Archives

The Poet I & II (CD)

A career pinnacle for Bobby Womack was achieved in the 1980s with the release of the albums THE POET and THE POET II. These evocative records yielded numerous hits including “Where Do We Go From Here,” “Secrets,” “It Takes A Lot of Strength To Say Goodbye,” “Love Has Finally Come At Last,” “Tell Me Why” “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” and others. “If You Think You’re Lonely Now” was the basis for Mariah Carey’s #1 hit “We Belong Together.” Womack has also recorded Snoop Dogg, Rod Stewart and host of other top names. ABKCO Records has released both albums as THE POET I & II, combined on one CD and in their original album format as THE POET I and THE POET II for digital release.

Temptation: Music From The Showtime® Series Californication

If you’ve been jonesing for David Duchovny and his steamy hit series Californication, ABKCO Records can address your hankering in a hugely musical way. You can covet, caress and otherwise spend your days (and nights!) together with this sexy soundtrack from the debut season of Showtime’s critcally acclaimed Golden Globe Award winning series that is the very definition of “hot.” Californication can be had any way you want it- a physical CD or download it to your person music device and satisfy yourself in private- it can be your own little secret garden of sound. In this instance, you can get what you want…and need! Have a look and listen to this irresistible set of tasty tracks including new and classic cuts by The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Elton John, My Morning Jacket, Warren Zevon, Steve Earle and many others tuned-in to scratch your sonic itch.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix)- As Featured in the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture 21

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Soulwax Remix)” was created specifically for the 2008 Columbia Pictures’ film “21” starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey.

Soulwax (a duo consisting of brothers David and Stephen Dewaele) are best known for their influential contributions to the pop genre under the names Flying Dewaele Brothers and 2 Many DJ’s, as well as their landmark record “As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt 2.” The brothers have also released several major albums under the Soulwax name; their 2004 album “Any Minute Now” yielded three hit singles. The duo has produced a number of successful remixes with artists as diverse as LCD Soundsystem, Robbie Williams, Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Einstürzende Neubauten.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” long a staple in The Rolling Stones’ live repertoire, is noteworthy for the participation of the London Bach Choir in the sessions that took place over two days in November 1968. The song was included in the band’s “Let It Bleed” album, released in 1969.

Columbia Pictures’ action/adventure “21” is inspired by the true story of the very brightest young minds in the country – and how they took Vegas for millions. Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a shy, brilliant M.I.T. student who – needing to pay school tuition – finds the answers in the cards. He is recruited to join a group of the school’s most gifted students that heads to Vegas every weekend armed with fake identities and the know-how to turn the odds at blackjack in their favor. With unorthodox math professor and stats genius Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) leading the way, they’ve cracked the code. By counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, the team can beat the casinos big time. Seduced by the money, the Vegas lifestyle, and by his smart and sexy teammate, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Ben begins to push the limits. Though counting cards isn’t illegal, the stakes are high, and the challenge becomes not only keeping the numbers straight, but staying one step ahead of the casinos’ menacing enforcer: Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne). The film is directed by Robert Luketic. The screenplay is by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. The film is produced by Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey, and Michael De Luca.

The Rolling Stones (Soulwax Remix) of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is the first track on Columbia Records’ “21” motion picture soundtrack. The soundtrack album also includes music from MGMT, LCD Soundsystem, Rihanna, D. Sardy featuring Liela Moss, Amon Tobin, Peter Bjorn and John, Junkie XL featuring Electrocute, Get Shakes, The Aliens, Knivez Out, Domino, UNKLE, Mark Ronson featuring Kasabian, and Broadcast.

The Darjeeling Limited (Original Soundtrack)

Director Wes Anderson’s much anticipated film The Darjeeling Limited from Fox Searchlight stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Angelica Houston and offers one of the most eclectic soundtracks of contemporary films. The film, the story of a cross country train voyage by three disaffected brothers, is set to the music created by legendary Indian director Satyajit Ray for his own films as well as music from Merchant Ivory’s early Indian films. The soundtrack also includes music by the Kinks, Peter Sarstedt, French pop singer Joe Dassin as well as the Rolling Stones. In the liner notes to the album, Anderson comments on the use of the music from Satyajit Ray and Merchant Ivory films, “I am very happy to have been allowed to use the music from these films, which cast such a spell over me, and I hope it will do the same for you in this new context.”

Cameo Parkway : The Greatest Hits

Album Review by Richie Unterberger, AllMusic.com:
When much of the Cameo Parkway label catalog finally got reissued on CD, this 25-track compilation gathered most of the biggest hits the company had issued between the mid-’50s and mid-’60s. The label’s biggest stars — Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp, and the Orlons — are all represented here by several tracks apiece, with one or two by less prolific chart artists like the Dovells, the Tymes, the Rays (their one-shot doo wop classic “Silhouettes”), Charlie Gracie (the rockabilly-pop hit “Butterfly”), and ? & the Mysterians (their 1966 garage rock chart-topper “96 Tears”). It’s true there’s no strong musical theme that unites this material, which encompasses pop-soul, early teen idol smashes, the most popular twist records ever made, rockabilly, and even (with John Zacherle’s “Dinner with Drac, Pt. 1”) novelty. It’s also true that there might be room for some debate over the track selection, which misses some notable Cameo Parkway hits like Checker’s “The Fly,” Gracie’s “Fabulous,” and Rydell’s “Forget Him” and “Kissing Time.” And the package certainly could have done with at least a short liner note, instead of offering nothing but credits and chart positions. Still, there are many good pop/rock hits here, including quite a few very famous ones, like Checker’s “The Twist,” the Dovells’ “Bristol Stomp,” Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time,” the Tymes’ “So Much in Love,” and the Orlons’ “South Street.” You can get some more music by the artists on the single-artist anthologies and various-artists box set of Cameo Parkway material that ABKCO released around the same time. But for those who don’t want to go that far, and/or are primarily concerned with finally getting a lot of big hits that eluded CD reissue for decades, this is a good accumulation/sampler of the label’s most popular efforts.

