This very well-mastered and choice reissue from
Collectables
assembles
Dee Clark
's first two long-players,
(1959) and
How About That
, both originally issued on the
Abner
label. The annotation is minimal, but the packaging is handsome and the sound is excellent, and there's not a bad song among the two dozen here, among which is included
Clark
's signature hit,
"Hey Little Girl."
But there's a lot more than that fine piece of
Bo Diddley
-based rock & roll to recommend this set --
put a lot into his LPs, in terms of range, and there's some old-style R&B (veering sharply toward blues), plus some excellent soul-flavored pop (including a
Gershwin
tune and a cover of
Sam Cooke
's
"It's Time to Say Goodnight,"
aka
"The Time Has Come,"
as it's listed here). And the singer provides a handful of pretty good originals, too, and to top it off, there's a conceptual piece called
"The Convention"
that's a superb three-minute account of how R&B and rock & roll made their way into mainstream music. ~ Bruce Eder