Bang Goes My Heart

The era of the '50s wasn't the beginning of secular male African-American groups; in the '30s, and brought the energy of the black church to secular lyrics. But as big as those groups were in the '30s and '40s, it was during the era that non- black groups became truly ubiquitous. wasn't a major-league player in '50s , but the small independent label did fairly well with ' 1955 version of 's output (including ) is the focus of , which released under ' name but is actually a various-artists compilation that focuses on five different vocal groups -- not only but also , (not to be confused with either the East Coast group that gave listeners or the Scottish who emerged in the '80s), and an unknown mystery group. None of these groups were as big as , or , but the material (which spans 1954-1957) is generally likable -- and that includes songs that actually released in the '50s as well as recordings that went unreleased until (which owns the catalog) assembled this compilation in 2002. In fact, about half of the tracks didn't see the light of day before the release of . Those who have a casual interest in would probably be better off starting out with an all-star compilation that contains smashes like ' although serious collectors will find this 67-minute CD to be interesting and enjoyable. ~ Alex Henderson