Features

• Original recording remastered

Reviews (6)

Fabulous
This disc is fabulous.Bing didn't always get a chance to record the best material during the 50s, but this stuff is top notch, and Bing is in excellent voice.Bing also didn't always have the best arrangements and bands at this time, but here we get to hear him with a very hip backing along the lines of the swingin' Sinatra sound.Buddy Bregman is fresh from some Ella Fitzgerald songbook sessions and the band is TIGHT.Featured are some great players, including Sinatra regular Harry "Sweets" Edison.

There are several versions of this release.Be sure to get the one issued in 2001, with the original album cover inset on a swirling red background.This issue is superior and less expensive than the "gold" version, or any import versions.

Slowly but surely Bing's new legacy as an innovative, hip, and truly talented entertainer is being revealed.This release is an important step in that process.Enjoy!

THANK YOU BUDDY!
This is BING CROSBY's best original LP.We'll never thank BUDDY BREGMAN enough for this.Let's not forget that BING was the most popular AMERICAN singer before FRANK SINATRA came in .The choice of songs was perfect;the swinging horn laden orchestra goes around and do not outplays BING's voice.You'll notice that whenever a CROSBY song is in a songbook tribute collection,they choose the songs from that album.BING was a gentleman in the true sense of the world;his honesty was never fainted.In fact,this record is BING going to SINATRA's turf and finding that he could do it.My only regret is that after he made that record,BING was more inclined to play golf than to record,but the man had worked hard in the 30's and 40's,so he had the right to make things easier for him.Along with the collection HIS LEGENDARY YEARS,a must for any BING CROSBY fan,this is a record to treasure forever.

Reviews (1)

Features

• Soundtrack

Reviews (8)

Time Travel IS Possible
This is one terrific album for anyone who likes movie music, old comedies, or just tuneful tunes from a long-ago time.You can almost smell the popcorn.Why anyone would go to all this work to recreate these songs is completely beyond me, but I'm delighted they did.

You'll be seven years old again...
if you grew up watching the Little Rascals, this cd will take you back to sitting in front of the tv ("Move back or you'll go blind!")when you were little.The Beau Hunks are absolutely astounding in their recreation of Leroy Shield's compositions.As it says in the liner notes, they achieve "note for note accuracy".If you don't have this cd, find it and buy it.You won't regret it.

Go out of your way to get this CD!
This CD is not just a mere "one band's take" on the Little Rascals theme songs we remember and love; The Beau Hunks manage to capture the essence of these tunes to perfection!

The Hunks start the album off just right with "Good Old Days" (the opening theme to all the early Little Rascals talkies; until this CD, it was a nameless tune to me!). These are all short tunes, one as short as 11 seconds (more of a sound effect than a tune), and most seeming to average the range of one minute. If you're a fan of The Little Rascals, you will no doubt have specific visual Black & White prankster scenes from the flicks playing through your head upon hearing these background tunes. I even recognized some tunesfrom other Hal Roach productions I enjoyed years ago ("On To the Show" was a Rascals tune, but I remember it better from a Laurel & Hardy short).

While the fast-paced tunes are playful, there are several moody tunes that capture that sweetness from the Rascal shorts. I totally pictured a half-asleep Jackie Cooper muttering his love and devotion for Miss Crabtree when I hear "The One I Love Best," and "The Dog Song" is a heartstring-tugger, bringing hep recollections of every episode that featured one of the Rascals trying to protect their mutt from evil dog catchers!

This CD comes with a slick 15 page booklet that gives a lengthy bio of composer LeRoy Shield and his career. If there are any R. Crumb fans out there, there is a small sketch of Shield by the underground cartoon legend himself. Also lots of Little Rascals pics and a little background behind many of the melodies.

Features

• Cast Recording
• Cast Recording

Reviews (15)

GOSPELAT COLONUS
THIS WAS THE MOST MOVING PERFORMANCE I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. IT IS NO WONDER IT WON THE AWARD IN PHILADELPHIA IN 1985 IN ITS CLASS.

The Greatest Gospel Play
This one of the greatest gospel plays I have ever seen. I have the video and I will always keep it close to my heart.

Reviews (1)

Features

• Original recording remastered

Reviews (1)

Reviews (5)

As good as the original for entirely different reasons
Let's see if I can explain this in a couple of sentences: Imagine if stars of the 50's took some of their most famous songs and then played the songs from Sgt. Pepper to THEIR songs' arrangements. Trust me, it works.

Example: Buddy Holly singing "A Day in the Life":

I read the news today, Uh-Oh, Boy
(Dum De Dum Dum, Oh Boy)
About a lucky man who made the gra-ha-hay-hade...

This is easily one of the funniest--and most musically entertaining--albums I own. It's nice to see that SOMEBODY, somewhere, is still offering it for sale. And you should buy it!

