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randomvarious · 2 years

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Today’s compilation:

Oldies But Goodies, Vol. 2 1971 Doo Wop / R&B

OK, so, there's this record label based in LA called Original Sound that was founded in the early 50s by a beloved local radio DJ named Art Laboe. And something Original Sound became especially known for at some point was its landmark series, Oldies But Goodies, which was actually one of the first series to ever reissue older pop, rock, and R&B hits in a various artist compilation format. And that's just kind of a wild thing to think about, isn't it? We kind of just take this idea of reselling and repackaging old hits for granted, right? Like, there's so many of these cheap retrospective comps out there now, that you kind of just assumed that labels have pretty much been doing this ever since we found a way to invent the LP. But, actually, no!

The original Oldies But Goodies series started in 1959 and sold like gangbusters upon its groundbreaking arrival. Volume 1 peaked at #12 on Billboard's album chart and remained on that chart for a total of *183 weeks*. And some other volumes made that chart too.

But is this series that's extremely important to the history of music commerce actually any good? Do these forgotten 50s tunes manage to still hold up today, six-plus decades later? That's what I'm trying to figure out here. And if the second volume of this series is any indication, then I'd have to conclude that, unfortunately, mostly no 😔. It appears that Original Sound had something of a penchant for the slow ballad type of doo wop rather than the far more interesting and more vocally dynamic uptempo fare. And because of that choice, the large majority of these tunes sound pretty similar and none of them really happen to stick out all that much.

Except for one of the only non-doo wop offerings on this LP: Faye Adams’ gospel-sounding, slow, early 50s R&B burner, "Shake a Hand," which earned her her first of three #1 placements on the R&B chart, all of which took place between '53 and '54. What a uniquely soulful voice she possessed! Adams had retired from the music biz by the early 60s and no one can seem to figure out if she's even alive anymore. Crazy.

There's also an excellent mid-80s cover of "Shake a Hand" by Ike & Tina Turner that I don't think is too well known. It features this darling primitive keyboard that really lets loose for a solo in the middle 🤩.

Hoping for better installments from this series than this particular one though. We'll see.

Let's go Mets!

Highlights:

Faye Adams - "Shake a Hand"

#doo wop #r&b #r and b #rhythm & blues #rhythm n blues #music #50s #50s music #50's #50's music #oldies

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