Customer Reviews

16 Most Requested Songs

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Purchasers of Guy Mitchell CDs have to be cautious as many of those currently available do not contain the original versions of his songs. These, however, are all the original glorious 1950s recordings which fans will well remember. The only complaint I have about this release is the artwork chosen to represent the face of Guy Mitchell on the inlay card. It is very unflattering and, in my opinion, does not look much like him at all. After all the years this CD has been in release it is high time Sony revamped this picture!

As one in Columbia Legacy's "16 Most Requested Songs" series, this is a better-quality compilation of mostly hits from Mitchell's career. Just how the 16 most requested tunes is determined however, seems a bit suspect in that Mitchell's number one hit "Heartaches By The Number" is not included here. Given this notable omission, this is not the collection it could have been. Notwithstanding, many of his better-known sides are here making this piece a desirable one for Mitchell fans.

Sound quality is generally very good with all tracks in mono as these are pre-'58 recordings. One other anomaly here is, that while all tracks are mono, the production credits state that this has been remixed and remastered. If multitracks existed, one wonders why were they remixed down to mono. The liner notes booklet contains a five-page musical history of Mitchell but there are 12 pages here with several that are blank or hardly used. A few pictures or more detailed track info would have been appropriate

Some puzzling decisions in production here mar what could have otherwise been a top-notch collection. Bear Family has a Guy Mitchell compilation CD containing 25 tracks with virtually all his biggest hits in excellent sound quality and, though while pricier, is a definite step up from this piece.

Great CD of original recordings by one of the best 1950's vocalists.

That combination of Mitch's horn,Bob Merrill's lyrics and Guy's happy,jaunty style for the 50s for me were special, as was his appearance at the London Palladium. I still play these recordings today but only the originals will do. But why don't many of the reissues credit Mitch Miller's orchestra whose "sound" was instantly recogniseable?

Original versions, with Guy Mitchell at his prime (I have heard that later recordings were not as good)

When I hear Guy Mitchell sing, a smile to my face always appears on my face! He sang very, very well; and just one listen to this album proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt! He could sing different types of songs and ballads; and that is very much to his credit. The quality of the sound is excellent on this CD.

There are sixteen songs on this album; and I have my favorites as you will, too. "My Heart Cries for You" is simply perfect; Guy aces this as effortlessly as if it were mere breathing. Of course, we know it really wasn't all that easy; Guy's talent carried him through every time and endeared him to his fans. The musical arrangement fits in perfectly with his singing; and the chorus in the background harmonizes well. Wow, how Guy croons on "My Heart Cries for You!"

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" is an excellent song in Guy's hands even though the lyrics aren't all that happy; and I really like gems like "The Roving Kind;" "Knee Deep in the Blues" with its fantastic arrangement; "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle" which is easy on the ear; "Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susie" with that hand-clapping and other percussion; the catchy "There's Always Room At Our House;" "Sparrow In The Tree Top;" the appealing "My Truly, Truly Fair;" "The Day of Jubilo" which boasts another fine arrangement I love to hear; "Crazy with Love" that has such a fine beat and the closing number, "Singing the Blues," which gets me reaching for the replay button on my CD player every time--"Singing the Blues" made the airwaves sizzle back in the day--and rightly so!

This is clearly a fine starter CD for newcomers just discovering Guy Mitchell's incredible artistry. Guy Mitchell fans will love this CD; but if they have most if not all of these songs already in their collections they should continue looking for more comprehensive CDs or CD sets of Guy's work. There is, for example, the two CD set entitled "The Hits....And More the Ultimate Collection" and the twenty-five track Guy Mitchell CD entitled "Heartaches By the Number."

The `50s were probably THE decade for novelty tunes, and all too many talented singers had their careers defined by them--unfortunately. Those who survived with their careers intact--artists like Rosemary Clooney, and Doris Day--were singers who had already established themselves as significan artists in the Big Band Era and who would go on to do better work later on in their careers (especially Clooney, whose work with jazz ensembles much later in life re-invigorated her career). Teresa Brewer also made the transition with only a few bumps along the way.

But poor Guy Mitchell seems defined by the 50s in ways that other singers were able overcome. He was certainly a talented and very pleasant singer, who at least on occasion, showed he could move beyond kitsch. But like Day, he was such a good sport that he would pretty much record any silly tune that they gave him. He had plenty of hits, as this collection demonstrates, but aside from his signature "Singing the Blues" and a few others ("Heartaches by the Number," "Knee Deep in the Blues" ), the bulk of the hits were pretty much forgettable. Fifty years later, they are pretty much forgotten.

