The Story

構成数 : 1
合計収録時間 : 00:59:09
EMI Plus' budget-priced The Story series presents straightforward, no-frills compilations of major rock artists with catalogs in the EMI vaults, accompanied by CD-ROMs containing brief biographical information (in English, Dutch, French, and Spanish), discographies consisting of album titles and dates of release, and a photo gallery. The Dion & the Belmonts volume contains the 23 Billboard Hot 100 singles chart entries made by the group and their lead singer between 1958 and 1968 that were released originally on the Laurie Records label. This means that only the first nine tracks are actually by Dion & the Belmonts, since Dion split from the group (who began recording for another company) in 1960. It also means that six other chart singles that Dion made for Columbia Records in the period 1963-1964 are not included. The tracks are presented in the order they were released as singles, which is not quite chronological, since Laurie belatedly pulled two songs, "Sandy" and "Come Go with Me," from Dion's 1962 LP Lovers Who Wander, for release as singles in 1963 after his defection to Columbia. But both of the big Dion & the Belmonts hits, "A Teenager in Love" and "Where or When," are included, along with such Dion solo smashes as "Runaround Sue," "The Wanderer," "Lovers Who Wander," "Little Diane," and "Love Came to Me." By using any chart entry, even ones that barely charted, the set reveals the singer's tendency to make carbon copies of his hits as follow-up singles, though some of them are nearly as enjoyable as the more familiar ones. The album naturally closes with the stylistically out-of-place tribute song and comeback hit "Abraham, Martin and John," a thoughtful folk-rock number from 1968, though most of the album is drawn from the late '50s and early '60s. ~ William Ruhlmann