The Rock N' Roll Era: 1960 [Time Life]

The Drifters (Performer), Hank Ballard and the Midnighters (Performer), The Ventures (Performer), Floyd Cramer (Performer), Jerry Butler (Performer), Kathy Young and the Innocents (Performer), Roy Orbison (Performer), Jimmy Jones (Performer), Brenda Lee (Performer), Fats Domino (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Label: Time Life Music / Warner Special Products
• ASIN: B000FPI6LA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,661 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Various Artists / Rock N' Roll Era: 1960 Label: Time-Life Year: 1988 Track Title 1. Save the Last Dance for Me -- The Drifters 2. Finger Poppin' Time -- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters 3. Walk-Don't Run -- The Ventures 4. Last Date -- Floyd Cramer 5. He Will Break Your Heart -- Jerry Butler 6. A Thousand Stars -- Kathy Young & The Innocents 7. Only the Lonely -- Roy Orbison 8. Good Timin' -- Jimmy Jones 9. Sweet Nothin's -- Brenda Lee 10. Walking to New Orleans -- Fats Domino 11. Alley-Oop -- The Holywood Argyles 12. Handy Man -- Jimmy Jones 13. Lonely Blue Boy -- Conway Twitty 14. Angel Baby -- Rosie & The Originals 15. Cathy's Clown -- The Everly Brothers 16. Lets Go, Lets Go, Lets Go -- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters 17. Calendar Girl -- Neil Sedaka 18. Stay -- Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs 19. New Orleans -- Gary U.S. Bonds 20. You Talk Too Much -- Joe E. Jones 21. Let the Little Girl Dance -- Billy Bland 22. Image of a Girl -- The Safaris

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRACK LIST, May 15, 2006

By 

CD & VIDEO RESEARCHER "festivalcds" (il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rock N' Roll Era: 1960 [Time Life] (Audio CD)

Various Artists / Rock N' Roll Era: 1960
Label: Time-Life
Year: 1988
Track Title
1. Save the Last Dance for Me -- The Drifters
2. Finger Poppin' Time -- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
3. Walk-Don't Run -- The Ventures
4. Last Date -- Floyd Cramer
5. He Will Break Your Heart -- Jerry Butler
6. A Thousand Stars -- Kathy Young & The Innocents
7. Only the Lonely -- Roy Orbison
8. Good Timin' -- Jimmy Jones
9. Sweet Nothin's -- Brenda Lee
10. Walking to New Orleans -- Fats Domino
11. Alley-Oop -- The Holywood Argyles
12. Handy Man -- Jimmy Jones
13. Lonely Blue Boy -- Conway Twitty
14. Angel Baby -- Rosie & The Originals
15. Cathy's Clown -- The Everly Brothers
16. Lets Go, Lets Go, Lets Go -- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
17. Calendar Girl -- Neil Sedaka
18. Stay -- Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
19. New Orleans -- Gary U.S. Bonds
20. You Talk Too Much -- Joe E. Jones
21. Let the Little Girl Dance -- Billy Bland
22. Image of a Girl -- The Safaris

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not so much a review, more a trip down Memory Lane, January 25, 2011

By 

Colin Spence (Formby, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rock N' Roll Era: 1960 [Time Life] (Audio CD)

I was about 13 when I started to buy popular music - but digital music was unheard of then - no CDs or MP3 downloads. Instead, it was these black plastic discs with colourful circular labels in the middle - they were called '45s' and 'LPs', and we used to play them on a 'turntable'.


This compilation contains 22 songs, all of which were Billboard top 10 hits (including 4 No.1s); some brief comments about a selection :

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME (The Drifters) - one of many great songs written by Pomus and Shuman, with lead vocals by Ben E King. Their first UK hit - it went to No.1 (or not far off it).

WALK DON'T RUN (The Ventures) - instrumental with a kind of 'surfy' sound'. It was the first '45' I ever bought - only I got the British cover version by the John Barry 7 (which is pretty good - but not as good as the original).

A THOUSAND STARS (Kathy Young and the Innocents) - never made it into the UK charts, but well remembered; classic slow doo-wop.

CATHY'S CLOWN (Everly Brothers) - well, this went to No.1 just about everywhere; great self-penned song with the usual classy country-pop harmonies from Don and Phil.

STAY (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs) - another doo-wop song. At only 1:40, it must be one of the shortest pop singles ever released. Featured on the soundtrack of 'Dirty Dancing' - so it must be good.

NEW ORLEANS (U.S. Bonds) - a unique sound; to paraphrase another reviewer, it sounds like it was 'recorded at a house party in the middle of traffic'. There have been some inferior re-recordings, but this is the original Legrand recording.

Other artists featured include : Hank Ballard and the Midnighters (2 songs), Roy Orbison, Jimmy Jones (2 songs), Brenda Lee, Conway Twitty, Fats Domino and Neil Sedaka - for a full track listing go to the Product Description or see the review written by 'CD & Video Researcher'.

There are zillions of comparable compilations, but the Time-Life 'The Rock 'n' Roll Era' series has much to recommend it - you get around 20 major hit singles per single CD album; they have all been re-mastered to reduce hiss/sibilance, and they are all the original recordings without anything added. Decent liner notes and discography are included.


