Rock Rhythm Doo Wop

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.

What unites these 26 tracks? They're all black vocal group sides from 1960-1970, originally released on the Galaxy, Fantasy, 4-J, Riverside, and Specialty labels. That might be a fragile thread to tie a compilation around, but basically it's a way for Fantasy, which now distributes Specialty, to round up a bunch of doo wop, R&B, and soul rarities that it has license to. It's an agreeable though not great listen, illustrating in a modest way the transitional links between doo wop and soul music.

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.

Ruben and The Jets - For Real! (1973) {Edsel Records EDCD406 rel 1994} (Produced by Frank Zappa)
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© 1973, 1994 In-Discreet / Demon Records / Edsel Records | EDCD 406
Rock / Pop Rock / Rock and Roll / Comedy / Doo Wop

Listening to this album was one weird experience back in 1973, and it hasn't gotten much less so since – but weird in the best, most glorious possible way. Where the 1968 Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention album Cruising with Ruben & the Jets was as much a satire of as a tribute to rock & roll and doo wop music, laced with several layers of humor and musical sophistication piled on top of its basic material, the For Real! album – produced by Zappa for a real-life Ruben & the Jets – is a stunningly beautiful, utterly delightful and straightforward musical creation; it's all different from the tone of the album that helped inspire it, yet it seems the perfect follow-up to that album.