lördag 30 april 2016

The Belmonts - Carnival of Hits (Superb R&B/Doo Wop US 1962)


240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgiven av ett nytt litet skivbolag i Japan. Mycket liten upplaga av detta album.)

Angelo D'Aleo, Fred Milano, and Carlo Mastrangelo were all friends from the area around Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. They attended Roosevelt High School and hung out together. They began singing together and named themselves The Belmonts after the street  on which Freddy Milano lived.  As a trio, they recorded for the Mohawk label in 1957, making their debut with the song, "Teenage Clementine.” Dion, who lived in the neighborhood, joined the group for the recording, “We Went Away.”  It was cut for Mohawk Records under the direction of conductor/arranger Hugo Montenegro.


The group moved to Laurie Records, newly founded by Bob Schwartz (who had been a part-owner of Mohawk) and his brother Gene and cut their label debut,  "I Wonder Why"  that made it to the top of the charts. It was followed by a pair of hits, "No One Knows" and "Don't Pity Me" that also made it to the top of the charts. "A Teenager in Love" made number five and further hits with "Where or When" and "When You Wish Upon a Star" elevated The Belmonts with Dion to a major worldwide act. Their vocal talent as a singing group was displayed prominently on all the recordings with their collective musical tastes ranging  from rock ’n roll to jazz, to country, to pop and blues. Of note is one particular performance at the Surf Ball Room in Clearlake, Iowa, the night on which Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper lost their lives in a plane crash. 

In 1960, Dion and The Belmonts went their separate ways.  The Belmonts continued to enjoy success on the stage as well as on the charts. The group remained with Laurie Records for one single, "We Belong Together,” and then formed their own label -- originally named Surprise, then Sabrina, and finally christened Sabina Records. The label became active (as Surprise) in March of 1961 with the recording of "Tell Me Why" which rose to the top of the charts nationally. The follow-up record late that summer, "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and the next release, "I Need Someone," also became chart hits. 


The Belmonts'  next hit record was their Sabina single, "Come On Little Angel," written by Ernie Maresca.  A major lineup change then occurred when Carlo exited The Belmonts in favor of trying to record solo for Laurie Records. The group replaced him with Frank Lyndon and released their next chart recording, “Diddley Dum,” while continuing to enjoy their busy stage career. 

In 1963 Warren Gradus, a studio musician/song writer, joined The Belmonts. and the group next became visible in the early '70s, amid the oldies boom. They cut an album for Buddah Records, entitled Cigars Acappela Candy, on which they performed several classic oldies tracks and also applied their sound to contemporary hits like "My Sweet Lord" and "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).”  In 1972, The Belmonts reunited with Dion  for a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden, which was not only a sell-out event but was also recorded for posterity in the album entitled Dion and The Belmonts Reunion Live at Madison Square Garden.  Milano, Mastrangelo, D'Aleo, Lyndon, Bank and Gradus were the participants in that performance, which was released on Warner Bros. Records.

01. Come On Little Angel  02:58
02. Don't Get Around Much Anymore  02:00
03. I Don't Know How To Cry  02:25
04. Have You Heard  02:56
05. Searching For A New Love  02:19
06. I Need Someone  02:33
07. Tell Me Why  02:29
08. How About Me  02:40
09. This Love Of Mine  02:24
10. That American Dance  02:46
11. I Confess  02:28
12. Hombre  02:22

+ Bonus Tracks

Dion and The Belmonts - Presenting "Dion and The Belmonts" (Great R/B, Doo Woop US 1959)


240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. En verklig klassiker med många hitlåtar. Släppt av det japanska skivbolaget "Oldays Records" i en starkt begränsad upplaga.)

1959's Presenting Dion And The Belmonts is the seminal debut album from the Italian American doo-wop group who got their start singing on the street corners of the Bronx. Revealing a musical soul that transcended the limitations of teenage pop (and foreshadowing group leader Dion Di Mucci’s future solo career), the release features such immortal rock and roll hits as “I Wonder Why” and “Teenager in Love,” still among some of the best examples of white vocal R&B to come out of New York in the '50s.

Rock & roll albums were something of a novelty, if not a rarity, in 1959 -- apart from Elvis's releases, few of them sold well, and most that were out there by white artists, apart from hits compilations, didn't always reflect well on the music. The debut album by the Bronx-based doo wop group holds up well, however, and is well worth hearing beyond the hits "I Wonder Why," "Where or When," "Don't Pity Me," and "A Teenager in Love." 

Albumets Baksida
The predominant subject is girls, no surprise as the work of an R&B vocal group in 1959, but there's amazingly little feeling of repetition on these 14 cuts, partly because the producers and the group did vary the sound. There are surprisingly successful attempts at a mild country sound ("You Better Not Do That") as well as pop ("Just You") and an amazing blues ("I Got the Blues") that reveals some of the real depth behind Dion DiMucci even at this early stage of his career -- he may have looked and sounded like a teen idol on some of those records, but he had a musical soul all of his own that transcended the limitations of teen pop; it also goes a long way toward explaining why he was responsible for some of the best white rock & roll to come out of New York during this period. It may not be in a league with Elvis Presley's first three albums as essential listening, but it is all well played as well as beautifully sung, showing off a prodigious array of talent from the group on down to the session players involved.

Dion Francis DiMucci (born July 18, 1939), better known mononymously as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles—and, most recently, straight blues. He was one of the most popular American rock and roll performers of the pre-British Invasion era. He had more than a dozen Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 60s. He is best remembered for the 1961 singles, "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer", written with Ernie Maresca.

