Search - Mitchell Torok :: Mexican Joe in the Caribbean

Found him at last!

Peter N. Simmons | Washington State,U.S. | 12/28/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great box set. If there are any Mitchell Torok fans reading this the four cd,s are a great investment as you cannot find him anywhere else. We gave it to my mother for xmas and she is absolutely thrilled with it as she was a (and still is) a great fan of Mitchells. If you read this Mitchell Great stuff and pleaseE.Mail us"

A Product So Excellent You Simply CAN'T Give It Less Than 5

Peter N. Simmons | 08/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even so, what is it with these multi-disc box sets of artists who had but a handful of hits - or just one - [see Marvin Rainwater and Robin Luke as two more examples], but for whom there are no optional single-disc albums?



In this case, Mitchell Torok burst onto the scene in 1953 for the tiny Abbott label with the Country hit Caribbean [# 1 for two weeks that October and 24 weeks in all on the charts], b/w Weep Away. The following January he had his second Country hit when Hootchy Kootchy Henry (From Hawaii) reached # 9 b/w Gigolo.



All four sides are here, as is his Guyden remake of Caribbean in 1959 which reached # 27 Billboard Pop Hot 100 b/w a new version of Hootchy Kootchy Henry. Two years prior to that he also had a # 25 Billboard Pop Top 100 hit for Decca with Pledge Of Love b/w What's Behind That Strange Door? All are in this set as are Pink Chiffon [# 60 Hot 100 in 1960] and its flipside, What You Don't Know (Won't Hurt You), again for Guyden.



But either Bear could not [or didn't bother trying to?] get his final charted hit - Instant Love [# 73 Country] - which hit the charts in February 1967 b/w I Let The Hurts Put Me In The Driver's Seat on the Reprise label. Seems to me that, in putting together a 107-track 4-CD set for a guy who had but a handful of hits, there might have been just a little more effort in obtaining the rights to include, among the many alternate takes and failed singles, what was, after all, a legitimate hit.



The book/background notes contain a wealth of fascinating information and, as always with a Bear Family product, the sound reproduction is excellent. But come on, folks, can't someone put out a reasonably-priced, single disc, 20 track CD which contains his hits, their B-sides, plus maybe a few LP cuts?"