Mainly Rock & Roll

This 32-song compilation stretches from 1954 to 1962 -- from their chart-topper through their flirtation with rock material in the late '50s and their final discs in the early 1960s. The liner notes view as a link between and the girl groups of the rock era, and while there's some truth in that, undoubtedly owe much more to . The rock & roll flavor in some of their hits sounds more like a nod to necessary incorporation of commercial trends than genuine inspiration. The pop material is executed with a cleanliness that is both impressive in its virtuosity and innocuous, even a little sterile, in a family-entertainment sort of way. Still, this has all that almost anyone will need to hear by the group, including all of their big hits and many misses. For a while in the late 1950s they dipped into the rock & roll repertoire often, with covers of (the lyric changed to "He's just a lonely boy" for gender compatibility), 's and with unimpressive results. even have on sax, resulting in the raunchiest (relatively speaking) tracks. actually isn't bad. ~ Richie Unterberger