The Best Of Charlie Gracie 1956-1958 (Original Hit Recordings)

Charlie Gracie is usually categorized as a rockabilly singer, though his style was a far cry from the frantic wailing of Charlie Feathers, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, or the other true masters of the form. Gracie had great pipes and could make with a variety of vocal acrobatics in the rockabilly manner, but his material had a polish that was akin to the later teen idols who came out of his home town of Philadelphia, and his records lack the giddy danger of the Southern masters, instead suggesting a place where benign teen pop tried to catch up to what Elvis brought to the charts. Despite all this, Gracie made some fine records during his brief fling with fame, and this disc features 20 sides committed to tape during his tenure with Cameo Records in the 1950s, where he enjoyed his biggest hits. While Gracie would have been served better with more songs like the Elvis-styled “Fabulous,” the easy but energetic “Cool Baby,” and the swaggering “Just Looking,” even glossier and less rockin’ tunes such as “Butterfly,” “Plaything,” and “Yea Yea (I’m in Love with You)” make it clear this guy was miles ahead of Pat Boone, Fabian, and other pretty boys who were starting to clutter the charts around the same time. Given Cameo-Parkway’s longtime embargo on CD releases, this is the first digital-era collection of Charlie Gracie’s best and best-known work, and while this confirms he wasn’t a major artist, there is some pleasing first-era rock to be heard here, and one imagines Gracie could have stayed in the spotlight a few years longer if he’d gotten the treatment his voice deserved.

 

Album Review by Mark Deming, AllMusic.com

The Best Of Bobby Rydell 1959-1964

Album Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.com:
Abkco’s 2005 collection The Best of Bobby Rydell: Cameo Parkway 1959-1964 is the first time Rydell’s biggest, best hits have been issued on a legitimate CD and while this is a long overdue release — it’s hard to believe that it took 20 years into the CD revolution for this and other Cameo Parkway recordings to be released — it is a very well-executed collection. At a generous 25 tracks, this has all of Rydell’s big hits — “Kissin’ Time,” “We Got Love,” “Sway,” “Wild One,” “Volare,” “Good Time Baby,” “The Cha-Cha-Cha,” “Forget Him” — along with a good selection of smaller hits and his better singles. Much of this does sounded dated — it’s teen idol from the early ’60s, so it’s no surprise that it sounds like its time — but that’s part of the fun of this music: it evokes its time and while some of the backing vocals are a little overblown and some of the songs are a little silly, it still remains an infectious good time. Rydell’s best songs are on the four-disc Cameo Parkway 1957-1967 box set which was released earlier in 2005, so anybody that has that set may not need to dig deeper into his back catalog, but listeners wanting more of one of the biggest teen idols of the early ’60s will find plenty to like on this disc.

The Best Of Dee Dee Sharp 1962-1966

Album Review by Tim Sendra, AllMusic.com:
Dee Dee Sharp reached the big time with the novelty hit “Mashed Potato Time” in 1962, while the follow-up, “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes),” hit the Top Ten as well cemented her status as a novelty singer. As The Best of Dee Dee Sharp 1962-1966 shows, despite being unfairly remembered as such she in reality was a powerful singer blessed with a wonderfully clear voice. Indeed her soulful and direct style makes even the silliest song (“Do the Bird!,” “Baby Cakes”) sound real and gives the better songs here (“Just to Hold My Hand,” “Why Don’t You Ask Me”) an extra kick. That she never really had a hit after the “Mashed Potato” saga meant that Sharp and Cameo-Parkway tried different sounds and styles, looking for that elusive next smash. Sharp sounded at ease with every style, lightly bopping through dance numbers like the slinky “Let’s Twine,” the hard-hitting girl group sound of “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Nothin’,” the gospel soul of “Rock Me in the Cradle of Love,” the silky Chicago-styled soul of “(That’s What) My Mama Said,” and the proto-Philly soul of “I Really Love You.” At least one song, the bouncy and nearly perfect Motown facsimile “There Ain’t Nothing I Wouldn’t Do for You,” should have been a huge smash, and many others should have gotten more than just a toe on the charts. It wasn’t for lack of talent. Both Sharp and her collaborators, who included Bob Crewe, Carl Davis, Kenny Gamble, and Leon Huff, were loaded with the stuff. Whatever the reason, Sharp isn’t usually on the list when great female singers of the ’60s are discussed. Perhaps this collection, the first to put the spotlight on her Cameo sides, will help to change that. Even if it doesn’t, fans of the ’60s girl sound will be overjoyed to finally have a legitimate Dee Dee Sharp collection.