Like needles and pins, people say, she's been making out okay...

One of the biggest fallacies is that the only good pop music after the rock-n-roll breakout mid-fifties and the psychedelic late sixties was either Brit Invasion or Motown. Not true. Doo-wop, evolving from the primordial music ooze which by way of groups like the Crew Cuts and the Platters helped bring rock music and soul music together. And doowop, like girl group music, was not all cookie-cutter lovey-dovey ditties. In flashes of greatness, many artists contributed classic songs to the American songbook.

One of those groups were Little Anthony & The Imperials. Coming from New York City, and led by the appropriately diminutive Anthony Gourdine, the Imperials first hit in 1958 with the classic "Tears On My Pillow", making the US top 10 pop chart on their first try. After a bunch more minor singles, they left End Records for DCP Records. With the guidance of Teddy Randazzo, the group hit the trifecta with three classic soul songs, "I'm On The Outside (Looking In)", "Goin' Out Of My Head", and "Hurt So Bad", hitting the R&B top 10 3 for 3 (and 2 for 3 on the pop top-10). After that, their releases were less and less successful, though not diminishing in quality, and the Imperials faded into oldies-circuit notoriety.

The Best Of Little Anthony & The Imperials (EMI, 1996) focuses on the singles from the DCP, Veep, and United Artists labels from 1964 to 1970, passing up on the "Tears On My Pillow" phase. However the songs picked out for this set work well as a cohesive summary of their orchestral-soul period. Starting off with the classic three songs mentionned above, it packs quite a wallop from the beginning. Anthony's powerful yet mournful voice matched up with the sweeping strings and horns in the background swell up so emotion over the lyrics, all relating the pain in a love unreturned. In fact even the next three singles, "Take Me Back", "I Miss You So", and "Hurt" mine the same territory, to a good but lesser degree. Apparently then it probably was thought not good to be so mopey, but instead took a harsher tack with songs like "Better Use Your Head" and "Gonna Fix You Good" (bitter, eh?). This collection is filled out with such good soul tunes as "It's Not The Same", "Out Of Sight Out Of Mind" and "Help Me Find A Way". Even tacked on is the least hokiest version of "The Ten Commandments Of Love" around.

It would be great to hear "Tears On My Pillow" (or there near-miss-hit "Shimmy Shimmy KoKoBop") on this CD, and there are collection that include them, but the sound and remastering on this set is worth it for the fans of 60s soul and pop. Pick it up if you can get it.

Grade: B+
Best Cuts: "Goin' Out Of My Head", "Hurt So Bad", "I Miss You So"
Weakest Link: the weird "Careful Driving" radio spot. yank that for "Tears On My Pillow".

To pick up a copy of The Best of Little Anthony & The Imperials you can go to websites like here and here.

"I'm On The Outside (Looking In)" hit #15 pop and #8 R&B.
"Goin' Out Of My Head" hit #6 pop and #6 R&B.
"Hurt So Bad" made #10 pop and #3 R&B.
"Take Me Back" made #16 pop and #15 R&B.
"I Miss You So" hit #34 pop and #23 R&B
"Hurt" hit #51 pop.
"Better Use Your Head" hit #54 pop (in 1966) & #42 in the UK (in 1977)
"It's Not The Same" made #92 pop.
"Out Of Sight Out Of Mind" made #52 pop and #38 R&B.
"The Ten Commandments Of Love" hit #82 pop.
"Help Me Find A Way (To Say I Love You)" hit #92 pop & #32 R&B.

To listen to the classic track "Goin' Out Of My Head" you can click here to download (right-click to bring up another window).

and click here to see the awesome live performance from TV of my fave, "Hurt So Bad" (It's one of my top 10 songs of all time). Whoever says these type of groups are fabricated has to watch this. And below is a "revival" concert video of the song. He hasn't lost it at all.