Fans of Bernie Lowe’s Philadelphia-based label, which fell into the hands of Allen Klein in the late 1960s, and from there into desuetude, were at least somewhat mollified by Abkco’s release of a four-disc Cameo/Parkway box in 2005, but that’s an awful lot to take at a single sitting, and the box unaccountably left off a lot of worthy tracks — Chubby Checker’s post-Twist quasi-folk material, for instance — so this is my own selection, in not-quite-chronological order, which ends in 1964 when Lowe sold out, and which includes tracks not included on the Abkco box. Scott Kovel took the cover photo: that’s the Schuylkill (“Sure-Kill”) Expressway westbound, from a couple of decades ago.

Track listing for 111092-2:

1. Charlie Gracie: Butterfly
2. The Rays: Silhouettes
3. John Zacherle: Dinner with Drac (Part I)
4. Bobby Rydell: Kissin’ Time
5. Chubby Checker: The Class
6. Bobby Rydell: We Got Love
7. The Applejacks: Mexican Hat Rock
8. Bobby Rydell: Wild One
9. Chubby Checker: The Twist
10. Bobby Rydell: Swingin’ School
11. Chubby Checker: Pony Time
12. Bobby Rydell: Volare
13. The Orlons: The Wah-Watusi
14. Chubby Checker: Let’s Twist Again
15. Dee Dee Sharp: Mashed Potato Time
16. Chubby Checker with Dee Dee Sharp: Slow Twistin’
17. Jo Ann Campbell: (I’m the Girl from) Wolverton Mountain
18. The Dovells: Bristol Stomp
19. Dee Dee Sharp: Gravy
20. Chubby Checker: Limbo Rock
21. The Orlons: Don’t Hang Up
22. Bobby Rydell: The Cha Cha Cha
23. Dee Dee Sharp: Ride!
24. The Dovells: You Can’t Sit Down
25. The Orlons: South Street
26. The Tymes: So Much in Love
27. Chubby Checker: Loddy Lo
28. The Orlons: Not Me
29. The Tymes: Wonderful! Wonderful!
30. Chubby Checker: Hey Bobba Needle
31. Candy and the Kisses: The 81
32. Chubby Checker: Lazy Elsie Molly

This entry was posted on Sunday, 25 September 2005, and is filed under New and Unreleased. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.