Various Teen Expo - The Cleopatra Label (2-LP)

(Numero Group) 26 tracks, gatefold cover.

From a basement in New Jersey, Tommy Falcone transformed himself into a DIY Phil Spector. From 1962 to 1970, he founded and ran Cleopatra Records, discovered and mentored young Garden State talent, wrote songs and produced wild studio effects, and quit his job to promote it all himself.

Trained as an accordionist, Falcone had a swirling imagination and an all-consuming approach to the genre, expressed through acts like The Centuries, The Tabbys, Johnny Silvio, The Inmates, Bernadette Carroll, The Hallmarks, Vickie & the Van Dykes, The Shandillons, Eugene Viscione, The Shoestring and more. Cleopatra became a time capsule of every imaginable 1960s pop style - garage rock, psychedelia, surf, girl groups, soul, novelty, exotica, even a crooner - a kaleidoscope of sound in search of the eternally blatant hit.