Customer Reviews

Little Anthony & the Imperials - 25 Greatest Hits

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This Little Anthony and Imperials compilation CD from EMI Australia is a nearly complete career retrospective of this quintessential early R'n'B/pop/vocal group. Little Anthony and the Imperials achieved two distinct periods of success during their recording era. First, in the late fifties, on the End label they rose to prominence with their "Tears On My Pillow" and may be known even more widely for their quasi-nonsensically titled "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop". All their pop charted entries from their End stint are included in this CD. After several years in obscurity, their career was rejuvenated with the help of Don Costa's DCP label and the writing talents of Teddy Randazzo, producing some of the most polished, sophisticated, incredibly emotionally charged ballads to come out of the 60's.

Tunes such as "Goin' Out Of My Head" and "Hurt So Bad" have become standards that put to shame most of what has come out of popular music for decades since. Little Anthony's unique sound carries these tunes to heights that no emulations (Lettermen, Linda Ronstadt, many others) can begin to touch. This extraodinary combination of voices, music and arrangements is evident in other less well-known tunes as well. "Take Me Back", "I Miss You So" and "Hurt" are achievements beyond what their charted history would indicate. While most of their output consisted of charged ballads, there is one cut, "Gonna Fix You Good" that has a distinct Motown Holland-Dozier-Hollandesque feel, a competent effort that offers a change of pace from most of the other tunes on the CD.

Most of their charted entries from their later period on DCP, Veep and United Artists are included in this collection. Of the 25 total tracks, the first 18 are exactly the same as those on the early Rhino LA&I collection. This CD goes a bit beyond that, making it a more complete career-spanning collection than the Rhino piece.

The sound quality is quite good overall with tracks 1-6,13,14,17,25 in mono, the remainder in stereo. While the compilers chose to include the rare stereo version of "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop", they also went with the original mono single versions of "I'm On The Outside Looking In" and "Take Me Back". The liner notes four-page booklet contains track listings and a few pics but no background text. Overall, this is the best to date of the single-disc "best-of's" for these icons of the early American rock and roll music era.

Little Anthony and Imperials may not be widely remembered these days, but they recorded some great songs. This compilation contains all the tracks on the Rhino release plus seven others, but (unlike the Rhino CD) no liner notes.

In the UK, they hardly made any impact on the charts but two songs here became big UK hits for others. Yesterday has gone became a top five UK hit for Cupid's inspiration in 1968, though their version is very hard to find on CD (actually, that was why I bought this - I really wanted that song - but there is much else to enjoy here).

Tears on my pillow, which has been covered by several great singers including Reba McEntire, became a top ten UK hit for Kylie Minogue in the late eighties. (A reggae song with the same title topped the UK charts in the seventies for Johnny Nash - this is NOT the same song.)

Hurt was a minor American hit for Little Anthony, but Timi Yuro had the big hit with it. Since then, many others have covered it including Elvis Presley and Juice Newton. Another classic song is Goin' out of my head. You get the original version here, but the Zombies, the Lettermen, Petula Clark, Vikki Carr and Cilla Black are among those who have covered it, so you've probably heard this song somewhere. The Letterman also covered Hurt so bad, also a Little Anthony original to be found here, but the best-known cover of that song is by Linda Ronstadt.

This is a great compilation of music by an almost forgotten group. Thanks to all the cover versions, you might recognize at least a few of the songs even if you don't remember the original versions.

The sweetest natural counter-tenor in all of doo-wop history! This is the music that takes ME back, back to the back seat of my first Chevy, back to the back of the theater and the back of the classroom (for different motives). None of that cardigan sweater crooner pop for me! My buddies and I covered Little Anthony in the instrument closet of the music room at my junior high, and sang it for school assemblies. Oh yeah, oh yeah!

My wife and I have been married for many moons now and this CD reminds us of those many moons passed. The tears on our pillows now are tears of joy which come from our hearts. Little Anthony & Imperials-25 Greatest Hits is truely excellent CD. Thank you.