I intend to get more in this series (if I can find them). What next - Johnny and the Hurricanes maybe? - now there was a band.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out In The Be-Bop Teen Dance Night, January 7, 2011

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rock N' Roll Era: 1960 [Time Life] (Audio CD)

Recently I, seemingly, have endlessly gone back to my early musical roots in reviewing various compilations of a Time-Life classic rock series that goes under the general title The Rock `n' Roll Era. And while time and ear have eroded the sparkle of some of the lesser tunes it still seems obvious that those years, say 1955-58, really did form the musical jail break-out for my generation, the generation of '68, who had just started to tune into music.

And we, we small-time punk (in the old-fashioned sense of that word), we hardly wet behind the ears elementary school kids, and that is all we were for those who are now claiming otherwise, listened our ears off. Those were strange times indeed in that be-bop 1950s night when stuff happened, kid's stuff, but still stuff like a friend of mine, not my grammar school best friend "wild man" Billie who I will talk about some other time, who claimed, with a straight face to the girls, that he was Elvis' long lost son. Did the girls do the math on that one? Or, maybe, they like us more brazen boys were hoping, hoping and praying, that it was true despite the numbers, so they too could be washed by that flamed-out night.

Well, this I know, boy and girl alike tuned in on our transistor radios (small battery- operated radios that we could put in our pockets, and hide from snooping parental ears, at will) to listen to music that from about day one, at least in my household was not considered "refined" enough for young, young pious you'll never get to heaven listening to that devil music and you had better say about eight zillion Hail Marys to get right Catholic, ears. Ya right, Ma, like Patti Page or Bob (not Bing, not the Bing of Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? anyway) Crosby and The Bobcats were supposed to satisfy our jail-break cravings.

And we had our own little world, or as some hip sociologist trying to explain that Zeitgeist today might say, our own sub-group cultural expression. I have already talked about the pre 7/11 mom and pop corner variety store hangout with the tee-shirted, engineered-booted, cigarette (unfiltered) hanging from the lips, Coke, big sized glass Coke bottle at the side, pinball wizard guys thing. And about the pizza parlor juke box coin devouring, hold the onions I might get lucky tonight, dreamy girl might come in the door thing. And, of course, the soda fountain, and...ditto, dreamy girl coming through the door thing, natch. Needless to say you know more about middle school and high school dance stuff, including hot tip " inside" stuff about manly preparations for those civil wars out in the working class neighborhood night, than you could ever possibly want to know, and, hell, you were there anyway (or at ones like them).


But the crème de la crème to beat all was the teen night club. Easy concept, and something that could only have been thought up by someone in cahoots with our parents (or maybe it was them alone, although could they have been that smart). Open a "ballroom" (in reality some old VFW, Knight of Columbus, Elks, etc. hall that was either going to waste or was ready for the demolition ball), bring in live music on Friday and Saturday night with some rocking band (but not too rocking, not Elvis swiveling at the hips to the gates of hell rocking, no way), serve the kids drinks..., oops, sodas (Coke Pepsi, Grape and Orange Nehi, Hires Root Beer, etc.), and have them out of there by midnight, unscathed. All supervised, and make no mistake these things were supervised, by something like the equivalent of the elite troops of the 101st Airborne Rangers.

And we bought it, and bought into it hard. And, if you had that set-up where you lived, you bought it too. And why? Come on now, have you been paying attention? Girls, tons of girls (or boys, as the case may be). See, even doubting Thomas-type parents gave their okay on this one because of that elite troops of the 101st Airborne factor. So, some down and the heels, tee-shirted, engineer- booted Jimmy or Johnny Speedo from the wrong side of the tracks, all boozed up and ready to "hot rod" with that `boss"'57 Chevy that he just painted to spec, is no going to blow into the joint and carry Mary Lou or Peggy Sue away, never to be seen again. No way. That stuff happened, sure, but that was on the side. This is not what drove that scene for the few years while we were still getting wise to the ways of the world The girls (and guys) were plentiful and friendly in that guarded, backed up by 101st Airborne way (damn it). And we had our ...sodas (I won't list the brands again, okay). But, and know this true, we blasted on the music. The music that is on this compilation, no question. And I will tell you some of the stick outs:

Save The Last Dance For Me, The Drifters (oh, sweet baby, that I have had my eye on all night, please, please, James Brown, please save that last one for me); Only The Lonely, Roy Orbison (for some reason the girls loved covers of this one ); Alley Oop, The Hollywood Argyles (a good goofy song to break up the sexual tension that always filled the air, early and late, at these things as the mating ritual worked its mysterious ways); Handy Man, Jimmy Jones( a personal favorite, as I kept telling every girl, and maybe a few guys as well, that I was that very handy man that the gals had been waiting, waiting up on those lonely week day nights for. Egad!); Stay, Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs (nice harmonics and good feeling); New Orleans, Joe Jones (great dance number as the twist and other exotic dances started to break into the early 1960s consciousness); and, Let The Little Girl Dance, Billy Bland (yes, let her dance, hesitant, saying no at first mother, please, please, no I will not invoke James Brown on this one, please).