Tops Top Hit Tunes (Tops 45-S61/62; 1960, and Tops S-67/68; 1961)--Hal Sherman, Ace Checker, The Toppers, Chubby Davis

 

DOWNLOAD: Tops S-67-68; Tops S-61-62 (1961; 1960) 

(Note: The track marker between Dream Baby and Norman was in the wrong place; I've corrected this as of 5:12 pm.)

We're back to the "modern" world of vinyl, and so today's offerings are only seven decades old.  Someday, I might risk getting even closer to the present--say, 30 or 40 years.

1960 was the year that Bob Blythe took over Tops, and you definitely want to follow the link to the Wikipedia entry on Bob, which reads like a comedy short.  About three years later, Tops was sold to Pickwick.  So it goes, sometimes.  There was obviously quite an art to succeeding in the junk-label market, so no shame in bombing out. I didn't have time to do track comparison on these, but I'm almost sure Baby Sittin' Boogie and Blue Moon are the same masters used by Promenade (SPC) and the Hit Parader and Song Hits labels (Charlton Publications).  Also, probably, the Canadian Arc label.  In fact, all twenty of today's tracks may have shown up in the catalogs of these three or four outfits, as there was a lot of crossover happening between them.  Somehow, though, I don't feel like spending two hours testing my hunch.  Maybe later, when I'm in a properly obsessed mode.

I was surprised by how fun and catchy most of these numbers are (I'm sure they're even moreso in their original versions), since I guess that, at some point in my life, I digested the standard narrative that the period between Elvis and the Beatles was a kind of Top 40 Dark Age.  It's true that 1960 and 1961 was a time of same-sounding clinking-triplets ballads and twist numbers, not to mention some especially dumb novelty sides (Pop-Eye, anybody?), but these are fun, lively sides, and anyone who denounces Pony Time or Duke of Earl as too dumb for rock--that person has apparently forgotten about such classic-era gems as Hang On Sloopy, Mony Mony, The Jolly Green Giant, and Bread and Butter.  I mean, can something like Pop-Eye possibly out-dumb those numbers?  A great subject for a serious (and intense) debate.

Anyway, I had looked at the tracklists (most of the titles being "before my time"), and I thought, "Uh-oh.  Too many twist numbers."  An exact quote.  So I'm very pleased by the variety and energy.  Some of these are especially well done (well-faked?), while others miss the mark with weak lead vocals, but then you're getting ten songs for a buck (a dime a track), so stop complaining.  In fact, this was part of a set for which I paid $9.99, so for once I got these for something lower than the original cost (if we consider the disc-by-disc cost of the group).  And I love that ridiculous pose at the top--it has a "Look happy, or else" quality to it.

The before-the-Beatles period was packed with great stuff, of course--I'd hate to be without Duke of Earl and the Marcels' Blue Moon (Richard Rodgers' opinion aside).   Interesting numbers, in that nearly everything hinges on bass-voice riffs.  These two are part of a genre regarded by some as a second doo-wop wave--as something not authentic.  "Authentic" is too relative a concept to bother with, imo, but I can understand the purists' concern in regard to this brand of R&B vocal singing, insomuch as it has formed the public impression of the form--as opposed to, say, the early-1950s work of The Clovers, The Dominoes, or the Harptones.

Anyhow, today's stand-out tracks, to me, are The Watusi, Duke of Earl, Break It to Me Gently (great job!), Blue Moon (uncannily good cover), I Don't Want to Cry (which I first heard in the excellent 1970 version by Illustration), and What's Your Name.  (There was actually a hit called Dear Lady Twist??)  These are from a very interesting transitional period in pop, and one that still operates in the shadow of the Brit Invasion, which is too bad.  I mean, the Beatles followed, in part, from Carole King (in their songwriting), the girl groups (in many of their vocal harmonies), the basic "Ringo" beat (which is present in much pre-1963 rock), and so on.  The Fab Four obviously liked Burt Bacharach, too, or they wouldn't have recorded Baby It's You, but you had to be Brian Wilson to even halfway succeed at going the Burt route (as with Brian's I Guess I'm Dumb, a magnificent song which went nowhere).  Brits loved Burt many years before the U.S. caught on.

The 1960 tracks (set S61/62) all feature "The Toppers," who are at the top of their game.  At least, no one got goofy and dubbed them the "Cake Toppers" or something.  They were strictly a play on the label name.  Who were The Toppers?  Whoever they could get for a given session, I'm sure.

By the way, I loved the chance to type "Tops Top Hit Tunes."  It looks like a typing error, which is cool.  Er, well, typing errors aren't cool, but it's cool when something looks like a mistake but isn't.  And, the more I think about it, I'm not sure why.

These are all "Vocals & Orch.," in case someone was expecting a string quartet.

You'll be a new person after listening to this.  In terms of cell regeneration, I mean.

PLAYLIST

Tops S-67/68 (1961)

Duke of Earl--Hal Sherman
The Wanderer--Ace Checker
Dear Lady Twist--Timmy Bonds
What's Your Name--Sandy Mitchell
Pop-Eye--Huey Drake
Break It to Me Gently-Brenda Scott
Love Letters--Patsy Williams
Slow Twistin'--Mary Marlowe
Dream Baby--Roy Smith
Norman--Barbara Parker

Tops S-61/62 (1960)

The Watusi--Paul Wilson and The Toppers
Blue Moon--Bill Burnette and The Toppers
Good Time Baby--Bobby Warwick and The Toppers
Once Upon a Time--Dick Thomas and The Toppers
Apache--The Toppers
I Don't Want to Cry--Chuck Wallace
Baby Sittin' Boogie--Buzz Crawford and The Toppers
Please Love Me Forever--Sunny James and The Toppers
Pony Time--Chubby Davis and The Toppers
Where the Boys Are--Connie Samuels and The Toppers

Lee