The Golden Age of American Popular Music, Vol. 2

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: City Hall

Notes: Liner Note Author: Peter Grendysa. Like the first volume in this series, this is something of a spinoff from the concept driving Ace Records' long-running Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll series, which branched out from rock & roll into country, novelty, and folk hits (also covering the era approximately stretching from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s). More than the first volume, however, The Golden Age of American Popular Music, Vol. 2 gathers pop hits from that era that weren't really related to rock & roll or any sort of American roots music, or only tenuously so at most. Some of these 28 tracks, nonetheless, transcended labels to make it onto rock & roll oldies stations' playlists, like Jimmie Rodgers' "Secretly," Gene McDaniels' "Chip Chip," Steve Lawrence's "Go Away Little Girl," and Nino Tempo & April Stevens' "Deep Purple." It's no accident, perhaps, that these are the biggest and best of the hits featured on this 28-track compilation, which concentrates mostly on lower-charting items -- though quite a few of these were solid Top 40 entries -- that have pretty much been forgotten, even by collectors specializing in this era of pop music. But there are still some pretty good other songs here, like Bobby Darin's "18 Yellow Roses" and Kitty Kallen's oft-covered "My Coloring Book," and some oddball selections with pretty interesting stories behind them, like actor Richard Chamberlain's "Theme from Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight)" (which actually made the Top Ten) and "Utopia" by Frank Gari (who actually wrote and recorded with Roger McGuinn shortly before McGuinn co-founded the Byrds). Much of the rest is featherweight pop, in many cases by well-known singers like the Lettermen, Anita Bryant, Ronnie Dove, Buddy Knox, Johnny Nash, Ruby & the Romantics, Brian Hyland, and producer Bob Crewe (whose "The Whiffenpoof Song" seems intended to emulate Bobby Darin's style in "Mack the Knife"). ~ Richie Unterberger

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