Anyone who thinks that doo wop music had a corner on obscure releases should check out the Buffalo Bop catalog: 500+ rockabilly songs and counting. This 30 song compilation has more than the usual number of slow songs ("Bon Bon Baby" by Jerry Coulston, "Cool Cool Baby" by Lafayette Yarborough, "Rock and Roll Fever" by Graham B) amid its frantic rockabilly classics. It opens with its strongest number, the self-penned "Kool Kat" by Bill Sherrell, originally issued on the Tyme label; he also contributes the second-best number here, "Rock on Baby," with its rippling virtuoso piano solo leading into a hot ride on the guitar fret-board. Art Adams' "Rock Crazy Baby" gives over a surprising chunk of its running time to superior guitar playing by his band, the
Rhythm Aces, and "Dancing Doll" features the group's drummer way up front. "Imogene" by
Don Ray, issued on Rodeo, is a little more country-tinged to make it straight rockabilly, but it passes muster here thanks to the twangy lead guitar. The set gets back on form with
Joe Montgomery's driving "Cool Cat." Nat Couty's "Woodpecker Rock" is too much of a novelty number to stand on its own, and even though he co-wrote it, one wonders how much Couty was really able to put into his imitation of the familiar '40s pop-number's opening laugh. Lee Cole's "Cool Baby" is one of the hotter numbers in the series, a sort of rockabilly equivalent to Little Richard's "She's Got It." Malcolm Parker's "Come Along with Me" is one of the better pieces of '50s southern rock & roll you'll ever hear, with distinctly vivid lyrics and a strong sense of setting. The Van Brothers' "Servant of Love" could also pass as a country single, but for the rippling, twisted guitar break. T. K. Hulin's "Little Bitty Boy" and "Minus One-Blast Off" by an outfit called the Sonics are among the few tracks that betray less-than-ideal source material in this series. The Hulin piece and Phil Irwin's "Pizza Pie" are too much in the spirit of teen novelty numbers to really rate a solid place here with some of the hard-charging rockabilly surrounding them. And Jimmy Hutton's "Cool Cats" is the most unusual number here for its instrumentation, which includes a trumpet on the break and the finale.