Memorial Album

Johnny Ace | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002PD2
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,937 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Johnny Ace's greatest hit, the dirge-like blues ballad "Pledging My Love," will forever be entwined with the shocking story of his death during a game of Russian roulette in Houston on Christmas Eve, 1954. The opening track on Duke's Memorial Album, it sounds--with its stark beat, chiming vibes, and Western-saloon piano--as if it had been sung by a ghost. An original member of Memphis's Beale Streeters, piano man Ace could also do rollicking R&B ("Don't You Know"), but Memorial Album is top-heavy with all things slow and mournful: "The Clock" and "Never Let Me Go" were essentially prototypes for the posthumously-released "Pledging My Love," and the lugubrious "Anymore" was its identical follow-up. --Barney Hoskyns

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: ACE,JOHNNY
Title: MEMORIAL ALBUM
Street Release Date: 12/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: OLDIES

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Johnny epitomizes the soulful balland crooner., May 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Memorial Album (Audio CD)

The late, great Johnny Ace deserves much recognition for being a trailblazer in the genre of soul balladers. It is unfortunate that his career ended so quickly and abrubtly, but his name will forever be entwind with a warm summer breeze, a moonlit night, and the girl of our dreams. "Pledging my Love" takes on a special meaning for all born romantics lost in a moment, frozen in time. This record is a must for serious listeners of 1950's R & B.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He was RocknRolls First Tragedy-not Buddy Holly&The Bopper, March 20, 2002

By 

L. E STOTTLEMEYER (KCMO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memorial Album (Audio CD)

Rock n Roll's first tragedy happened on the night of December 24th,1954 when Johnny Ace (Rock and Souls biggest sensation at the time) died from supposedly playing russian roulette. This happened almost a full 5 years before the Buddy Holly tragedy in 1959.And please people stop believing in the political non-sense that rock n roll started in 1955... The African American community had been rockin and a rollin since the late 40's with the likes of Wynonie Harris and Louis Jordan-it just took the majority of the other half a long time to get hip.Pledging my love was his posthumous crossover hit but everything he recorded was pure classic stuff. This cd contains those songs that are just as good or even better than Pledging-songs like "The Clock","Never let me go","Anymore",and "Please forgive me" and "Saving my love for you". All of these are beautiful classics that everyone from Elvis to Jackie Wilson to Brook Benton to Sinatra to James Brown all were taking notes and wishing for their day to come in the spotlight. Now an injustice has been corrected-- for Johnny Ace was Rock n Rolls very first tragedy.

P.S. And if you count in the "king of the stroll" Chuck Willis passing away in an Atlanta hospital operating room due to bleeding ulcers-Holly,Valens,and the Bopper were actually Rock n Rolls 3rd tragic ending.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Has Finally Been Updated, November 20, 2005

By 

Jason Gubbels (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memorial Album (Audio CD)

This has, for thirty years, been the only collection of the late Johnny Ace's material. It's rather skimpy - 12 tracks, about thirty minutes long. But it's still great, with the selection leaning heavily on Ace's ballad work, with a few r&b ravers thrown in for variety. Just this past summer of 2005, a new Johnny Ace compilation was released with twice the amount of material and new remastering and liner notes. The new cd is the obvious version to pick up. It's about time.