Carl Mann managed a one-million-selling single with his rock & roll interpretation of Nat "King" Cole's "Mona Lisa," and then spent years rocking up familiar oldies in an attempt to duplicate that success. He stayed with the formula for way too long, but the rock & roll recordings he made are enjoyable, mild rockers vaguely reminiscent of Ricky Nelson. Mann switched to country in the mid-'60s, briefly signing with Monument and then ABC in the '70s, but never recaptured his early success. Mona Lisa is nearly a complete recordings collection, beginning with Mann's first single on Jaxon, all of his Sun and Phillips recordings, his Monument and ABC sides, and a lot of non-commercial demos from his country phase. Four decent solo sides by his longtime guitarist, Eddie Bush, are included as well. The bottom line is that Mann's country material is fairly pedestrian, and it comprises half of the set. The two discs of rock & roll recordings are very good, but single-disc anthologies would satisfy 99 percent of listeners. Consequently, Mona Lisa is even more of an artifact for hardcore fans than many of Bear Family's other box sets.
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