Dion's popularity waned in the mid-1960s, perhaps due to the public's changing taste in pop music, and perhaps in part due to personal difficulties he had during this period. But toward the end of the decade, he shifted his style and produced songs with a more mature, contemplative feeling, such as "Abraham, Martin and John". He became popular again in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s, and he has continued making music ever since. Critics who had dismissed his early work, pegging him as merely a teen idol, praised his later work, and noted the influence he has had on other musicians.

Poster - Sunday, January 25, 1959
Dion was born to an Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York. As a child, he accompanied his father, Pasquale DiMucci, a vaudeville entertainer, on tour, and developed a love of country music – particularly the work of Hank Williams. He also developed a fondness for the blues and doo-wop musicians he heard performing in local bars and on the radio. His singing was honed on the street corners and local clubs of the Bronx, where he and other neighborhood singers created a cappella riffs.

In early 1957, he auditioned for Bob and Gene Schwartz, who had just formed Mohawk Records. They recorded Dion singing lead on a song which had been arranged by Hugo Montenegro and pre-recorded with everything but the lead vocals. The backing vocals were by a group called "The Timberlanes", whom Dion had never met. The resulting single, "The Chosen Few", was released under the name, Dion and the Timberlanes, and became a minor regional hit. Writing about this experience later, in his autobiography, The Wanderer, Dion said that that he had never met the Timberlanes and didn't even know who they were. "The vocal group was so white bread, I went back to my neighborhood and I recruited a bunch of guys --three guys-- and we called ourselves Dion and the Belmonts."

Bob and Gene Schwartz also signed Dion's friends, the Belmonts, (Carlo Mastrangelo, Fred Milano, and Angelo D'Aleo), a vocal group named for nearby Belmont Avenue, and teamed them, with Dion singing lead. The new group's breakthrough came in early 1958, when "I Wonder Why" (on their newly formed "Laurie" label) made No. 22 on the U.S. charts. Dion said of the Belmonts; "I'd give 'em sounds. I'd give 'em parts and stuff. That's what 'I Wonder Why' was about. We kind of invented this percussive rhythmic sound. If you listen to that song, everybody was doing something different. There's four guys, one guy was doing bass, I was singing lead, one guy's going 'ooh wah ooh', and another guy's doing tenor. It was totally amazing. When I listen to it today, often times I think, 'Man, those kids are talented.'"

Their initial hit was followed by "No One Knows" and "Don't Pity Me", which also charted the Billboard Top 100. This success won Dion and the Belmonts a place on the tragic "The Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) and other performers. On February 2, 1959, after a concert stop in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly and others decided to take a flight to the next venue rather than travel on the tour bus. Dion was invited to accompany the group but decided that he did not want to spend $36 for the flight, as it was the same monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment and he couldn't justify the indulgence. The plane crashed, killing all on board; Holly, Valens, Richardson, and the pilot Roger Peterson. Dion and the Belmonts continued on the tour, while Bobby Vee, then an unknown artist, performed in Holly’s place at the very next concert. Later, Jimmy Clanton, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian were added to replace the other now-deceased headliners.

Dion and the Belmonts' next single, "A Teenager in Love", was released in March 1959, eventually hitting No. 5 on the U.S. pop charts and No. 28 in the UK. The trio's biggest hit, "Where or When", was released in November of that year, and reached No. 3 on the U.S. charts. However, in early 1960, Dion checked into hospital for heroin addiction, a problem he had had since his mid-teens. Further single releases for the group that year were less successful. There were musical, personal and financial differences between Dion and members of the Belmonts, and in October 1960, Dion decided to quit for a solo career. By the time of their breakup, all eight Laurie releases had charted on the Hot 100.

01. I Wonder Why  2:20
02. Teen Angel  2:37
03. Where Or When  2:31
04. You Better Not Do That  2:31
05. Just You  2:45
06. I Got The Blues  2:45
07. Don’t Pity Me  2:36
08. A Teenager In Love  2:37
09. Wonderful Girl  2:13
10. A Funny Feeling  2:13
11. I’ve Cried Before  2:48
12. That’s My Desire  2:31
13. No One Knows  2:36

Gary Benson - The Concert (Pop/Rock Album UK 1973)


170:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva sedan länge.)

Gary Benson (born Harry Hyams, London) is an English singer-songwriter.

Benson spent eight weeks in the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with his own composition, "Don't Throw It All Away". The single, released on the State label (State Records STAT10), reached No. 20 in the chart, leading to an appearance on BBC Television's Top Of The Pops. 



The song had originally been recorded by The Shadows, and they had performed it in the 1975 A Song for Europe contest, where it finished fourth of six entries.


Benson had further attempts at winning the UK ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest, reaching the UK finals in 1977 with "After All This Time", performed by Wesley, Park and Smith, finishing fifth of 12; in 1981 with "All Cried Out", which he performed himself to place fourth of 8, and was later released on the WEA Records label; and in 1993 with "It's Just a Matter Of Time" performed by Sonia, finishing last of eight entries.

Benson's song "Let Her In", oddly credited to both Gary Benson and Harry Hyams, was recorded by John Travolta in 1975. 

Another of Benson's composition's, "Close To You", was recorded by Maxi Priest. In 1977, he composed and sang one of his sweetest melodies: "You" but never ranked in the UK charts.

01. Concert
02. Let Her In
03. Almost Forgot About Losing You
04. To Kill Another Day
05. Quiet Man
06. Safe Place To Live
07. Help Me Get Through
08. Sausalite
09. Best Things I Can Do
10. Closing Down Of The Old Porland Railway Company
11. No Guarantee