Astounding!
Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 07/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Amazingly, it is a British(!) company, Ace Records, that has earned the top honors for supplying collectors and casual listeners alike with the songs of the American top-100 from the golden (pre-invasion) era of rock and roll music. The demise of their "Golden Age of American Rock and Roll" series was, though to be expected, a traumatic let-down. But the folks at Ace have not abandoned us - they have other collections featuring music from the same era and their "Teenage Crush" series has managed to pick up where "Golden Age" left off. In this, the fifth volume, Ace pulls out all the stops. At least 16(!) of the included tracks are top-100 songs that have here-to-fore not appeared on quality legit CD. With so many of the congomerate music houses and independents alike practically abandoning the reissue of early rock-and-roll tunes, this piece from Ace gets fans of the genre standing and cheering. Just a few of the new-to-CD tunes include Frank Gari's "Lullaby of Love", no we're not the Everly Brothers Dean and Marc's "Tell Him No", "Ginnie Bell" from Paul Dino and Dale Hawkins' "A House, a Car and a Wedding Ring". Equally welcome tracks include Paul and Paula's "Young Lovers", Dick and DeeDee's "Young and In Love" and "Forget Me Not" from the Kalin Twins, all top-20 follow-up hits seldom, if ever, found on CD. And just so everybody can sing along with familiar lyrics, a few well-known tunes in the likes of Steve Lawrence's "Footsteps" and Dion's "Donna, the Prima Donna" round out the package. And Ace didn't stop with just searching out these rare tunes. The 24-page liner notes booklet has a wealth of information on each included track along with photos and illustrations further demonstrating the extraordinary effort put into this CD. Sonically, while a few of the tracks (1,11,16-18,20,21) may have been lifted from less than master tape quality sources, having these tracks in any reasonable sound quality would be an accomplishment. Several of the tracks do appear in stereo (2-4,7,9,10,13,23) and the remainder in remarkably clean mono. All told, this is a truly amazing effort on the part of Ace. We fans and collectors can only hope that the momentum continues and we don't have to wait another three years for another installment in this remarkable series of CD compilations."
Ace #5 is good but not great
Jim Boy C | Silver Spring, MD | 11/04/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Having purchased the first 4 collections in the excellent Teen Crush series I was anticipating the same wonderful mix of voices and styles from this roots of rock and roll anthology. The repro quality and terrific liner notes have made me a big ACE Records fan. Unfortunately #5 does not have that spark and creativity the others do. Too many male vocals that all blend together. Need some female leads along with a few girl groups would have made this offering as great as the others in the series. A little Mary Robbins would spice it up too. A good but not great collection of hard to find one hit wonders. I'm ready for number 6!"
Track Listings (28) - Disc #1