Search - Janis Martin, Curtis Lee, Milton Allen :: The Drugstore's Rockin', Volume 2

Not for the mainstream early rock fan

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 02/18/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This piece from Bear Family Records of Germany, the Mercedes of reissue companies, offers another gathering of mostly obscure early rock- and rockabilly-style tunes from the late 50's and early 60's. Hit-wise, the only entries here are the top-10 "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" from Curtis Lee and two lesser hits - Sammy Salvo's "Oh Julie", whose effort was overshadowed by the Crescendos' version and "Language Of Love" by John D. Loudermilk, the prolific writer of many country and pop tunes. Several of the tracks here are failed singles by some artists who had considerable success with other tunes such as Sonny James, Jackie Dee (a/k/a Jackie DeShannon), Jack Scott and Dorsey Burnette. The remaining songs here are true obscurities going as far as one that remains unidentified. Among the historically interesting if musically sorry tunes here is Ric Cartey's almost painful-to-listen-to version of "Young Love", the tune taken to monster status by both Tab Hunter and Sonny James (who is represented here by one of his unsuccessful recordings). While a few of the sides included here deserve their failed hit status, there are lots of "should've-been hits" here such as the so-called female Elvis Janis Martin's "Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll", a tune that quintessentially illustrates the sound of early teenage rock tunes of the era. Production-wise, this piece typifies the Bear Family top-of-the-line approach with its tri-fold digipak including a massive 44-page liner notes booklet with incredibly detailed backround on the included artists. Sound quality is amazingly good considering the obscurity of many of these recordings with several of the tracks (4,5,9,10,18,19 and 23) appearing in stereo, the remainder in mono. While not geared to the casual oldies listener, this piece is of interest to the collector for its rarely reissued hits and for the hard-core collector searching for obscurities not found elsewhere all done in excellent quality not seen in most other such products."