This is a pretty fair representation of what popular music had become on the eve of the birth of rock & roll as a popular phenomenon. Amid established artists such as
Kay Starr,
Nat King Cole,
Kitty Kallen, and
Tony Bennett are such upstart performers as
Bill Haley (making his first lasting national impact with "Shake, Rattle & Roll," and artists such as the
Crew Cuts ("Sh-Boom"), starting to put forth music that's got a more distinctly youthful thrust. There's lots of schmaltz here, most especially
Eddie Fisher's "Oh! My Pa-Pa," and
Tony Bennett's "Stranger in Paradise" -- the
Bill Haley track in the midst of all of that vocal pop is the musical equivalent of a slightly tipsy, swaggering, and seemingly uncouth interloper at an otherwise fairly sedate party; and anyone who wasn't around for this particular pop culture party will get a pretty good idea of precisely how much of an impact "Shake, Rattle & Roll" had on the world of music in
Haley's hands from listening to this CD; it just makes you want to jump up and dance. There's no annotation, but the story sort of tells itself, and the sound is good, too. And rock & roll fans who grew up with the
Jay & the Americans' version of "Cara Mia" may marvel at what seems like the ultra-slow rendition by
David Whitfield and
Mantovani.