George Goldner

Various Artists - The Gone Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD206 rec 1957-1964}
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© 1957-64, 1999 Gone Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 206
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Blues / Soul / Rock 'n' Roll

George Goldner Presents The Gone Story: Doo-Wop to Soul 1957-1963 contains 65 songs representing a dead-perfect cross-section of the singles output of one of New York's great R&B labels of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The opening cut, the Dubs' slow, romantic "Don't Ask Me (To Be Lonely)," shows just how far George Goldner's conception of rhythm & blues had come in the four years since he'd founded Rama Records in 1953. Gone Records, starting in 1957, featured a more sophisticated output, oriented toward elegant, impassioned ballads rather than the dance numbers that had gone over so big in the mid-'50s.

Various Artists - The Rama Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD215 rec 1953-1956}
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© 1953-56, 1999 Rama Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 215
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Rockabilly / Rock 'n' Roll

This 2 disc set brings together 61 tracks from this early George Goldner run label. Although Rama only had a three year run as a label, they made significant inroads, especially as a doo-wop specialist with seminal tracks from the Crows ("Gee"), the Wrens ("Come Back My Love"), the Valentines ("Lily Maybelle") and the Heartbeats ("A Thousand Miles Away"). But there's also some errant pop sides and some fine rockabilly aboard as well from Don "Red" Roberts, Little Billy Mason (a white Frankie Lymon sound-alike with guitar band backing), and Roc LaRue. A delightful two disc set that shows off the many sides of this interesting label.

Various Artists - The End Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD205 rec 1957-1965}
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© 1957-65, 1999 End Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 205
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Soul / Rock 'n' Roll

England's Westside label has released four two-disc sets that spotlight labels owned by George Goldner in the '50s and '60s: Rama, Gee, Gone, and End. The End Story collects 63 rock and R&B cuts recorded from 1957-1965 for the End label, from big hits by the Flamingos and Little Anthony & the Imperials to total obscurities by forgotten artists. Most of the recordings are doo wop and R&B with only a handful of rockers – far fewer rock cuts, overall, than appear on The Gone Story. For a number of artists, End was a stopover on the way to or from greener commercial pastures: the Bobbettes, Little Richard, the Shells, and the Teenagers after Frankie Lymon left to pursue a solo career.

Chuito & The Latin Uniques - From the Street (1967) {Speed–Fania 773 130 356-2 rel 2008}
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© 1967, 2008 Speed / Fania / Universal / Emusica | 773 130 356-2
Latin / Boogaloo / Latin Soul / Funk

n the late 60s, Latin New York was dominated by the boogaloo and Latin Soul. From the music’s first flowering with Johnny Colon’s “Boogaloo Blues” and “Joe Cuba’s ‘Bang Bang” it was clear that this sound of the 2nd and 3rd generation New York born children of Puerto Rican immigrants was bringing a new fervour, mixing traditional Latin music with the sounds of the soul music that was in the air of the city. For the next few years, until it was blown away by the juggernaut of salsa this was the sound of Latin New York.

Various Artists - The Gee Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD223 rec 1954-1962}
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© 1954-62, 1999 Gee Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 223
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Blues / Rock 'n' Roll

This 2 disc set brings together 63 tracks from this early George Goldner run label. Covering a nice selection of the label's output from 1954 to its demise in 1962, Gee made inroads as a doo-wop specialist, primarily with the recordings of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Cleftones, and later with the Regents and the Drapers. Plemty of classics aboard from these artists as well as goodies from the Emanons, the Coins, the Five Crowns, the Valtones, Annie Kaye, and Lorraine Ellis, making this a superlative overview of a label that for almost a decade dealing in nothing but new York rhythm and blues.

The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré's Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell's Sleep, Adam, sleep with it's references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms's Salamander, Wolf's Die Bekehrte or Ravel's Air du Feu.