Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956

With so many labels and so many CD's, you'd think it would be easy to find all the top hits from the fabulous 50's. Not so! To remedy this musical misfortune, Hit Parade Records inaugurates their new year-by-year CD series with Hard To Find Jukebox Classics 1956. This exciting, audiophile-quality disc is bulging with 24 classic pop, vocal group, folk, and early rock 'n' roll hits. All these platters made the Top 40 - sixteen hit the Top 10, three made it all the way to #1 - but just try and find these terrific songs today!

Hard To Find Jukebox Classics 1956 includes eight songs never available on CD till now, including Fess Parker's "Wringle Wrangle" (#12), Dorothy Collins' "My Boy - Flat Top" (#15), and the stereo single version of Morris Stoloff's #1 smash, "Moonglow & Theme from 'Picnic'." Others, like the Cheers' tragicomic "Black Denim Trousers" (featuring Bert Convey) or Tony Bennett's rapturous "Can You Find It In Your Heart " are very difficult - if not impossible - to find on CD these days.

Hit Parade Records is a new Canadian label dedicated to finding, restoring, and preserving lost treasures like these. Exclusively distributed in the United States by Eric Records, Hit Parade employs many of the same creative folks who lovingly compile those great Eric CD's - including Greg Adams, whose detailed liner notes with biographies of all the artists will fascinate you for almost as long as the full hour it will take you to listen to Hard To Find Jukebox Classics 1956! And, don't miss Hit Parade's other great collections, Fabulous Fifties Divas and Fabulous Fifties Crooners as well as The Complete Original Hits Of Georgia Gibbs. Album Description

give them ALL a spotlight--Jerry Lewis excepted, of course...

Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956 is one of those precious CDs that give us so much great music that is sadly overlooked or just plain forgotten these days. There is a lot of music that never made it from vinyl to CD and this CD proves a lot more music should have made the move to CD long ago. The quality of the sound is excellent and the artwork is very nicely done, too.

Jim Lowe's "The Green Door" starts things off; this catchy tune has a great melody that's very playful. Jim and his buddies harmonize to perfection; and Jim never sounded better! You just may recognize this oldie once you hear it; the name didn't ring a bell with me but when I heard it I recognized it instantly. "The Green Door" is an excellent song. Chuck Miller contributes "The House of Blue Lights;" "The House of Blue Lights" is a peppy little tune with great early rock and roll sounds mixed with just a touch of doo wop to make this number shine! "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" by Somethin' Smith & The Redheads really sounds great; the guitar work is excellent and these guys give this tune the royal treatment for sure! I love it.

The Dream Weavers sing and play "It's Almost Tomorrow" with great sensitivity; and this tune moves me with its message and its beauty. The Dream Weavers were quite a group and this torch song is absolutely wonderful. Why doesn't this get more attention these days? It's another excellent tune. "True Love" is presented her in stereo; Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly sing this sweetly and the melody fits well with the lyrics to the song. Similarly, Vic Damone does a great job with "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady. Listen also for "Can You Find It in Your Heart" by a young Tony Bennett; Tony sings this with grace; his excellent diction and his uncanny sense of timing impresses me and the music makes good use of the brass. On the other hand, Jerry Lewis' "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is sinful; they should have omitted this awful rendition from this CD. Ouch! Thank goodness the rest of the numbers are sublime.

"Tonight You Belong to Me" by Patience and Prudence is a remarkably pretty tune that I have always enjoyed; these two young sisters sang on a few albums together during their brief career in show business. "White Silver Sands" by The Owen Bradley Quintet has a fine arrangement and I really like "White Silver Sands." There's also "Cindy, Oh Cindy;" this tune by Vince Martin and The Tarriers has an early rock flavor mixed with folk rock to create a very special effect. "Rock Island Line" by Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group has a distinctly country feel to it; and the CD ends very strong with Kay Starr singing "The Rock And Roll Waltz." "The Rock And Roll Waltz" is an excellent tune and Kay Starr never sounded better!

Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956 gives us much to enjoy. This is great for people who like the "oldies" and early rock and roll music. It's also great for people who want to have a more complete library of great music from the 1950s.
June 7, 2008

Agree!

I agree with previous reviewers, but would like to emphasise that most of these tracks are probably rare. So often oldies compilations mine the same vein, and the same songs reappear over and over again. The vast majority on this comp are new to me, and there is very little overlap with the contents of the Time Life Hit Parade series disk for the same year.

I hope there will be more volumes forthcoming :) June 18, 2007

Another gem

Once again Eric/Hit Parade records has produced another great CD. As always the sound quality is superb and the liner notes complete. As always there are lots of, as the title says, Hard to Find great songs from the fifties, in this case specifically 1956. While many of the songs are top tens there are a couple of lesser rated gems such as Wringle Wrangle by Fess (Davey Crockett) Parker and My Boy-Flat Top by Dorothy Collins. Highly recommended. May 15, 2007

Total Bliss!!

I didn't realize just how much I missed some of these tunes. My Boy Flat Top by Dorothy Collins and Wringle Wrangle by Fess Parker (TV's Davy Crockett) were both boyhood favorites. The sound is as fresh and clean as I've ever heard on 50 year old recordings. You also get Green Door by Jim Lowe and 21 others to help take you down memory lane. Thi CD is a must for those of us on the leading edge of the Baby Boomer generation. March 12, 2007

A veritable smorgasbord of hard to find mid-fifties pop favorites

Hats off to our friends at Canada's Hit Parade records. They have come up with real winner here!! "Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956" features two dozen of the most pleasing pop tunes from that era. And many of these songs are appearing on CD for the very first time! In all cases these are the original hit recordings you would remember from the radio. No disappointing re-recordings on this one! Even though I have been a collector for more than 40 years there were still 7 or 8 songs on this disc that I did not own!! For me, this collection was a real find.
"Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956" features hits by some of the premiere vocalists in American popular music. Enjoy once again Vic Damone's splendid recording of "On The Street Where You Live" from "My Fair Lady". That one always sends chills up and down my spine! One of the big hits of 1956 was Bing Crosby's duet with Grace Kelly. "True Love", featured in the motion picture "High Society", went all the way to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of that year. I was also extremely pleased to find a pair of hits by Tony Bennett that have been out-of-print and virtually impossible to find for decades. "Can You Find It In Your Heart" and "From The Candy Store On The Corner To The Chapel On The Hill" were both big sellers that year. If you enjoy that rockabilly sound then Chuck Miller's Top Ten smash "The House of Blue Lights" will certainly float your boat. And fans of group harmony will appreciate tunes like Somethin' Smith and the Redheads recording of "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie" or the Highlights "City Of Angels". For me, perhaps the biggest surprise in this collection was the remarkable Jerry Lewis recording (yes, that Jerry Lewis)of Al Jolson's 1918 hit "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody". I cannot imagine that Lewis was much of a singer, but his voice proved to be perfect for that song. While I have always been aware that this tune hit the Top Ten back in '56 I had never heard the song before nor had I ever seen the 45 rpm record.
I could go on and on but suffice to say that if this is your kind of music then you should grab this one immediately. It has been my experience that collections like this tend to have a fairly short shelf life so if you procrastinate you may miss out. "Hard to Find Jukebox Classics 1956" features a very informative 12 page booklet featuring photos and biographical information on many of these artists. Simply stated, this disc is a joy to listen to. Very highly recommended!!! January 25, 2007

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