Platinum & Gold Collection

's gathers up 12 of the legendary performer and songwriter's hits from the early '60s. the performer had a pleasingly innocent voice and a charmingly dorky persona that helped make some of these songs timeless classics. As a songwriter he had a knack for composing instantly memorable melodies that would have been hits no matter who was singing them. The first three songs on are his three biggest early hits: and are classic , influenced by and easily hummed by everyone from little kids to grannies. The rest of the disc is in the same easygoing vein: cute ( ), dramatic ( ), and dreamy ( ). The cuts that may surprise casual fans are the wild rocker which contains the immortal lyrics (courtesy of collaborator ) "Ranga-tanga-ling-ting-tong/I'm related to old King Kong," and the fairly tough-sounding -style which features some wonderfully sassy female-backing vocals. This disc is 30 minutes of easygoing, wholesome, and supremely melodic pleasure. The only thing that wrecks the fun is the knowledge that put out in 2001, which covers the exact same territory as ; in fact, the two collections share 11 songs. has a total of 14 songs, contains the wonderfully titled and retails for less money, so get it instead. ~ Tim Sendra