Release Date: 1968
Previously Owned: No
First Time Listen: Yes

Impressions: Many of these songs are so fully integrated into the landscape of oldies stations that they almost cease to be music. After I had trouble finding this actual collection on line, I eBay’d a CD. Let’s put it on… “There Goes My Baby” seems to follow their recipe: smooth doo-wop singing on top of sweet strings and proto-Phil Spector-esque Wall of Sound production, with a slighly shuffling, almost Latin beat. Ben E. King’s voice is instantly recognizable. I mean, these tunes are so well-known that more than half of the songs in this collection have been used as titles for movies! Still, “This Magic Moment”  and the sprightly “Save The Last Dance For Me” hold up pretty well. It doesn’t hurt to have top-shelf songs many written by legendary songwriting teams like Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman or Gerry Goffin & Carole King.  Weird that this collection holds up as well as it does even though they were put together by the head of the label and had a frequently-rotating cast of members. “Saturday Night At The Movies” really makes me want to go to a movie theater in the late ’50s/early ’60s. I’m glad I listened to the actual album, becuase I tried to cobble this together on Spotify and I got a few shoddy remakes and other poor versions of these songs. I’m surprised though, this collection won me over a little more than I thought. Some of these songs have been so played, rerecorded and overused through the years that it seems difficult at first to just enjoy them as music, but I guess it’s not the fault of the songs, right? Once I got over that, this stuff did alright.

Starred Songs: “Save The Last Dance For Me,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Up On The Roof,” “Under the Boardwalk,”
Sneaky Track: “Saturday Night At The Movies”
Should this album be on the list? Yes.

Will you listen to this again? Next time I’m in the car, at a wedding, or watching a movie… odds are I’ll hear these songs again
Verdict: Classic collection of ’50s/’60s doowop hits spiked with strings and subtle Spanish rhythms.

Rating:  ★★★1/2