Still Dead! The Grim Reaper's Jukebox [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ace Records UK
• ASIN: B001EI5ODU
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,225 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Goodbye Baby - LITTLE CAESAR W/QUE MARTIN

2. In The Rain - RONNIE DANTE

3. A Singing Star - ELAINE ARTHUR

4. The Ghost Of Mary Meade pt 1 - LITTLE CAESAR & ARK ANGELS

5. Too Young To Be A Widow - COBEY CARSON

6. Tragedy - THOMAS WAYNE WITH THE DELONS

7. The Hero - BERNADETTE CARROLL

8. Long Black Limousine - VERN STOVALL

9. White Gardenia - HOAGY LANDS

10. The Year 2000 - ESTELLE

11. The Grave - TONY CASANOVA

12. My Friend Bobby - PAMELA BLUE

13. Nightmare - WHYTE BOOTS

14. The Prom - DEL SHANNON

15. A Thousand Feet Below - TERRY TYLER

16. Leader Of The Pack - THE SHANGRI-LAS

17. Little Gold Locket - DARWIN

18. Susie Darling - RONNIE COOK

19. Six Feet Under - BOB FRYFOGLE

20. Car Crash - THE CADETS

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

The second volume in our lively series of light-hearted looks at the dearly departed.

This second cortege features another 24 gems from the Grim Reaper's Jukebox, some chart hits and some we've dug up for your pleasure. If you paid your respects with volume one you'll not want to miss out this time, and we've even included the classic and bloody tale of the Leader Of The Pack, which garnered some reviews last time, despite actually missing from that collection.

We were afraid to be too obvious last time - our mistake. This time, joining the Shangri-Las, we have Del Shannon, the Cadets, the Dominoes and Dickey Lee. Plus another visit to the parlour of Joe Meek.

All in the best possible sound quality from the boys in the Sound Mastering Crypt, lavishly illustrated in shocking color together with all the gory details. All this and Mitch O'Connell's wonderful front cover art once again.

A compilation that would speak for itself if it could!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Life after Death, December 25, 2009

By 

PFC "90125" (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Still Dead! The Grim Reaper's Jukebox (Audio CD)

This CD (and the one it is the sequel to) are really good fun. If you like teenage death songs (ands come on, anypne with a sense of humour has to!), these 2 CDs are great collections of obscure and at times aweful death songs. But you'll love them.

4.0 out of 5 stars Still Dead!-The Grim Reaper's Jukebox-Vol.2, September 22, 2009

By 

Denis B. Johnston (Long Island,NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Still Dead! The Grim Reaper's Jukebox (Audio CD)

Not quite as good as Vol. One,but still worthwhile.Hey,beats trying to track down all the 45s!

5.0 out of 5 stars Ace Went Deep Into The Ground For This One, October 30, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Still Dead! The Grim Reaper's Jukebox (Audio CD)

As with the first release in this 2-volume series, Ace mixes some well-known hits dealing with death with some that were really buried deep. There are also fewer legitimate Billboard U.S. hits in this one (although a few more did hit the U.K. charts).

Probably the best-remembered here is Leader Of The Pack, the 1964 # 1 Hot 100 for The Shangri-Las late that opening year of the British Invasion. Going back a bit further is Tragedy by Thomas Wayne with The DeLons, a # 5 Hot 100/# 20 R&B in February/March 1959 on Fernwood 109, s record produced by Scotty Moore that would later be covered successfully by The Fleetwoods in 1961 and, to a lesser degree, by Brian Hyland in 1969. Many will also recall Dickey Lee's Laura (Strange Things Happen), a song inspired by a ghost story penned by 15 y/o author Cathie Harmon which reached # 14 Hot 100 in June 1965 on TCF Hall 102. Another of Lee's hits with the same theme, Patches, appears in Volume 1.

Another that made the R&B charts in 1953 (# 3) is The Bells by Billy Ward & His Dominoes, a funeral tune featuring the hysterical wailing of Clyde McPhatter, but the absolute gem in this collection, and one that has been extremely hard to find, is the November 1952 # 5 R&B hit, Goodbye Baby, by Little Caesar, which came out on Hollywood 235. With instrumental backing by Que Martin, this one deals with a murder-suicide at the end and was therefore not played by too many mainstream stations back then.

Horace Caesar, who also acted in a number of movies and TV shows, is not to be confused with several other artists calling themselves Little Caesar, including the one at track 4. That one, an instrumental, has Part 1 here and Part 2 in another obscure Ace release called Intoxical Strange And Sleazy Instrumental Sounds From The SoCal Suburbs.

The rest will be generally unknown to the average fan, although there are several that you might find interesting. Those who remember Long Black Limousine will likely recall the Jodie Miller 1969 hit version, but this one by Country One-Hit Wonder, Vern Stovall, isn't bad. The Year 2000 by Estelle features The Ronettes' Estelle Bennett Vann in a 1969 Laurie recording, while Hoagy Lands delivers the Bert Berns tune, White Gardenia, in another Laurie release, this time from 1968.

U.K. hits represented here include Nightmare by the female trio The Whyte Boots from 1969, and My Friend Bobby by Pamela Blue, a lament to a departed lover circa 1963. Terry Tyler's A Thousand Feet Below relates the suicide of a lover by jumping off a cliff (1963/64), and from another British female trio, The Beverly Sisters, you get Flight 1203. Some may recall their only U.S. hit from 1956/57, Greensleeves, on the London label.

As usual you get full details on the tracks and artists in the insert, something Ace is renowned for, and the sound quality, as always, is excellent. Diehard collectors will love it.