ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. (ABKCO acronym of Allen & Betty Klein and COmpany) is a major American independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. The label had been heavily criticized by many fans for keeping the Cameo-Parkway material unavailable until 2005. ABKCO is active in the release of compilations and reissues from its catalogs, film and commercial placement of its master recordings and music publishing properties.
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.
This set is a must have not only for the hardcore fans of Demis Roussos, but also for anyone with deep interest in pop music in general, and for any collector. The set actually consist not 28, but 31 original solo Demis Roussos albums (3 of them are added as bonuses), plus many non-album bonus tracks and rarities. The variety of musical styles represented here, covering 40 years of recording solo career is so vast, and the voice and the arrangements are so different in the respective periods and genres, that makes one wonders is this the same artist on all these recordings. Prog-rock, psychedelic, ethno pop, folk, reggae, real American disco, euro pop, funk, Latin vibes, krautrock, techno pop, French chansons and German Schlagers, new age, soul, vintage rock…and all this sung with a voice ranging from soaring warble, trough powerful full bodied sound, to gravelly soulful Joe Cocker – like delivery.