Feline Groovy: 24 Purrfect Tracks For Kool Kats

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: Infinity Entertainment Gr

Notes: U.K. label Ace Records is home to some of the best early rock-era vault-raiding reissues and compilations. This imaginative collection culls the best kitty-themed rock songs of the 1950s and '60s. As connoisseurs of cool are well aware, cats and rock music go together like, well, fishheads and milk, as evidenced by the slinky "Top Cat Theme," the hoppin' Mongo Santamaria instrumental "El Pussycat," the ultra-cute "Love Kitten" by '60s teenybopper Noreen Corcoran, and 21 more hot tracks. Here's a concept bound to endear Ace Records to cat lovers around the world: two dozen songs that have something to do with the cats, even if it's just the use of the word "cat" in an instrumental, all from between the mid-'50s and mid-'60s. There might be more R&B here than anything else, but it's a canny mixture of blues, soul, rock & roll, folk, folk-rock, jazz, and even a bit of pop, country, and British Invasion. Just a couple of these were pretty big hits (Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?" and Norma Tanega's "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog"), and though the Coasters' ultra-hip B-side "Three Cool Cats" and Little Willie John's "Leave My Kitten Alone" are pretty well known, you'd have to have an incredibly deep and eclectic collection to have heard all of these tunes. Of course if you like cats at all, you'll be predisposed to like much of this. But by any standard, these are pretty fun and good-humored songs, grin-raising even when the songs and performers themselves aren't all that hot. Some pretty estimable artists weigh in with their takes on the cat world via New Orleans soul legend Lee Dorsey's "The Kitty Kat Song," organ jazz maestro Jimmy Smith's "The Cat," country star Sonny James' "The Cat Came Back," Latin jazz great Mongo Santamaria's "El Pussy Cat," and bluesman Charles Brown's "If You Play with Cats." Yet some of the most fun songs are the more obscure and frivolous ones, like Rene Hall's strange exotica-cum-rock & roll on "Cleo"; LuAnn Simms' silly novelty "The Siamese Cat Song," a guilty pleasure co-written by none other than Peggy Lee; a vocal version of Bent Fabric's hit "The Alley Cat Song" (by David Thorne); and Noreen Corcoran's "Love Kitten," one of the best flop Phil Spector-styled girl group singles ever. The brief theme song from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat tops off a comp you'd have to be a real die-hard dog person not to like. ~ Richie Unterberger

Record Collector (magazine) (p.105) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Let there be no doubt that there are some very fine tracks here....The whole cat-cophony is tied up with the theme from TOP CAT..."

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