Customer Reviews

Your Hit Parade-the Late '50s

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Many will recall the heavily-promoted Time-Life "mail order only" series of CDs of about 15 years ago which blared "you can't get these in any store" and charged quite a bit more for each disc than the normal going rate. This is one of them.

All are original renditions and in the fold-out insert are three pages of background notes written by author Charles K. Wolfe along with nice photos of Johnny Mathis, Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs, and The Four Preps. There is also a discography of the contents showing label details but, unlike others in the series, no chart details.

Most of the 24 cuts here have since been included in countless compilations since this volume first appeared upon the scene, but none can claim to offer any better sound quality. Also, there are still a few included here that require a bit of digging to find in a quality setting:

Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody, a surprise # 10 Billboard Pop Top 100 hit in late 1956 for comedian Jerry Lewis with backing by the Buddy Bregman orchestra; Tea For Two Cha-Cha by The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Starring Warren Covington, a # 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in fall 1958; The Garden Of Eden, the only chart entry for One-Hit Wonder Joe Valino who took it to # 12 Hoy 100 late in 1958 with the backing of the George Siravo orchestra; Padre by Toni Arden, with the Jack Pleis orchestra, a # 13 Top 100 in early summer 1958; and It's A Sin To Tell A Lie by Somethin' Smith & The Redheads, # 7 Top 100 in early summer 1955.

Any release in this massive series is well worth the price.