The Golden Age of American Rock ‘N’ Roll, Volume 1

ACE Records bills itself as “Kings of the Reissue Market,” and after listening to this first volume of their ever-expanding Golden Age of American Rock and Roll Music series (eight volumes so far) it’s hard to argue with their claim. They do an impeccable job of covering pre-British Invasion American rock and roll during the years 1954 to 1963. All the more amazing is that ACE is a British label.

All tracks are mastered from “the finest tapes still surviving” and rather than recycle the hits that everyone hears over and over, ACE chooses to focus on the small independent record labels. The first five songs are from the Rust, Tuff, Soma, Coed and Dunes labels–not exactly household names. But these are terrific songs. All but one (the Genies’ “Who’s That Knocking”) made it to the Top 30, and over half went Top Ten. But these are not artists with a long track record of chart success. More than half of these were one-hit wonders, and only five of these acts placed more than two songs in the Top 40. However, all this really means is that these were hugely popular songs, but most of them don’t get played on Classic Rock radio stations.

Sure, there are some exceptions–the Kingsmen’s garage band classic “Louie Louie” (the only real rock song here), the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” and Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin” (both of which sold over a million copies), but when was the last time you heard Ron Holden’s “Love You So” or the Safari’s “Image of a Girl” on the radio? These were Top Ten songs. As were “Cindy’s Birthday” by Johnny Crawford (the kid actor from “The Rifleman”), “When We Get Married” by the Dreamlovers, and “My True Story” by the Jive Five.

In addition to the excellent song selection, each volume in this series has a 20 page-plus booklet with photos and information on the songs and the artists. Plus you get 30 songs. (That’s less than 50 cents a song!) This series is truly a delight. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED