Little Eva: The Complete Dimension Recordings

Collectables' The Best of Little Eva features her smash "The Loco-Motion," her follow-up hits "Keep Your Hands off My Baby" and "Let's Turkey Trot," as well as less-distinctive songs that are enjoyable but don't play to her strengths in the ways that her best-known songs do. Songs like "Where Do I Go?" and "Get Him" attempt to recast Little Eva as a more conventional girl group singer, while "Swinging on a Star" and "Old Smokey Loco-Motion" attempt to capitalize on her biggest hit with diminishing returns. "The Trouble With Boys," "What I Gotta Do (To Make You Jealous)," and "Makin' With the Magilla" come closest to matching the heights of her best work, but just don't have as much fun and dance-ability as "The Loco-Motion." Llll-Little Eva!: The Complete Dimension Recordings is the definitive Little Eva collection, but The Best of Little Eva provides all of her hits and enough interesting misses to make it a worthwhile retrospective as well. ~ Heather Phares