Another 30 rockabilly obscurities from Germany's Buffalo Bop label, led off by the delightfully brainless "Jugue" by Johnny Amelio, originally released on Blue Moon records back in the primordial days of rock & roll -- Amelio's even more raucous and less cerebral "Jo Ann -- Jo Ann" churns up the middle of this collection with his raw vocals and raunchy guitar. Paul Ballenger's "I Hear Thunder" is more subtle, and Bill Bell's 1959 "Little Bitty Girl" sounds like a salacious variation on "Peggy Sue" played by a band on battery acid. Whoever the Hudson Valley Boys were -- and one assumes they came from the northeast -- they put a slightly tamer but equally exciting take on "Stop! I Like It"; Leon Mack seems to have given more than one listen to
Chuck Berry's "Rock & Roll Music" before he came up with "It's You I Love"; similarly,
Billy Peek hitched his fortunes to Berry's style on the exquisite "Rock to the Top" -- a goal that he might not have achieved, but did demonstrate that he had the manic energy to try. The Creepers, by contrast, don't seem to have listened to much of anything (or to have taken many lessons) before they came up with "Jammin' Granny," a crunchy rocker with manic drums. Fred Carter's pumping, funny account of teenage life, "Freeloaders," may date from the same period as his 1959 singles "Look For Me" and "Love It Up," and rates at least as highly as those established genre hits. Some of the talent here seems a little shaky, in terms of what they bring to the table; "Kangaroo" is a good enough novelty-type rock & roll song, but Eddie Palace's voice is pretty formless and toneless even by the limited standards of this field. Ron Volz isn't much more impressive on "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," but he does coax some nice sounds out of his Fender Stratocaster. And then there's Grady Lewis, a rockabilly original who was making records in 1956, and moves through his own "I've Got a Feelin'," a slowie originally issued on the National label that still sounds like a hot record not quite 50 years after it was cut, and ought to have rated right alongside Carl Perkins' best work of 1956. Leon Mach evidently thought
Elvis Presley was a more appropriate model for his work, emulating his early RCA vocal sound on "You Hurt Me So." And
Bob Baker sounds like
Jerry Lee Lewis' twin on the funny, rippling "Turned on the Ice," which could almost pass for a
Gene Vincent number based on its sheer wildness. Charles Senns is another Lewis clone with a beguilingly larger-than-life macho presence on "Gee Whiz Liz," from 1958. Jerry & the Capris may not sound like a rockabilly act, but they were the real thing, on the Glendale label, who left behind a rock hillbilly rocker called "Dancing Dan." Darwin Nelson, a raspy-voiced screamer who sounds like a young, white
Howlin' Wolf, fronted a five-piece band that included Paul Lynch on lead guitar, and they both shine (Lynch not long enough) on "Lazy Lu." Gradie O'Neal (who is sometimes credited as Gradie Joe O'Neal") is a little less interesting but no less exciting on "Baby 'Oh' Baby," which is one of the few less-than-first-rate sounding cuts here, and a shame, because it slightly obscures the extended guitar break. And then there's "Teenage Party" by Bobbie & Bobbie, a totally generic piece of teen rockabilly with a frantic performance and beat -- of course, if it matters, which Bobbie is singing and which is playing what is anyone's guess.
Lattie Moore's "Skinnie Minjie Shimmy" is probably the best record here, and the one that ought to have charted nationally; it's derivative of some obvious sources, to be sure, but Moore has the style to put it over. Of course, not everything here is rockabilly, or even close to it. Among the other highlights, Lee Rand's "You Know," ornamented with some hiccup-type vocal accompaniment and a sax break, manages to fit in despite being a ballad; "Race With the Devil" is an amazingly effective teen-pop rocker, not too far from
Richard Rodgers' and
Lorenz Hart's "Blue Moon," with a great beat, neatly manic rhythm guitars, and catchy hooks and doo wop-style choruses by crooner Johnny David. The sound on all but three or four of the songs is just about state of the art, and even those exceptions are eminently listenable. As always, there are no notes to speak of, but some really cool pictures of some of the musicians.