Customer Reviews

That'll Flat Git It! Vol. 4: Rockabilly From The Vaults Of Festival Records

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I have over half of this great rockabilly series. Each volume feaures a different record company, and some of the rockabilly that they released back in the genre's day. There are some darn fine songs that haven't seen a mass audience since the 50's, some not at all. Volume four cover a record label called Festival, which operated in New York in the 60's. The high point of the Rockabilly scene was in the late 50's to early 60's, the earliest track on this collection is 1961, as the scene was winding down. The tracks on this disc do rock, but they show obvious influence from Rock that came after Rockabilly, some an almost California 60's rock. A nice point of interest on this disc: The original demo for One Broken Heart for Sale by Otis Blackwell is present. This song would eventually be performed by Elvis in it happened at the Worlds Fair. (Blackwell also wrote Don't Be Cruel). Also there are two numbers by a man named Ronnie Dio. The same Dio who would eventually go on to front Black Sabbath after Ozzie Osbourne left. My biggest let down with this disc though was how light it is. The majority of this series all feature around 30 tracks each. The Festival volume only has 16. If you are someone who is just getting into Rockabilly or just beginning to research the history of the music try another volume (like vol. 1-3 which are all very strong.). This is not really the place to start, but if you are a completist or looking for some Rockabilly outside the norm, try this disc.

Another good album by the Bear Family in this series. As with all of the cd's the liner notes are a good history of the people and the music and help make the price more bearable. Like the song selection, but like discs 10, 16, 17 and 2 better.

The Mean Eyed Cat
Rock-A-Billy Review
KNON 89.3
Dallas, TExas

Well, I can tell you that this compilation has nothing to do with rockabilly. But it's intresting anyway. It is more garage rock and roll from the sixties, featuring artists like Billy Barry ("They Call Me Willie The Wild One" and "My Love Is True" are absolutely my favourites from this cd), Billy Balls (who played around with Cheetah Chrome, ex. The Dead Boys and got shot to death), Charlie Starr, ex. Black Sabbath singer Ronnie Dio (here with two songs "Do the Oop-Poo-Pah -Doo" and "Love Pains") and Otis Blackwell's song that was covered by Elvis Presley "One Broken Heart For Sale".

This is far from Rockabilly! This starts with some mid 60's beat music by Billy Barry that at no time resembles the rockabilly tracks on the rest of the series I have listened to and does not get any better. The first Ronnie Dio track 'Do the OOP-POO-PAH-DOO' has a soul feel to it and the second track 'Love Pains' is more reminisent of the teen idol hits of the early 60's. Billy Balls' 'Motorcycle' is more rock and noise than Rockabilly. Charlie Starr provides the best track on the CD 'Black Jack Joey' but the rest of his offerings are purely pop. The Otis Blackwell track is interesting purely to compare to the version Elvis provided for the movie 'It happened at the worlds fair'. But again a pop offering not what we have come to expect from the 'That'll Flat Git Series'. This is one for you Hep Kats to skip - Generally a great series but this is the exception.