Keep 'Em Coming, Bill Buster
Back in 2002, one thing I shared with many other completist collectors of hit singles from the 1950s and 1960s was ever seeing a CD version of the George Cates version of Moonglow And The Theme From "Picnic."
I wrote to Bill Buster of Eric Records about that [and several others in the "impossible-to-find" category] sometime later that year, and within a few weeks he called me and we had a nice conversation about the frustrations of those of us trying to find CD versions of some long-lost hits.
Now whether or not that conversation had anything to do with this Volume appearing on the market I can't say - but I was so happy to see, not only the Cates version of that song, but Raymond Lefevre's The Day The Rains Came, and Nelson Riddle's hit "Route 66" Theme in its original format. Thank you Bill Buster and keep them coming please.
All the other selections in this compilation are appreciated as well, from those that charted [performances are shown on the reverse], to the non-hits [tracks 8, 11, 19, and 20] which, when you hear them, will leave you wondering WHY they were not hits themselves. Especially Franck Pourcel's rendition of Chariot (I Will Follow Him}, the vocal version of which was, of course, a huge hit for Peggy March in 1963.
Normally, the best such compilations around come from Ace Records of London, but this Hard-to-Find series produced by Bill Buster stands right up there with them. Not only for the music, but for the great liner notes in each set as well, in this instance six pages written by one of the best around, Joseph E. Laredo. And, as usual, the sound quality is excellent.
For the record, seven of the 20 selections [tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, and 17] were originally Top 40 hits, another six [tracks 6, 7, 9, 14, 15, and 18] made the Top 100, and tracks 4, 10, and 16 were all on the "bubble under" Billboard charts. A bit of interest was in finding that Sir Chauncey & his exciting strings [track 6] was, in reality, Ernie Freeman of Raunchy fame.
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