Customer Reviews

Hop Skip & Jump

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Though the Collins Kids appeal initially as a novelty, with Larry as the young-teen guitar ace and older-teen Laurie as the babeful singer, they were (and are, since they still turn up at the occasional rockabilly festival) a terrific roackabilly act.

Their music tends more to the pop end of the rockabilly spectrum, but Larry's stinging guitar leads (often matched against those of his mentor Joe Maphis) are bona fide. Their unabashedly teen-oriented songs fit them to a tee. Even Larry's few turns at vocals, like "Hot Rod," are filled with the sort of exuberance rarely heard in todays highly-polished world of pop music.

This double disc is just about everything they recorded in the studio. Disc two is filled out with a number of Larry's later solo country recordings, and, truthfully, they don't measure up to their duet tracks. (True, he did go on to cowrite "Delta Dawn," but he was a better songwriter and guitarist than he was a singer.) The single disc compilation that Columbia has put out avoids these later tracks, but also loses a number of the duet tracks (as well as extra intrumentals that Larry cut with Joe Maphis).

It's expensive, but you get the requisite Bear Family quality: a huge number of well remastered tracks stuffed onto each disc, and an excellent full-size (12x12) book crammed with great photos. If you love the Collins Kids, it's worth the money. If you're only curious, the single disc domestic compilations may suffice (or may lead you to buy this one in the end).

This 2-CD box set gathers all the Collins Kids' best, and that means poppy rockabilly with a real whallop! Larry Collins was a real guitar whiz, and is frequently joined by his mentor Joe Maphis on many of these tunes. And the songs themselves are real doozies, '50s rock classics such as "Whistlebait," "Hod Rod" and "Hoy Hoy," as well as revved-up, rockified goofs on old country and pop standards like "Walkin' The Floor" and "Soda Poppin' Around." Sure, the Collins Kids were spunky and cute, but they were hardly just a novelty act... they really did tear the roof down!