The Velvets The Complete Velvets (CD)
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- catalog number: CDCHD625
- weight in Kg 0.1
The Velvets: The Complete Velvets (CD)
The Velvets didn't conform to any of doo wop's norms.' says sleevenote writer Bill Millar They hailed, not from New York, but from Odessa, where the Texan panhandle meets the rest of the state. In the age of streetcorner amateur, they made records as polished as their patent leather shoes. Lead singer Virgil Johnson, the Velvets' Mr Sheen, didn't overdose when the hits stopped, he had aspirations outside music and never gave up his day job. Weirdest of all, the Velvets barely dabbled in R&B. LIke their mentor, Roy Orbison, they sang songs which straddled that increasingly invisible line between country and pop. The Velvets and Roy Orbison shared the same producer in Fred Foster and the same session musicians in Nashville's A-Team. In essence, the Velvets dusted Orbie's sombre, bel canto agonies with a faint but cheerful shot of proto-soul.Performing locally at sock-hops and campus functions, The Velvets were heard by Roy Orbison who was so impressed with them that he recommended the group to Fred Foster at Monument Records. Their second release Tonight took them into the Billboard Hot 100 at # 26 (UK chart at # 50) and, as Millar says, is as perfect as black pop music would get. The follow-up Lana, though it barely dented the American charts, went to No 1 in Japan! The Complete Velvets features all the singles they made through until 1966 plus all of the thirteen previously unreleased sides which have only been available on Japanese vinyl and CD. As befits such a group of oh-so-smooth singers, the tracks are transferred from original analogue master tapes.
Article properties: The Velvets: The Complete Velvets (CD)
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Interpret: The Velvets
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Album titlle: The Complete Velvets (CD)
- Year of publication 1996
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Genre Doo-Wop
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Label Ace Records
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Artikelart CD
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EAN: 0029667162524
- weight in Kg 0.1
| Velvets, The - The Complete Velvets (CD) CD 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Tonight | The Velvets | ||
| 02 | Time And Again | The Velvets | ||
| 03 | Spring Fever | The Velvets | ||
| 04 | That Lucky Old Sun | The Velvets | ||
| 05 | Laugh | The Velvets | ||
| 06 | Lana | The Velvets | ||
| 07 | The Love Express | The Velvets | ||
| 08 | Don't Let Him Take My Baby | The Velvets | ||
| 09 | Let The Good Times Roll | The Velvets | ||
| 10 | The Light Goes On, The Light Goes Off | The Velvets | ||
| 11 | Crying In The Chapel | The Velvets | ||
| 12 | Dawn | The Velvets | ||
| 13 | Here Comes That Song Again | The Velvets | ||
| 14 | Nightmare | The Velvets | ||
| 15 | If | The Velvets | ||
| 16 | Let The Fool Kiss You | The Velvets | ||
| 17 | Baby The Magic Is Gone | The Velvets | ||
| 18 | Be Ever Mine | The Velvets | ||
| 19 | You Done Me Bad | The Velvets | ||
| 20 | Kiss Me | The Velvets | ||
| 21 | Alicia | The Velvets | ||
| 22 | Bird Dog | The Velvets | ||
| 23 | My Love | The Velvets | ||
| 24 | Who Has The Right | The Velvets | ||
| 25 | I'm Trusting In You | The Velvets | ||
| 26 | Almost But Not Quite | The Velvets | ||
| 27 | Husbands And Wives | The Velvets | ||
| 28 | I Can Feel it | The Velvets | ||
| 29 | Poison Love | The Velvets | ||
| 30 | That's Out Of My Line | The Velvets | ||
The Velvets featuring Virgil Johnson
Tonight (Could Be The Night)
Odessa, Texas was as far from doo-wop central as you could get, but that's where Virgil Johnson found his Velvets. Born December 29, 1935 in Cameron, Texas, Johnson's resume was hardly typical. He graduated from Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, then taught English at Blackshear Junior High in Odessa. He recruited The Velvets from his student body in November of 1958 after hearing tenor Clarence Rigsby and bass Mark Prince singing as a duo. First tenor Robert Thursby and baritone William Solomon were next into the ranks. Virgil sang lead tenor himself.
In an area where country music and rockabilly were king, there couldn't have been too many venues other than their own campus to perform at, but somehow Roy Orbison heard the group and recommended them to Fred Foster, his boss at Nashville's Monument Records. Foster had no black vocal groups at Monument, so Roy's tip paid dividends. Fred named them The Velvets, overlooking a Harlem outfit by the same name that had cut I for New York-based Red Robin Records in 1953.
Recording with the same Music Row A-Team that backed everyone from Brenda Lee to Elvis (augmented by strings), The Velvets entered RCA Studios and waxed their Monument debut, a zippy revival of Frankie Laine's dramatic '49 smash That Lucky Old Sun complete with a Boots Randolph sax solo that was coupled with an Orbison/Joe Melson-penned ballad, Time And Again . Though it didn't chart in the U.S., British audiences sent That Lucky Old Sun to #46 for a week in May of '61 (from the start, Virgil got featured billing on the label).
Foster held Virgil's upbeat Tonight (Could Be The Night) for The Velvets' encore outing, and it proved irresistible. The strings cascade, The Velvets add ringing "doo-wops," and Johnson's clear tenor is delicious. It was a #26 pop seller in the spring of 1961 (U.K. record buyers preferred its predecessor; Tonight only made it to #50 across the pond). Orbison's Spring Fever graced the B-side.
Orbison and Melson wrote both sides of The Velvets' third Monument outing: Laugh edged into the pop hit parade for a week at #90 in October of '61, while Roy would cut his own enchanting version of Lana (Johnson said The Velvets' rendition was huge in Japan). The group had another half-dozen Monument singles stretching into 1965, but their inability to tour due to Virgil's teaching duties and the youth of The Velvets didn't help their dwindling sales. A car crash killed Rigsby in 1978. Johnson was the principal at a Lubbock high school for 25 years.
Various Street Corner Symphonies 1961 Vol.13
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/various-street-corner-symphonies-1961-vol.13.html
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