Those Oldies But Goodies

Nino & The Ebb Tides | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 25, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dee Jay
• ASIN: B0000000TG
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,123 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Juke Box Saturday Night

2. Don't Run Away

3. Someday

4. Little Miss Blue

5. Happy Guy

6. Wished I Was Home

7. Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You)

8. Nursery Rhymes

9. Tonight (I'll Be Lonely)

10. Darling I'll Love Only You

11. Franny, Franny

12. Puppy Love

13. Lovin' Time

14. The Real Meaning of Christmas

15. Two Purple Shadows in the Snow

16. You Make Me Wanna Rock and Roll

17. I Love Girls

18. Four Seasons

19. Stamps, Baby, Stamps

20. Tell the World I Do

See all 33 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early hip NY doo wop - this west coast fan loves it!, November 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Those Oldies But Goodies (Audio CD)

Nino and the Ebb Tides must have taken their time in the studio to come up with such a great collection featuring Those Oldies But Goodies. I heard their version of the song on the radio here in the Pacific Northwest "weeks" before I heard the version by Little Caesar & the Romans. Now "why" and "how" the Little Caesar version became the big hit has been a mystery to me for 30 years now ! This, simply, is the better version, without question. Jukebox Saturday night is another well-produced song from this rare LP. It takes no effort at all to just let this CD track from one song to the next. I invite you to enjoy what I believe is a classic set of great songs from a time when music was really sung from the heart and soul in 4-part harmony, when people really spent the time it takes to put together good music. This group is captivating and the music here transcends time. The title track serves as the premiere anthem to the early rock, soul and doo wop era of the 50s and 60s. Yes dear, they are playing our song !

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Template For The way To Do An Anthology, October 10, 2011

By 

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

This review is from: Those Oldies But Goodies (Audio CD)

Now THIS is how you do an anthology, even if the artists in question were true One-Hit Wonders. Because here, albeit not in any chronological order, you get both sides of all 11 singles released by the New York quartet, Nino & The Ebb Tides, from 1958 to 1963.

First forming up in the late 1950s as The Ebbtides, lead Antonio "Nino" Aiello and bass Vinnie Drago got together with baritone Tony Delesio and a fourth recalled only as Rudy, and were able to get talent scout Murray Jacobs to give them a shot at recording two songs penned by Nino and Vinnie. The up-tempo Franny Franny and the slow-dance Darling, I Love You were cut early in 1958 at the small Acme Records owned by Bill Miller (Acme 720) and actually did well in the greater New York area thanks to air play by two noted DJs named Alan - Freed and Fredericks.

By the time they were ready to record again that same year, the mysterious Rudy and Tony Delesio had been replaced by baritone Tony Imbimbo and tenor Ralph Bracco, and this time they would cut the songs in new studios owned by Jacobs, also a close friend of Freed, called Recorte Records. Nino had already seen the set-up first hand, having sung background on A Kiss Is A Kiss by The Rockin' Chairs, so he was familiar with the surrounding in March when they did the slow-paced Puppy Love (not the same as the Anka hit) b/w the bouncy You Make Me Wanna Rock And Roll (Recorte 405). Again, the A-side did well regionally that fall.

Not so well received was the seasonal entry The Real Meaning Of Christmas/Two Purple Shadows On The Snow (Recorte 408), and they did only marginally better early in 1959 with a real oldie, I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) - first a hit way back in 1930 for Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians - b/w Tell The World I Do (Recorte 409). One more single there would follow in 1959, Don't Look Around b/w I Love Girls (Recorte 413) as well as the group singing background on Memories Of Love/Girl Of Mine by The Rockin' Chairs. None charted.

No discs were cut in 1960, but Bracco had been replaced by tenor Tony DiBari, and in 1961 they turned up at yet another shoe-string operation, Marco Records, where they did what could arguably be called their best balled, Little Miss Blue with Someday (the version at track 3) as the flip on Marco 105. But still no national hit, although things began to look up when they next signed with Madison Records. Owned by Larry Uttal, he could already boast two significant hits, To A Soldier Boy by The Tassels (# 55 Hot 100 in 1959) and The Madison by Al Browne's Tunetoppers featuring Cookie Brown (# 23 Hot 100 in 1960), so hopes were high when they were given Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me Of You) to cover (it was already making waves out west for Del-Fi by a group calling themselves Little Caesar & The Romans).

Comparing the two, I think the one by Nino & The Ebb Tides on Madison 162 (b/w Don't Run Away) was the better, with the way they smoothly incorporated Deserie by The Charts, The Channels' That's My Desire, The Glory Of Love by The Five Keys, The Rays' Silhouettes and Johnnie & Joe's Over the Mountain. But alas, it was Little Caesar who won out, reaching # 9 Hot 100 and # 28 R&B, although the Ebb Tides version again did well in and around New York (not bad in terms of sales as that population matched several small countries).

Then came the hit, again reaching way back, this time to 1942 for the Glenn Miller # 7 hit Jukebox Saturday Night, only this time the group modified the lyrics to make reference to The Book Of Love by The Monotones and Get A Job by The Silhouettes (ironically themselves both One-Hit Wonders as well), and while this effort didn't do nearly as well as those hits, it did finish at a respectable # 57 Hot 100 in September 1961 on Madison 166 b/w (Someday) I'll Fall In Love (the version at track 32).

Who knows what may have happened had Madison stayed in business, but they were already winding down operations, so they turned to yet another small operation, Mr. Peacock/Mr. Peeke Records where they cut, in 1961, Happy Guy/Wished I Was Here (Mr. Peacock 101), Lovin' Time/Stamps, Baby, Stamps (Mr. Peacock 107) in 1962 and, in 1963, Tonight I'll Be Lonely/Nursery Rhymes (Mr. Peeke 123). To no avail. In the meantime, they had turned down a song by fellow Bronx resident Ernie Maresca called The Wanderer, which wound up as a # 2 for Dion in 1962.

And it's decisions like that that often separates winners from losers.