Johnny Crawford The Complete Hits Of Johnny Crawford (CD)

(Hit Parade Records) 26 tracks

Everybody remembers Johnny Crawford as earnest young Mark McCain on the TV western The Rifleman starring Chuck Connors. Fewer of us, no doubt, remember that Johnny got his first big break in show business at the tender age of nine as one of the original Mouseketeers on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club. But how many remember Johnny Crawford as a hitmaker and hearthrob?

Well, he was! Crawford scored eight Billboard Top 100 singles for Del-Fi Records beginning in 1961 at the height of the The Rifleman’s success. Hit Parade Records’ new CD, The Complete Hits of Johnny Crawford, has all of them and a whole lot more – 26 tracks of sweet teen pop adding up to over an hour of expertly mastered listening!

In addition to hits like the 1962 #8 smash “Cindy’s Birthday,” “Your Nose Is Gonna Grow” (#14, 1962), “Rumors” (#12, 1962), and “Proud” (#29, 1963), you’ll hear Johnny assay hits of the day like the Fleetwoods’ “Mr. Blue” and pop standards like Sinatra’s “In The Wee Small Hours.” Complete Hits includes many b-sides from his singles and cuts from all three of his Del-Fi LPs. And, finally, you’ll hear a long-lost duet with Johnny’s brother Bobby – “Good Buddies,” an Everly Brothers-styled track written by the fabled team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

It would be easy to dismiss Johnny as a “teen idol” – he was, after all, just 15 when he debuted on the charts, and this was the era of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Johnny sounded young, certainly, but his voice was sweet and confident, and Del-Fi – best known for rockers like Ritchie Valens – astutely framed Crawford’s boy-next-door vocals with rich, orchestrated arrangements that belied both his age and his close association with a western TV show.

Johnny Crawford’s music has been reissued before, but it’s all out-of-print and fetches high prices on the collector’s market. Hit Parade’s Complete Hits of Johnny Crawford not only restores it to the marketplace, it reveals it more clearly than ever with brilliantly remastered sound and true stereo whenever possible. Don’t miss this chance to hear some of the most appealing pure pop records of the early ’60s!