The Best of Guy Mitchell

The CD definitely sounds like they've used masters for the tracks, thankfully. It was part of a series of sorts in 1996 on Columbia of "Best Of"s . The other two issues that year which are close in style are by Johnnie Ray and Rosemary Clooney, both popular in pre-rock, post-war Britain like Guy was. Amongst the backdrop of the doom and gloom his music provided a happy antidote.

The packaging of the CD is 'acceptable'. You get writer info which is essential when wondering who the heck could write such songs? - but no info on recording dates, not even years. They're easy to find though, in fairness, and this is a budget CD, in both price and poor info in sleeve.

The music itself then. The CD covers Guy's recordings for US Columbia from 1950-59, his most prolific and famous period. It contains all his UK hits except one double-sided hit at the tail-end of his chart career over here, and the pre-chart (the UK chart didn't start until November 1952 - Guy's Feet Up! was #5 on the first chart) era of his solo recording history is represented well, with six of his nine sheet music chart hits from then on this CD. It starts with his double-sided US hit The Roving Kind / My Heart Cries For You.

He was discovered in 1950 by Columbia A&R man/producer Mitch Miller, who firmly stamped his mark on all the songs here. It's most noticeable on those early pre-rock hits, when Guy scored smash after smash in Britain largely with those catchy, novelty Bob Merrill compositions. Key features of Miller productions, and other Columbia artists of the time, were hand-clapping, and the Miller orchestra (complete with French horn) and chorus. Some of the early songs are so full of gimmicks that after hearing several of them you may think they all sound the same. They may have those features in common, but they are all still good, catchy songs. Give them a chance! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that Bob Merrill songs generally have the theme of following one's lover round the world to exotic locations.

She Wears Red Feathers, Chicka Boom, Feet Up!, Look At That Girl and Cloud Lucky Seven are my faves of the early numbers. Just one or two listens to those 'novelty' songs on the CD and they'll be imprinted on your mind, and you'll realise Bob Merrill and Mitch Miller are geniuses! Their and Guy's talents combined scored two #1s in the early UK pop charts of 1953 - She Wears Red Feathers and Look At That Girl - an impressive 10 weeks at #1 in total that year.

Guy's other 'style' was quasi-country, with hints of skiffle, rockabilly (we'll come back to that in a second) and rock 'n' roll. He had two #1s as a result of this, the first of which was Singing The Blues in early 1957. It was #1 three times during it's UK run, toppling Tommy Steele whose more skiffle (as opposed to Guy's overproduced Miller production) version knocked off Guy's first week at the top. I must confess to preferring Steele's as it sounds a bit tighter. Guy's is a little dull really. Kudos to him for covering a country (Melvin Endsley) song and making it big though - another Miller brainwave. You get the flipside to Singing The Blues, Crazy With Love, here too, a minor US hit. Typical of the usual light, fluffy love song oft-used as flipside material, but likeable. The follow up record, Knee Deep In The Blues, Endsley-written as well, charted highly in the UK, reaching the top 5 - but in my opinion is little more than a pointless rehash of the earlier #1, which I didn't like much anyway. So skip 'Knee Deep'.

Thankfully he then came out tops a month or two later with a tune called Rockabilly. This is Mitch Miller-produced pop, so its unlikely to be authentic rockabilly music, but it's catchy as hell and a deserved chart-topper.

His next chart hit was a double-sided here: In The Middle of a Dark Dark Night and Sweet Stuff. Both are good songs, and should be here despite not making the top 20. His next a few months later did slightly better, going top 20 - Call Rosie On The Phone is a likeable example of catchy teen-pop circa-'57. His final UK hit came over two years later with the classic Heartaches By The Number. Again, a successful country cover, this time of Ray Price. Guy's recording was a US #1, like Singing The Blues, although I like this song much more, surely thanks to Miller's sterling production work - appearing to have transformed it into a near-Merrill singalong number. It slowly rose to peak at #5 here, and then Guy all but faded into the sunset, hit-wise.

This CD gets 4 stars, because it covers his hitmaking period very well, and the songs typify the catchy novelties of the early 50s, before Elvis arrived. The CD loses a star for only using up 60 of 79 minutes on the CD. Sony, while this does a great job of encompassing the hits that made him famous in Britain, he released many more singles. Some of those would have been a good addition. Perhaps a 'Singles Collection' set, like with the recent Johnnie Ray one, would be good.

A happy slice of clean 1950s fun.

This is a-typical of popular music of the 50s and 60s, before the Beatles and Motown, and pirate ship radio, arrived to shake things up in the UK. Soppy love-song ballads ("Crazy With Love"), folksy rockabilly ("She Wears Red Feathers", "Pretty Little Black Eyed Susie"), and boy scout campfire stuff (Chicka-Boom").

All his top twenty hits are on this collection, and they are all the original recordings, in mono and a little variable in sound quality, but considering they're over 40 years old they are very peppy. It's great nostalgia, perhaps a little too much all in one sitting, but great nevertheless, and they don't write songs like these any more - can you imagine the reaction to a title like "Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-Po)?