Various Fabulous Fifties Instrumentals & More (CD)

(Hit Parade Records) 29 tracks

Back in the ’50s when radio really was king, the competition was so fierce you could hear a single great melody by as many as half-a-dozen artists – all vying for supremacy of the airwaves. Such was the bounty that the weekly Billboard and Cash Box charts became battlegrounds watched with rapt fascination by young music lovers. To the victors go the spoils, however, and today it’s hard to find anything but the winners of those battles on CD – the versions ordinary record labels perceive as the most popular. No longer!

On Hard To Find Jukebox Classics: Fabulous Fifties Instrumentals & More, over 15 of these so-called “cover” versions make their long overdue CD DEBUT along with 14 more charting pop and orchestral instrumentals of the era – many in stereo, which was brand new at the time. There hasn’t been an album release in a decade with as many Top 40 songs that have never before been on CD!

In this incredible full length CD packed with over 72 minutes of truly fabulous music, you’ll discover honky-tonk, Dixieland, stirring marches and sweeping cinematic scores. The performances include beautiful trumpet, clarinet and piano solos, plus swelling vocal choruses – thus the “and more” in the CD title.

Fabulous Fifties Instrumentals & More features a generous lineup of choice hits (15 of them Top 20). But Hit Parade Records also pairs up artists’ hits so you don’t have to buy multiple collections to get the songs you want. Fabulous Fifties Instrumentals includes two of Mitch Miller’s biggest hits, Crazy Otto’s only two hits, and three of David Carroll’s biggest (including his Top 10 “Melody Of Love”).

Terrific value + superb, audiophile digital quality remastering! An incomparable selection of 29 songs lasting over 72 minutes and a fact- and photo-filled 12-page booklet featuring a 3,500 word essay by music writer Greg Adams.