Customer Reviews

Very Best of

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

 

 

With apologies to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Coasters, and the Cadillacs, these guys stand tall in my book as the underrated kings of early R&B and doo-wop.

They combined a VERY churchy sound into early R&B, but did not receive the noteriety that Ray Charles did at about the same time for doing so. Songs like "Right Around the Corner" and "Women About To Make Me Go Crazy" could pass for the uptempo gospel of the day by the 5 Blind Boys or Swan Silvertones if not for the lyrics.

But they were quite popular in black neighborhoods in their day and obviously a lot of people were listening. James Brown (not the sportscaster) covered "Think" early in their career and "Dedicated to the One I Love" was covered twice-by the Sherelles and the Mamas and the Papas, here you have the original versions.

They could also lay down some really sweet vocal harmony, as heard here in "Miracle of Love" and "Tears of Joy," which brings forth the imagery of some fellas in an inner city high school doo-wopping in the boy's room for the acoustics in the late 50s.

Overall, this is a raw, funky, and pleasant listening experience as well as an introduction to one of the great forgotten groups of all time.

Right around the same time that Ray Charles was merging Gospel music with Rhythm and Blues and creating what would become known as Soul music- these cats from Winston Salem,North Carolina were one step ahead of him. Johnny Tanner's sweet tenor is as soulful as it gets for 1953-the year they practically owned when they were on the Apollo label.The Royales are most remembered for their massive hit and early Soul classic 'Baby Don't Do It" from 1953. 'Baby Don't Do It' and their other hits such as "Crazy,Crazy,Crazy", "Help Me Somebody","Too Much Lovin", and "I Do", are available on The 5 Royales cd with their Apollo records recordings. When you own both of these cd's you will have a complete picture of The 5 Royales. The recordings on this cd are from their King records days and features two top 10 R&B hits on that label from 1957-"Tears Of Joy" and "Think".Also included are the original versions of "Dedicated To The One I Love' which was a bigger hit for The Shirelles. The influence on James Brown and The Famous Flames and The Temptations is easily heard in these King recordings. In fact, James and The Flames recorded "Think" in homage to their idols.There are many recordings on this cd which should've have been hits for The 5 Royales and Lowman Paulings stinging guitar notes would influence everyone from Albert King to Little Milton to Steve Cropper of Stax records and Booker T and The MG'S.If you want to check out R&B's first Soul group-get this cd in the collection pronto because The Royales set the standard for Soul music and all whom would come in the 1960's.

As I alluded to in my review of ACE's It's Hard But It's Fair: King Hits and Rarities, COLLECTABLES RECORDS have had a less than sterling reputation for the sound quality and packaging of their CD's, especially in the formative years of the media. But fair is fair, and they seem to have made great strides over the past couple of years. A good example is the product at hand, THE "5" ROYALES Very Best of. Part of a Reissue Series of ORIGINAL KING RECORDINGS, with "Audio By Little Walter DeVenne", who seems to have supervised all the KING CDs I've purchased. The sound of all the titles has been just great with, to my ears, very little intrusive digital hanky-panky. The booklet is pretty thin on info, but has four nice photos, one from an original album. As for the song selection, here's the rundown compared with the other worthwhile ROYALES releases. Tracks 2,5,6,7,16,17,18,19,20,22,23,24,and 25 are also on the above mentioned ACE CD. Tracks 1,3,6,7,10,11,13,14,15,16,18,21,22,and 23 can also be found on the excellent, but sadly out-of-print RHINO Anthology: Monkey Hips & Rice. Until recently, Tracks 4,8 and 19 were exclusive to this disc, but now can also be found on the new EL TORO release Right Around the Corner Rare & Undiscovered Gems. The bottom line? Owning the ACE, RHINO and EL TORO CD's makes the need for this redundant, but with the great song selection and sound quality, the "5" ROYALES fan/collector/obsessive will find this a worthwhile purchase......

OTHER FINE ORIGINAL KING RECORDINGS DISCS: Very Best of Wynonie Harris: Good Rockin Tonight, Very Best of Freddy King 1, Complete King & Bobbin Recordings, Very Best of, Very Best of King Federal Deluxe 1, Very Best Of: King Federal Deluxe 2, Very Best of Freddy King 2, Very Best of Freddy King 3.

If you are a collector there are some good sides. It was worth the money.