Beatles get gene-spliced with hits of the past--neato!
Big Daddy is (or was) a collective of accomplished, 50's-and-60's obsessed musicians who find a way to channel yesterday's hit parade into the material of some other era. Some of the members can do uncannily accurate impersonations of various singers of the past. Though the band was usually known for their clever revisions of relatively current pop hits, they decided back in '93 or so to focus their efforts on an entire, song-by-song remake of the Beatles' 1967 LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Their blueprint for this (and all of their discs, for that matter) seems to have been to play a spirited game of"what if". The answers to these "what ifs" are the content of this disc. What if Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon had recorded "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" in the same manner as his hit song "Palisades Park"? What if Jerry Lee Lewis had torn into "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" just as if he were doing his hit "Breathless"? What if Buddy Holly had been around to record "A Day In The Life" as if it were a cross between his hits "Oh Boy" and "Everyday"? What if Dion had belted out "Fixing a Hole" at the same sessions as his hit "The Wanderer"? How about if some beat poet decided to read the lyrics to the lone George Harrison composition on the disc, "Within You Without You",over appropriately"hep cat" sounding backing from some bongos and flutes? Other artists who are imitated or referenced here include Johnny Mathis, Elvis Presley and even the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man" (spot-welded onto the frame of "When I'm Sixty Four"). You're probably getting the idea of this disc by now...and you're either smiling or cringing. If you're smiling, read on.

This could be classified as a parody of what some think of as the Beatles best album, but these guys are not trying to imitate or even poke fun at the Beatles. What Big Daddy is up to is sort of in a class of its own-I know of no other artist who reinvents songs based on earlier unrelated hits in the manner they do. It's funny and skillful at the same time. It helps to know the Sgt. Pepper album and assorted 50's/60's hits pretty well; otherwise, you won't `get' the joke or the musical references.

The performances and sound here are great, the good humor and high spirits are evident, and the overall package is a musical blast if you're open to some major screwing around and reinvention of Beatles songs. Track down this hard-to-find disc and enter an alternate Sgt. Pepper universe you are sure to enjoy. As the package says, "A real swell time is guaranteed for all!"

Editorial Review

Asin: B0000064PF
Sales Rank: 379847
Subjects:  1. 10's    2. 20's    3. 30's    4. Big Band    5. Classic Jazz    6. Dixieland    7. Jazz    8. New Orleans Jazz    9. Pop    10. Swing    11. Traditional Pop    12. Vocal Jazz   

Reviews (2)

A very underrated group
Why those guys are not more known outside their own country has always been and still is a mystery to me. As the other reviewer stated, their music is surprisingly pleasant. The good thing is that it has many influences in it - I would call it a mix of gypsy, oriental, chamber and celt music .. but they have their own atmosphere, and they are all amazingly gifted musicians. The masterpiece here is track 5, Variaties op een dame, a 22 minutes piece. Despite a few lengths, it can be played over and over again, and I usually appreciate it late at night, when everything's silent all around. They've tried it live numerous times after that, reducing it to a 11 minutes or so piece, but this 1978 version is definitely the best one.
This record (which is also their first one) isone of my two faves by them - the other one being their 1986 Sleight of hand - an album recorded in London and produced by Mike Batt, and almost unobtainable to this day, which is pretty much a crime in my opinion.

Features

• Import

Reviews (4)

Haroula Alexiou, ola tin thymizoun...
This is one of the first cd's i got of Haris Alexiou. This can be very helpfull if you want to get known with greek music, or Haris Alexiou. Remember, this is a compilation of her greatest hits from 1974 to 1987. The songs on this cd are very varied: from laika songs (real greek songs with bouzouki), to ballads and some '80s songs.
The first song "I agapi ine zali"(love is dizziness) is for example a bit electric, while the 4th song "Zilia mou"(my jealousy) is more traditional, with bouzouki. The best songs on this cd are, in my opinion, number 17 "Erotiko"(love song) and number 20 "I balada tis Ifiyenias"(the ballad of Ifigeneia). The last one is a melancholic and autobiografical song about her and her mother.

Haris Alexiou is not just any Greek singer. She is "Haroula", the audience's favourite. That's because there is of course her remarkable voice. Deep, a bit throaty, she has a style of singing that is called byzantine. She has sung different cultures, different genres, seamlessly combining them.

Que Romantico
I first incountered a live album of Haris while visiting Mikanos. It was recommended by the clerk as "romantic and beautiful". He was right. I kept that CD with me during my travels. I had the occasion to play it one night at Lake Chapala near Guadalajara, Mexico. My girl friend and I danced to it at 4am at an old hotel we found. It has been a part of our romance to this day. Oh yes, that was 8 years ago. Whenever we forget what is important in life, we play that CD and maybe dance a little.Thanks Haris.

Reviews (1)