Customer Reviews

Rockin' All Night: The Very Best of Ritchie Valens

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2 star:		(1)
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I purchased this CD primarily as an addition to my growing collection of rock & roll varieties, and also for the selection "Oh Donna" that I wanted for nostalgia purposes. Wow, did I ever have a surprise in store for me, and for anyone else who opts to buy this incredible CD! I was hooked from the first bars of the first tune, right through to the end; La Bamba, Let's Go!, Oh Donna, Hurry Up. Fantastic! Each time a song comes up you find your spirits lifting and your body starting to shake and move. It is clearly one of the "Happiest" pieces of music I've owned in a long time. Further, unlike other recordings from the 50's, the quality of this CD is very, very good. It's easy to close your eyes and imagine that you are in a large dance hall with the music vibrating through your head and couples rockin' and rollin.' This CD is as much for now as it was for listeners 41 years ago. Were it to be marketed to the degree that current music is advertized, it would be a best seller. If you are on the fence about buying this CD, do it. You won't regret your purchase.

Tim

One reviewer asks the question that has been debated since his tragic death at age 17, along with Buddy Holly and J. P. Richardson (The Bog Bopper) on February 3, 1959. And I suppose it will go on endlessly.

The fact is, you'd have to think he would at least have been more successful than his protege Chris Montez, whose own success was modest in the face of the changing times. By 1960 the original R&R, which had been a distinctive blending of Rockabilly/R&B, had begun to change with the arrival of the ubiquitous "Bobbies" (Rydell, Darin, Vee, Vinton, Curtola, Lewis, et al), followed in 1964 by the British Invasion.

Would Ritchie have been able to change at the same time? Gene Vincent couldn't and never had another hit after 1957, and Eddie Cochran was already fading from the scene when he died in that 1960 automobile accident. One thing Valens did have going for him was that he wrote most of his hits and it's nice to think that that combined talent would have seen him through the 1960s and beyond, much like it did for Paul Anka.

As to this release from Del-Fi, it has all five hits he registered in his young life in 1958/59 for that label, plus the three ubcharted B-sides, beginning with self-penned Come On, Let's Go which reached # 27 R&B/# 42 Billboard Pop Top 100 in the fall of 1958 b/w the Lieber & Stoller tune, Framed. Then came his biggest hit, a double-sided smash that was still climbing up the charts the day he died - Donna (# 2 Billboard Pop Hot 100/# 11 R&B) b/w La Bamba (# 22 Hot 100).

Whether a reaction to the shock of his sudden death we'll never know for certain, but in April That's My Little Suzie could only manage to get to # 55 Hot 100 b/w In A Turkish Town, while in July, Little Girl fared even worse, managing only a # 92 b/w We Belong Together. And that would be it insofar as hits were concerned, although his unreleased material would continue to appear on the market occasionally over the next few years.

This release has excellent sound quality and with the insert are four pages of background notes written in 1994 by R&R historian Art Fein along with several nice photos of Ritchie and some poster/record reproductions. Judge for yourself whether any of the other material included here would have been commercial successes had he lived. I think it would have.

This is just about the best album you can find of Ritchie Valens. If you're looking for the hits, start here! Of all my CDs, this is my favorite.

Of all the Bob Keen re-packaging of Ritchie Valens material this is the best single CD compiliation. The cuts are digitally remastered for the best sound to date, of all previous Valens re-issues, especially pay close attention to La Bamba. Carol Kays' Dan Electro Bass Intro will astound you, You have never heard La Bamba like this before. This package also includes "Fast Freight" by Arvee Allens (aka Ritchie Valens). All 5 charted hits are included, as is his movie (GO JOHNNY GO)entry "Ooh! My head." He was heavily enfluenced by Little Richard as is evidenced by his gravely shouting style on Bonie Maronie and Ooh my head, pay close attention to the background music on "We belong together" ,the Beatles lifted it ,note for note, for their recording of "That Boy". When listening to this CD remember he was only seventeen yrs old when he recorded this, what could he have accomplished had he lived. Bob Keene has to be credited with alot of the final Ritchie Valens sound. As a classically trained musician he was responsible for all the final arrangements, the originals were pretty rough. In closing remember Rithie Valens needs to be in the Rock n" Roll Hall of Fame!!!! Ritchie Valens lives, this CD sez it all, ...

More stampedes of genius came across in eight months then any hope of precocity in Rock and Roll's fifty year career. At least that's what I tell myself everytime this record is played. Valens and Holly's music are probably single handledly the most influential outside of Elvis' rebelliousness and its spirit still resonates in listeners. Del-Fi's recordings of Valens material had been long overdue when this set of gems was released in 1995. In it, you sense an essence of an artist at its peak with loads of ambition that was never followed due to Valens' untimely death. I almost feel irritated when it ends because this is all we have of Valens's dreams and aspirations. If you want to know where the roots of fervent Rock and Roll came from or integrity of culture; I demand you listen to this record and understand!

I was 18 when ritchie, buddy, and the big bopper where killed in the plane crash and I thought it was the end of rock and roll for years, but just recently I bought this CD and was shocked it brought me back to my High School days when the music really ment something. So if you really want to listen to the greatest rock and roll of all time get the CD !!!!!!!!

This is the kind of CD that you can listen all the way through without skipping songs.

Great!!! Everything you want to hear from Ritchie is in this Album. As a Turkish I found 'In a Turkish Town' very exciting. Buy it and you will thank to me

I know that this CD has almost every hit that Ritchie ever recorded, but I do not favor the track La Bamba on this cd over the mono version of La Bamba. I have 13 Ritchie Valens cds, and this is definitely not the best one. I would say go to 101cd.com and search Richie Valens (no T) and purchase the Greatest Hits CD, which is the best compilation!