Land of 1000 Dances [Ace]

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Recorded between 1958 and 1965. Contains 30 tracks. Thirty-song compilation of big and small hits from 1958-1965 based around a rock & roll dance. Although it's imperfect and the smaller, more obscure hits simply aren't as good as the familiar smashes, it's about as good an anthology of the sort as you're going to get, due to the length and quality of the presentation. How to argue with "The Loco-Motion," "Ride Your Pony," "Peppermint Twist," "Walking the Dog," "Cool Jerk," "Twist and Shout," "The Monkey Time," "The Nitty Gritty," "Let's Dance," "The Walk," "The Monster Mash," "The Stroll," and Cannibal and the Headhunters' version of "Land of 1,000 Dances"? You also get almost a dozen cuts that hardly show up on any collections, like Russell Byrd's "Hitch Hike Part 1," Ray Barretto's "El Watusi," Al Brown's "The Madison," Tony and Joe's "The Freeze," and Steve Alaimo's "Mashed Potatoes," which add some enticement to the collection even if they're not among the disc's musical highlights. Presumably because of licensing restrictions, some obvious contenders from the Cameo-Parkway catalog are not here, like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time." ~ Richie Unterberger

Record Collector (magazine) (p.100) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "This collection quite rightly begins with Hank Ballard's original hit, whizzes through Joey Dee & The Starlighters' excellent 'Peppermint Twist,' and delivers The Top Notes' Phil Spector-produced original of 'Twist & Shout'..."

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.25