits, one of which, Walk Don't Run, also crossed over to the R&B charts in 1960, and the above two AC hits. The other 22 of which Mr. Ovens speaks might have "bubbled under" on the Hot 100 - I don't know - but to boldly state that they had 36 is stretching things just a bit.

Just three of their hits made the Hot 100 Top 10 - Walk - Don't Run in 1960 (# 2), Walk - Don't Run '64 in 1964 (# 8), and Hawaii-Five-O in 1969, while three others finished in the Top 40 - Perfidia in 1960 (# 16), Ram-Bunk-Shush in 1961 (# 29 in 1961), and Slaughter On Tenth Avenue (# 35 in 1964).

Also, I don't know what poll selected them as "America's All-Time Top Rock Instrumental Group" - again to quote from Mr. Oven's liner notes - but that too is open to conjecture. Wide open. For my money I would put them a distant seventh behind Bill Doggett & His Combo, Duane Eddy & The Rebels, Booker T. & The MGs, Bill Black's Combo, Johnny & The Hurricanes, and The Marketts. Compared to those groups The Ventures demonstrated little flare or imagination. Naturally, they'll likely be inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame while more deserving groups are ignored.

These guys are great! Dust'em off and give it a spin! It's been a serious felony this group and these tunes have been allowed to molder for so long.

First off I would like to say rest in peace Bob Bogel.My favorite tracks are all of them but Hawaii five o stands out.Bob's guitar work was a signature,kinda of Duane Eddys style.Great album for the price even though there isn't any on this album.

The Ventures are awesome especially on their two signiture pieces "Walk , don't run" and the "Theme to Hawaii Five-O. This is one of my favorite instrumental CDs. The playing of the Ventures in awsome from the firery "Slaughter on tenths avenue" to beautiful "theme from A Summer Place".