Playboy Gold

Gene Thomas and Debbe Neville were a fresh-scrubbed pop duo from Nashville, TN, who sounded something like a twangier Sonny & Cher, or as if Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood had been stripped of their eccentricities (particularly Hazlewood's tumescent ego). Gene & Debbe's sole Top 20 hit was "Playboy" in 1968, and this collection from Sundazed features that tune as well as 21 other sides from the short-lived duo. While these songs were obviously aimed for the pop charts, there's no avoiding the fact this stuff was recorded in Nashville (and released on TRX Records, an offshoot of the powerful Acuff-Rose publishing concern) the keening pedal steel on "Torch I Carry," the banjo on "Lovin' Season," and the cheatin' song ethos of "Rings of Gold" all point to the act's Music City heritage, and producer Don Gant (who later recorded with the Neon Philharmonic) was clearly shooting for lots of charm rather than a significant share of hipness (as if the presence of a Dean Martin cover wouldn't make that obvious).