There's been a lot of talk lately that Little Anthony and the IMPERIALS are under serious consideration for induction into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME. I say YES YES YES !! The IMPERIALS most DEFINITELY SHOULD be inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME.In fact, they should have been among the FIRST groups inducted. They, along with THE MIRACLES and DELLS (and to a lesser extent, THE IMPRESSIONS),were the only groups of the DOO WOP era of the 1950's to maintain consistant success well into the '60's and '70's. That alone should have gotten them inducted.Their songs have become recognized classics ,having been recorded by artists as diverse as SERGIO MENDEZ,LINDA RONSTADT, FRANK SINATRA,REBA MCENTIRE .and others.They could very well have been the very first "ADULT CONTEMPORARY" GROUP,establishing a new level of class and sophistication never before seen in R&b groups,while at the same time never abandoning their DOO WOP roots. The LETTERMEN,for one, seem to have re-recorded every song they ever made.Songs such as TEARS ON MY PILLOW,HURT SO BAD,I'M ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN,TWO PEOPLE IN THE WORLD,GOING OUT OF MY HEAD,SHIMMY SHIMMY KO KO BOP,{which was featured in the TOM HANKS hit movie "BIG"},TAKE ME BACK,I'M ALRIGHT,BETTER USE YOUR HEAD,OUT OF SIGHT-OUT OF MIND,I MISS YOU SO,HURT,HELP ME FIND A WAY,and others have been recorded and re-recorded many times by others over the last 45 years. GOING OUT OF MY HEAD,for one, has had over 100 recorded versions, but none sounds as good as Little Anthony and The IMPERIALS' original version.(which, by the
way,sold an incredible 4 MILLION RECORDS!!). They have also influnced an entire generation of artists , such as THE STYLISTICS, DELFONICS,BLUE MAGIC,MANHATTANS,CHI-LITES,and many more.In fact,the entire Philidelphia-based soft - soul movement of the 1970's,as exemplified by producers such as KENNY GAMBLE,LEON HUFF,THOM BELL,VAN MCCOY,and others,with it's emphasis on full symphonic orchestration and vocal harmony,can be traced directly back to the IMPERIALS'ground breaking early '60's recordings with TEDDY RANDAZZO and the late DON COSTA.Go back to the earliest days of rock and roll and they are there, with appearances on such shows as THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, AMERICAN BANDSTAND,PERRY COMO'S KRAFT MUSIC HALL,ABC'S SHINDIG,NBC'S HULLABLOO,THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL,and the MERV GRIFFIN SHOW - all the way up to their show stopping performances on the 2002 & 2003 PBS MUSIC SPECIALS-the IMPERIALS-ANTHONY, ERNEST,CLARENCE,& SAMMY-most definitely SHOULD {along with the MIRACLES,who STILL haven't been inducted }-be inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME ! one listen to this cd,and YOU'LL SEE WHY !!

I was there at the outset, blown away by Little Anthony's 2000-watt delivery when hit parade nonsense like Pat Boone and various Mouseketeers ruled the airwaves. He simply JUMPED off the radio thanks to his emotional authenticity, stunningly professional delivery and a mastery of his material that went far beyond his years. His youngish appearance was SO at variance with his authoritative and operatic voice that it it might have been one of the reasons why he didn't own the rock 'n' roll years. That, and the fact that the American teenagers who bought his records weren't ready yet for a black megastar --or maybe their parents weren't.

It seems unbelievable now, but it would take another 15 years until James Brown showed teenagers of every color what a national treasure looked like, and nothing could have looked sillier than the middle of the road top-40 groups who had bigger hits than Little Anthony did with these
powerhouse songs.

Listen to him sing "It Hurts So Bad" for an idea of what wonders his vocal instrument could evoke. "Tears on My Pillow" is another emotional tour de force that pressed every button young people had. Confined to proms, AM radio plus the occasional American Bandstand gig, he missed out on the wider exposure his talent merited, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. During those same years, Elvis provoked a nationwide craze and this guy went by relatively unnoticed. Listen to this album and see if this fact seems as senseless to you as it does to me.

Or, just listen to it for its own intrinsic rewards. You won't be sorry.

Well it's happened again...a REAL Greatest Hits package put together by the good folks in the UK!. Rhino Records came close, but even they missed the mark. On the down side there are SOME songs in MONO (I know a few were recorded in STEREO, but that's another story). Bottom line ALL the favorites are included, and a few rare tracks round off this excellent collection. 25 (Twenty-Five) Tracks in all! Do I really need to list the favorites???, Oh what the hell! Billboard Charted Hit Singles: "Tears On My Pillow" (#2), "I'm On The Outside" (#8), "Goin' Out Of My Head" (#6), "Hurt So Bad" (#3), and more! All at a Nice Price!

Little Anthony and the Imperials had two periods of hit-making.
In the 1950's during the doo-wop period they came on big time with classics like "Tears on My Pillow" and "Just Two Kinds of People". Then they resurfaced again in the mid-1960's with the classic "Going out of my Head" and "Hurt so Bad" which have been covered by artists like Sinatra and the Lettermen and countless others. The best tune on the CD may be "On the Outside Looking In"

CD was good, but I was a little disappointed with the choices of the songs. Many of which I never heard.

I am into very modern music accross all styles and when i heard the version"Going out of my Head" by Little Anthony i thought that was the best version that i had ever heard.On hearing the rest of this new CD i was amazed at how some of his songs just havent dated...in particular from Number 14 on.
Up to 14 is reasonably good however a bit too Doo Wop for me...still good though !
Tha last track reminds me so much of the band called "The Association" which are one of my favourites in the older genre. Just simply a good feeling CD.