- Artist: Various Artists
- Release Date: 2004
- Type: Collection (various artists)
- Genre: Rock
Review
The first of 15 volumes covering two-year periods between 1950 and 1979, Rolling Back the Years: 1950-1951 chooses twenty Top 20 hits that were in the charts over those 24 months. Prism Leisure is a British budget label, but the collection clearly is aimed at the U.S., since it consists entirely of American recordings. In Europe, those recordings are out of copyright, so Prism is free to just copy old records (or, more likely, recent CDs) to assemble this collection. These are not the 20 biggest hits of 1950-1951, although some of the biggest hits of the period are included, among them the Weavers' "Goodnight Irene," Eileen Barton's "If I Knew You Were Comin' (I'd've Baked a Cake)," Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa," Johnnie Ray's "Cry," Perry Como's "If," Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House," and Mario Lanza's "Be My Love," all of which hit number one. (Although the album bears the subtitle, "20 Hits From the Rock 'N' Roll Era," that tag, as the list suggests, applies only to later volumes. 1950-1951 was not the Rock 'N' Roll Era, and the closest thing to a rock & roll song here is Kay Starr's recording of Louis Prima's rhythm tune "Oh Babe!") In some cases, such as Vic Damone's "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and Ray Anthony's "Sentimental Me," a cover version (also a hit) has been included rather than the most popular rendition. (There were lots of successful cover versions of popular songs in 1950-1951.) Some tracks were not such big hits, but remain more memorable than many that were, such as Tony Bennett's "Blue Velvet" and Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong's "Gone Fishin'." So, this is a representative sampling of the popular music of the first two years of the 1950s in the U.S., a time of frothy novelty tunes and melodramatic ballads. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi| Beethoven: Early, Middle, Late (2005 Album by Cyberchambermusic) | |
| Beethoven: Fidelio (1997 Album by Various Artists) |
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