Customer Reviews

Rockin / Hell Bent for Leather

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I totally agree with the other reviews. I grew up on Frankie Laine and looked for this album on CD for years. I was completely afraid that Columbia had forgotten it, I even called the company about 5 years ago and no one I talked to even knew who Frankie Laine was!!!! GREAT ALBUM. Frankie is a very versatile singer.

Songs on the original album, Hellbent for Leather, are classics. My brother and I listened to them over and over as young boys and by the time we were old enough to leave home, that old record had lots of scratches on it. We have taped it several times throughout the years and still listen to the tunes now and then. Now we can own a clean copy on CD! This is a must have for anyone who enjoyed the Westerns of the 1950s.

You can check out from the OK Corral, but you can never leave if you, as I, had certain cowboy music components of the brain roped in at a tender age by Frankie Laine and his sensuous renditions of the best of the west. The songs are here again for you. You and Dan. You will thirst strangely after you listen to Cool Water. You will want to gallop along with the mule train (clippity cloppin' all along) long before Frankie draws out his ol' bowie knife...and when it comes to Rawhide..you will cut 'em out and ride 'em in and and soar (wild goose-like) on the last sustained "...hide......!!" I dare you not to sing along...

Frankie Laine recorded in so many different styles during his career, including pop, blues, jazz, Western, folk and inspirational, it's sometimes jarring to listen to his music, because the styles vary so much. This disc oddly combines "Rockin," a great, swinging production featuring brassy arrangements by the great Paul Weston, and "Hell Bent For Leather!," which consists of all Western-themed songs. Personally, I don't much care for the Western songs. But on "Rockin," Frankie is spectacular! His voice is loose and limber, and the arrangements crackle with excitement. His version of "That Ain't Right" is amazing: He snaps out the words with a punchy joy, even changing the lyrics from "You rode home in a taxi and I caught the subway train" to "You rode home in a taxi and I caught the mule train," a playful reference to his hit song! It's a delightful disc, but it would have been better combined with, say, "Jazz Spectacular" or "Reunion In Rhythm," Frankie's amazing collaboration with Michel Legrand. That said, I hope more of Frankie's classic albums continue to get reissued on CD. He is truly one of our all-time greatest vocalists, and deserves that respect.

Five HUGE Stars!! It just doesn't get any better than this. Frankie Laine is not only a great singer, but also a great 'story teller' as both a great pop singer and great western song singer.

This "two for one" CD brings back some of his greatest hits, minus some like "Wild Goose" and "I Believe", and brings back the incredible CD "Hell Bent for Leather". "Hell Bent.." is one of the best of the gunfighter/western song/movie theme genre and Frankie's reputation gives great credibility to the western song genre. Along with Marty Robbin's "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs", it doesn't get any better than this. Singing with raw power and emotion, Frankie was at the top of his game on "HBFL". The songs that haven't been mentioned yet by other reviewers are: the urgent "Bowie Knief" building to a great climax; the chorus of the song and the story have been bouncing around in my mind for decades; "The Hanging Tree" with it's unusual and unexpected twist; and the very beautiful "3:10 to Yuma" with it's tremendous arrangement, chorus, and Frankie delivering a poignant performance about a determined cowboy. "City Boy" could have been the weak song of the group, but not in Frankie's hands.

Funny how in the middle of my "best of the best" cassette tape, loaded with great individual jazz, pop, country, classical, and Brazilian MPB songs by great artists, up pops Frankie Laine singing "3:10 To Yuma", stopping the show and causing me to hit the 'repeat' button over and over. Frankie ranks up there as ONE OF THE BEST singers of the 20th Century. Thank you for bringing this one back!!

I purchased the CD for a friend who said he had been looking for it for years..he was even more thrilled to find two albums on the CD. He loves it it makes him happy which is what life is all about but he fears his neighbors may be planning a sectrt mission to confiscate the CD and send it to another galaxy. Truely YL

Rockin' contains some great singing by Frankie Laine backed up by a wonderful Los Angeles studio orchestra (Conrad Gozza, et. al) led by Paul Weston. The arrangements are spectacular! I recognize some Billy May charts - Weston , probably, did the string arrangements. GREAT STUFF here.

Mention Frankie Laine and most people think of somebody who appeared on TV too much, and especially as some clueless sap who recorded the title tune for the vulgar movie sitcom "Blazing Saddles," and that's that. That's not that. Laine was a powerhouse, and if his emoting may not appeal to all listeners, we cannot deny his magnetism. A man who co-wrote the outstanding "We'll Be Together Again" deserves his plaudits.

Inevitably some double albums mesh the unmeshable, and while this entire disc is quite entertaining, the first album is the better. Where "Hell Bent for Leather!" is Laine in his "yeeeeee-HAH!" mode (another reason the stereotype sticks too rigidly to him), slickly and conventionally led by Johnny Williams (before he became Erich Wolfgang Korngold -- er, John Williams), "Rockin'" is a first-rate jazz album, and proves that with the right song and the right backing no one could surpass him. You have to wonder why Laine hasn't gotten his due. Is it the Mitch Miller angle? The fact that he recorded "I Believe"? Whatever, it's unjust, and anyone who brings two open ears to this recording will discover a supreme entertainer.

I was delighted to find this CD available on amazon.com as the quality of music these days has suffered so much as the level of talent is so often compromised to make a commercial disc.
The quality of this disc is outstanding musically as well as vocally !
I did enjoy the "Hell Bent For Leather" portion more than "the Rockin'" segment. I liked the old cowboy themes for what they are and the fact that they are definitive.
If you like classic cowboy music and good old vocals then get this disc !!

Frankie Laine at his best!! Perfect for anyone who loves the "old" music!