Moments to Remember: The Very Best of the Four Lads

Four Lads | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2000)
• Original Release Date: November 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Taragon
• ASIN: B00004ZDSZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,411 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Mocking Bird (Original 1952 version)

2. Somebody Loves Me

3. Down by the Riverside

4. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

5. Gilly, Gilly, Ossenfeffer, Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea

6. Skokiaan

7. Rain, Rain, Rain

8. Moments to Remember

9. No, Not Much!

10. Standing on the Corner

11. My Little Angel

12. A House With Love in It

13. The Bus Stop Song (A Paper of Pins)

14. Who Needs You?

15. I Just Don't Know

16. Put a Light in the Window

17. There's Only One of You

18. Enchanted Island

19. The Mocking Bird

20. The Girl on Page 44

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

23 "moments to remember" from one of the all-time great vocal groups, their first full-size collection in AMAZING sound! Includes Standing on the Corner; No, Not Much!; Moments to Remember; Who Needs You; Put a Light in the Window; There's Only One of You; The Mocking Bird (1952 and 1958 versions); My Little Angel; A House with Love in It; The Bus Stop Song (A Paper of Pins); I Just Don't Know; Enchanted Island; The Girl on Page 44; Happy Anniversary , and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Four Lads compilation, July 19, 2001

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Moments to Remember: The Very Best of the Four Lads (Audio CD)

Easily the best Four Lads compilation CD, this disc is another excellent production from the independent Taragon Records label. With a generous 21 tracks, it covers the entire range of the Four Lads Okeh and Columbia output from the early 50's through their final top-100 single "Happy Anniversary" in 1959.

All the major and most of the lesser hits are presented here chronologically in superb sound quality given the vintage of these recordings. Tracks 15 through 21 are in true stereo with the remainder in mono. Included is a 6-page flopover liner notes outlining the group's musical history.

Quintessential fifties music gets presented here in its very best form.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Taragon Almost Had It, August 30, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moments to Remember: The Very Best of the Four Lads (Audio CD)

With each previous release of Four Lads compilations I lamented the omission of some of their early hits and held out hope that someone would soon produce a more definitive album. Then, in 2000, Taragon came out with this one which is easily the best collection of their hit singles to ever hit the market. And yet, with 21 selections, even they stopped just agonizingly short of completing the picture for us completist junkies.

Don't get me wrong. I was delighted to see both versions of their first solo hit after working with Johnny Ray. The Mocking Bird, also known as Going Home, and taken from Dvorak's New World Symphony, was first done in 1952 with minimal accompaniement by Eddie Safranski and Ed Shaughnessy [# 23]. The same version charted again in 1956 [# 67] on the Epic label. Then, in 1958, they recorded it again, this time with Joe Mele & His Orchestra [# 32].

All the other early 50s hits are here too, from Somebody Loves Me [# 22 in 1952 with the Mitch Miller Orchestra] to Rain, Rain, Rain with Frankie Laine [# 30 in 1954], as are almost all their hits throughout the early years of R&R. Beginning with Moments to Remember, # 2 in 1955 with Ray Ellis & His Orchestra and kept from # 1 only by the phenomenal success of Mitch Miller's Yellow Rose Of Texas, right through to 1959's Happy Anniversary, which peaked at # 77 that November.

The sound reproduction is excellent on all tracks and there is a complete discography of the contents along with three pages of liner notes by Colin Escott.

BUT, whereas they give us both sides of the double-sided hits Standing On The Corner [# 3] b/w My Little Angel [# 22], and A House With Love In It [# 16] b/w The Bus Stop Song (A Paper Of Pins) [# 17] - both from 1956 - they omit the flip of No, Not Much - I'll Never Know - which hit # 52 on its own on February 1956, as well as The Fountain Of Youth which made it to # 90 in May 1959.

Those two, along with the "follow-along" hit It's So Easy To Forget which backed Who Needs You? in 1957, would have made this a 5-star 24-selection CD in the eyes of completist collectors everywhere. Even so, it is a wonderful collection of the songs of Canada's best singing group of that era [ahead of The Crew Cuts and The Diamonds] and for those not hung up on gathering ALL the hits, this is a 5-star CD.

For the record, the group came back in 1968/69 for United Artists to post two Adult Contemporary hits, A Woman reaching # 26 in December 1968 b/w Where Do I Go, and a cover of Gary Lewis & The Playboys'1966 # 1, My Heart's Symphony, which topped out at # 38 in June 1969 b/w Pardon Me Miss. Those remain singularly hard to find on CD.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE definitive Four Lads collection, September 7, 2006

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moments to Remember: The Very Best of the Four Lads (Audio CD)

Every hit song that the Four Lads made (except for a few that were really the Four Lads and someone else, like "Cleo and Me-O" with Jill Corey or "Cry" with Johnnie Ray) is included in this collection, including BOTH versions of "The Mocking Bird" (yes, two different versions charted, several years apart!)

It includes their biggest hits and some less-popular songs (like "There's Only One of You," my personal Four Lads favorite).

If you like the sound of this group, this CD is a must-buy. None of the other "best of..." collections compares to this one.