Mitchell did seem to be a musical-jack-of-all-trades. The novelty numbers were largely with his first musical mentor Mitch Miller, whose stock in trade seems to have been slick novelty tunes and sentimental schmaltz. Artistically, Mitchell seemed to fare a bit better with Ray Coniff, who arranged "Singing the Blues," in the mid-50s. There were, in fact, a nubmer of some tunes where he tipped the hat to the emerging genre of rock'n'roll. He was one of those artists who could begin to bridge the gulf between YOUR HIT PARADE and the upstart big beat tunes that were beginning to dominate the actual "hit parade."

He COULD rock a little, but he rarely got the chance. Many of the tunes here have him in Dean Martin territory (especially "Chick-a-boom" on which he sounds almost uncannily like Dino) rather than Elvis country. It's too bad "Rock'a'billy" isn't included in this package to demonstrate his rockier side. But then, if he had been driven to do more in that vein, he probably would have fought Miller and the studio bigs to do just that. Instead we have a legacy that is dominated by much fluff like "Sparrow In the Tree Top," "Feet Up (Pat Him on the Po-po," and the clunky girl-as-pirate-ship metaphor of "The Roving Kind."

If they haven't already, someone someday will almost certainly write a scholarly thesis on the significance of the novelty song in 1950s America. They probably will devote a lot of space to the genre's reflection of both the optimism and the escape from reality that helped define the era. The post-War mood WAS, in the main, willfully optimistic--and many believe, non-reflective. It's understandable, to a degree, why after WW II and Korea, the American public wouldn't be tempted to embrace the escapism offered by wacky novelty tunes, early sit-coms and the silly fun of Martin and Lewis movies. But how much of that would prove to be undying art? Very little, it turns out.

If Mitchell had emerged somewhat earlier OR later, he might have gotten a chance to record some meatier material to be remembered by. Too bad it didn't work out that way. He was capable of more. His collected works demonstrate just how routine novelty wound up becoming.

There is one thing common to the large Columbia series which covers a wide variety of artists ranging from Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Doris Day, and Johnny Mathis to Robert Goulet, Jim Nabors and Buddy Greco (among many many more), and that is, the otherwise informative liner notes (usually at least three pages) never explain how the producers arrived at what constituted the "16 most requested" for any of the artists concerned. As another reviewer puts it, requested by whom?

Now I know they do not claim to be the "best" or "greatest" hits of those concerned and anyway, when filling out a 16-track volume for a Buddy Greco or Jim Nabors they couldn't find 16 legitimate hits anyway. But when it comes to a Guy Mitchell, that's a different story because this guy had 27 singles reach the Billboard Pop Top/Hot 100 from 1950 to 1960, two of which crossed over to the R&B charts, as well as three Country hits in 1967/68.

So, with that much material to choose from, and with many of those hits certainly being at the top of any list of "most requested songs" why would they include these two: Pretty Little Black-Eyed Suzie (the uncharted flip of She Wears Red Feathers - itself a minor # 19 entry in early 1953; and Chicka-Boom and Crazy With Love, neither of which are particularly associated with Guy's best performances.

More appropriate tunes than those three would have been: Heartaches By The Number, which went to # 1 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and # 19 R&B in late 1959; Ninety-Nine Years (Dead Or Alive) - # 23 in early 1956; and Rock-A-Billy (# 10 in spring 1957).

But even at that, it's still a nice volume of some of his most significant hits, and with the insert you get five pages of background notes written by Will Friedwald, author of Jazz Singing among other works. What you don't get, and this seems to be a hit-and-miss thing with the entire series, is a discography of the contents. So, I have indicated the chart performances hereunder for your information:

My Heart Cries For You - # 2 in late 1950/early 1951 and its flipside The Roving Kind (# 4); Pittsburgh Pennsylvania - # 4 in spring 1952 and its B-side, The Day Of Jubilo (# 26); Knee Deep In The Blues - # 16 in early 1957; Belle, Belle My Liberty Belle - # 9 in September 1951; There's Always Room At Our House - # 20 in November 1951; Sparrow In The Treetop - # 8 in spring 1951 and its B-side, Christopher Columbus (# 27); My Truly Truly Fair - # 2 in summer 1951; She Wears Red Feathers - # 19 in early 1953; Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-Po) - # 14 in late summer 1952; and, of course, Singing The Blues, # 1 Pop Top 100 for TEN weeks and # 4 R&B in late 1956.