An Acrobat of The Heart

As adjuncts to our highly popular “America’s Greatest Hits” series of collections for each calendar year in the 50s and early ‘60s, we have already produced collections based on landmark moments in the Billboard charts – “The First Top 100 Nov. 1955” (ACQCD7062), “The First Hot 100 Aug. 1958” (ACQCD7083), “The First Hot 100 of the '60s” (ACQCD7097), “The 'Heartbreak Hotel' Top 100” (ACQCD7122)and “The Day The Music Died - Feb 3rd 1959 Hot 100” (ACQCD7134), “The 'Telstar' Hot 100 December 22nd 1962” (ACQCD7144), “The Twist” Hot 100 Jan. 25th 1962” and “The 1000th Billboard Chart 7th September 1959”(ACQCD7164), each comprising records from the Top 100 or Hot 100 for the date in question.

Big Jay McNeely was an R&B saxophonist, whose music ran the gamut of R&B styles, from jazz-tinged pieces and pure blues to out-and-out rock ‘n’ roll, and was famous as one of the leaders in the “honkin’” saxophone style alongside the likes of Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor, King Curtis and Lee Allen, developing a wild stage act as he as he explored every sound the sax could make played in every bizarre position. He recorded for a variety of labels after making his debut with Johnny Otis, and this great-value 53-track 2-CD collection comprises A & B sides of his singles with his band The Blue Jays on the Savoy, Exclusive, Aladdin, Imperial, Veejay and Swingin’ labels, during this era. It features his R&B No. 1 with “Deacon’s Hop” in 1949 that immediately brought him to public attention, along with his other R&B hits “Wild Wig” and, from later years “There Is Something On Your Mind”. On some of his releases he featured vocalists like Clifford Blivens, Ted Shirley, Jesse Belvin, Mercy Dee Walton and Sonny Warner as well as organist Leon Haywood. He was one of the most distinctive and unusual R&B artists of the ‘50s and this collection is an entertaining trawl across his primary recording career.

Les Brown And His Band Of Renown, led by saxophonist Les Brown, were a fixture on the US popular music and broadcasting landscape for more than half a century following its inception in 1938, and during a golden first fifteen years or so racked up 26 US pop hits, most famously introducing Doris Day to the chart scene as his featured singer during the 1940s.

This release continues the series of 4-CD sets which comprises selected annual collections of the biggest US country hits of each year, and fills in a gap in the series at the start of the 1960s. This great-value 114-track collection covers the year of 1960, during which time Billboard published a country Top 30 called Hot C&W Sides, and it comprises every record which peaked in the top 25 places in that chart during the year, excluding a few records which are unavailable for copyright reasons.

some of the top bands and accompanists of the day during his career, including Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie and Erroll Garner, and became famous during the 1970s, beyond the scope of this collection, for an album he made with John Coltrane. Unlike his more middle-of-the-road peers in the world of post-war sophisticated pop, he did not make records aimed at the singles charts so is less well-known than artists like Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis and Mel Torme, but was a singer who was highly-regarded by his peers and aficionados.

An engaging crooner, TV personality, and entrepreneur, Andy Williams was one of the most bankable and popular singers of his era. With his laid-back delivery, supple voice, and amiable charm, Williams rode a wave of success that took him from a childhood vocal act with his brothers to worldwide fame as a solo artist, eventually finding latter-day success as a theater impresario in Branson, Missouri.

Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins was one of the true blues greats, a singer, guitarist, songwriter and occasional pianist from Texas, who through a life as a long-time solo performer developed a highly distinctive style, playing rhythm, lead, bass and percussion, with a legendarily unstructured approach to the 12-bar format. Musicologist Mark McCormick said that Hopkins is “the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act”. Born in 1912, he did not get an opportunity to record until the post-war years, and then recorded prolifically for a variety of labels.

The Dells were one of the longest-lasting of all the many R&B vocal groups which had their roots in the gospel and doowop era of the early and mid-'50s, their career encompassing a heyday in the soul era of the '60s and '70s and extending well unto the new millennium until the death of Johnny Carter in 2009. Formed in 1952, they made their first record as The El Rays in 1954, becoming The Dells in 1955 when they moved to the Vee Jay label. This 29-track collection comprises the A and b sides of all their releases from the debut on Checker, through their time with Vee Jay, which gave them their debut hit with "What A Night" in 1956, and including their two singles for Checker's Argo subsidiary in 1962. Unlike many ensembles of their era, The Dells maintained a more or less completely settled line-up throughout their career, with just one change in 1960 when Carter replaced Johnny Funches, following a near-fatal car crash. This collection provides an entertaining and enjoyable trawl through their early career, charting the course which saw them develop into archetypal soul legends

Big Joe Williams was a Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist famous for the distinctive sound of his unique nine-string guitar, as well as for recording classic songs like Baby Please Don't Go and Crawling King Snake. His career was remarkable for the fact that he recorded through every decade from the mid-1930s into the'70s, although his periods of active recording were somewhat erratic, while he maintained a constant round of 'live' performing. This great-value 115-track 5-CD set comprises most of the A & B sides of his releases on the Bluebird, Columbia, Bullet, Trumpet & VeeJay labels from 1935 to 1957, plus EP titles and the titles from his albums Piney Woods Blues, A Man Sings The Blues, Tough Times, Blues On Highway 69, Nine-String Guitar Blues and Mississippi's Big Joe Williams & his Nine-String Guitar from 1957 through to 1962. It includes recordings where he is accompanied by noted contemporaries like Sonny Boy Williamson, Ransom Knowling, Robert Lee McCoy, Judge Riley and others. He was one of the most impressive blues performers of his era who inspired many artists of later years like Bob Dylan, and this substantial collection offers an entertaining showcase for a highly original and influential artist.

The Roberta Martin Singers were one the premier American gospel groups of the middle decades of the 20th century, with their leader Roberta Martin famed as one of the most innovative and influential figures in the history of gospel music. The writer Robert Marovitch said that the group "gave gospel its signature ensemble sound". Lead singer and main songwriter Roberta Martin founded the group in 1933, although their recording career did not start until 1947, lasting until Martin's health failed in the 1960s and she died from cancer in 1969.