Customer Reviews

Teenage Crush Vol. 5

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

 

 

I don't know where to start... This 5th volume of the incredible Teenage
Crush series is, as far as I am concerned, absolutely the best CD of the
entire ACE series dedicated to the the genuine American Rock & Roll era.
They have released many being all of them 5 star compilations. As a
West European who luckily lived through those years as a kid, some of the
songs released on this CD are well known but the majority are completely
unknown or were covered by others thinking they were the originals....
British first R&R singer called Billy Fury (The English Elvis) had several hits
like Push Push & Love or Money and now I've found out
(47 years later) that those hits we listened to in Europe belonged
to guys called Austin Taylor & The Blackwells. The same happens with
Sittin' In The Balcony whose version by Eddie Cochran was the hit
here. We never heard of Johnny Dee who's the original singer.
Jerry Fullers "Tennessee Waltz" is an absolute knock-out. We all know
this song but never as a genuine up-tempo rock & roller. Same happens
with Vic Dana's "I Will". Again this was a famous song through Dean
Martin and Billy Fury. Now we have the original version and it's
the best and most beautiful of them all. I could go on and on and on
classifying each and every song. Anyone ever heard of Frank Gari,
Paul Dino, Nicky DeMatteo, Bobby Hamilton, Mel Gadson, Frankie Calen,
Kirby St. Romain, Danny Valentino, Ronny Douglas, Dean & Marc, Dean
Hawley, The 4 Dates, Karl Hammel Jr????? It doesn't matter. They all
had at least one Top 100 Hit and thanks to ACE we have the opportunity
to listen to those "oldies but goodies". Most of these songs are
wonderful and could be considered as "new oldies" transporting us
back to those great teenage crush" years.
A special mention to the 24 pages booklet and liner notes to each and
every song. Accompanied by incredible never seen before photos, the
extensive explanations behind the song and the singer are wonderful.
Some incredible stories are told like the one referred to Dean Reed
a complete unknown singer who became a huge R&R star behind the iron
curtain although he was a Colorado born rural artist. All these
features + the incredible sound quality ACE has made us accustomed to
make this specific compilation the absolute best of them all.

Amazingly, it is a British(!) company, Ace Records, that has earned the top honors for supplying collectors and casual listeners alike with the songs of the American top-100 from the golden (pre-invasion) era of rock and roll music. The demise of their "Golden Age of American Rock and Roll" series was, though to be expected, a traumatic let-down. But the folks at Ace have not abandoned us - they have other collections featuring music from the same era and their "Teenage Crush" series has managed to pick up where "Golden Age" left off.

In this, the fifth volume, Ace pulls out all the stops. At least 16(!) of the included tracks are top-100 songs that have here-to-fore not appeared on quality legit CD. With so many of the congomerate music houses and independents alike practically abandoning the reissue of early rock-and-roll tunes, this piece from Ace gets fans of the genre standing and cheering. Just a few of the new-to-CD tunes include Frank Gari's "Lullaby of Love", the no we're not the Everly Brothers Dean and Marc's "Tell Him No", "Ginnie Bell" from Paul Dino and Dale Hawkins' "A House, a Car and a Wedding Ring". Equally welcome tracks include Paul and Paula's "Young Lovers", Dick and DeeDee's "Young and In Love" and "Forget Me Not" from the Kalin Twins, all top-20 follow-up hits seldom, if ever, found on CD. And just so everybody can sing along with familiar lyrics, a few well-known tunes in the likes of Steve Lawrence's "Footsteps" and Dion's "Donna, the Prima Donna" round out the package.

And Ace didn't stop with just searching out these rare tunes. The 24-page liner notes booklet has a wealth of information on each included track along with photos and illustrations further demonstrating the extraordinary effort put into this CD. Sonically, while a few of the tracks (1,11,16-18,20,21) may have been lifted from less than master tape quality sources, having these tracks in any reasonable sound quality would be an accomplishment. Several of the tracks do appear in stereo (2-4,7,9,10,13,23) and the remainder in remarkably clean mono.

All told, this is a truly amazing effort on the part of Ace. We fans and collectors can only hope that the momentum continues and we don't have to wait another three years for another installment in this remarkable series of CD compilations.

If you're an oldies fan trying to recreate your teenage music on CD, this will fill in some of the obscure memories. It's apparently from England and so contains some unfamiliar groups, but a lot of the US cuts are unobtainable anywhere else!! I had given up hope of ever seeing Karl Hammel, Johnny Dee, Deane Hawley and others on CD, but be sure to check the titles!!

Once again Ace (UK) has come out with a great compliation. As usual there is a great mix of Top Ten hits along with some rare and unusual tracks. Sound quality is certainly up to the Ace standard as is the enclosed booklet. I won't spend time detailing the tracks as you can peruse these on the Amazon web page.
I really love this CD and it makes a wonderful addition to my collection.

Having purchased the first 4 collections in the excellent Teen Crush series I was anticipating the same wonderful mix of voices and styles from this roots of rock and roll anthology. The repro quality and terrific liner notes have made me a big ACE Records fan. Unfortunately #5 does not have that spark and creativity the others do. Too many male vocals that all blend together. Need some female leads along with a few girl groups would have made this offering as great as the others in the series. A little Mary Robbins would spice it up too. A good but not great collection of hard to find one hit wonders. I'm ready for number 6!

Product was exactly what I wanted. These songs are very difficult to find. Shipping was very fast