ALBUM REVIEW

Such A ROCK AND ROLL Night - BUNNY PAUL -
(Hydra CD # BCK 27117)

Nowadays Bunny Paul is best known as a footnote in any good discography of the Harptones' recordings. In 1954, while the Harptones were under contract to Morty Craft and Monte Bruce's Bruce label, Craft and Bruce "lent" them to Dave Miller's Essex label (of early Bill Haley fame) to sing background for a couple of tracks by Bunny Paul. The end product was Essex #364 - I'll Never Tell b/w Honey Love, just about the only Essex record sought by R&B fans.

This 2002 production from Germany's Hydra label gives you these "Harptones" tracks, plus 29 other songs by Ms. Paul. The enclosed booklet provides extensive liner notes and pictures, as will as a complete Bunny Paul discography. The only question is whether or not you need to acquire this CD.

To be thoroughly fair about the matter, we note that Ms. Paul did manage to get 3 tunes into the Billboard charts - Magic Guitar, Dot #15107, October 1953; Such A Night, Essex 352, March 1954; and Lovey Dovey, Essex 359. June 1954. The first two peaked at #23, and the last at #24. We must also add that at this time the Billboard charts only listed a "Top 30" or less. Magic Guitar is not in this compilation, but it's flip side Never Let Me Go, is included.

However of her three "chart" hits, two were covers of R&B numbers - the Clovers' Lovey Dovey and the Drifters' Such A Night, the latter of which was more successfully covered in the "white" market by Johnnie Ray. So by and large, as becomes more apparent from some of the tracks listed below, Ms. Paul fits neatly into the same bag with Georgia Gibbs, Gale Storm, Pat Boone, and all the rest of the "white sheets" who "covered" R&B for the "vanilla" market, and, like them, also recorded a number of "pop" tunes.

Ms. Paul hailed from Detroit, not Texas as has been stated in a few places, and started her career in the 1940s as a local "band" singer in Peoria, Toledo and Detroit. She began recording with Detroit's local Vargo label in 1948, cut for Dot (1953), Essex/Somerset (1953-54), Capitol (1955), Dash (1956), Point (1956), Dynamic (1956), Brunswick (1957), Roulette (1958-59), and finally for Gordy in 1963. At least one track from each label is found on this CD. The notes in the booklet ascribe the Somerset track to a "single," but it was strictly an LP cut, Somerset being an "album" subsidiary of Essex.

Her voice is pleasant, but not really distinctive enough to build a national fan base. There's just nothing really "unique" in any of the 31 tracks on this CD. Still, it's OK "easy listening" if you're in that kind of mood. AND it's an easy place to find those 2 "Harptones" tracks.

Track listing:

1. Such A Night - Essex #352 (1954)
2. New Love - Essex #344 (1953)
3. Honey Love - Essex #364 (1954)
4. I'll Never Tell - Essex #364 (1954)
5. Lovey Dovey - Essex #359 (1954)
6. I'm Gonna Have Some Fun - Essex #352 (1954)
7. You Came A Long Way From St. Louis - Essex #371 (1954)
8. Answer The Call - Essex #359 (1954)
9. Watcha Gonna Do - Somerset LP #1300 (1954)
10. Two Castanets - Capitol #3109 (1955)
11. Leave My Heart Alone - Capitol #3109 (1955)
12. Baby Sitters Blues - Dash #777 (1956)
13. Teen Age Heart - Dash #777 (1956)
14. History - Point #5 (1956)
15. Sweet Talk - Point #5 (1956)
16. Tell The Man - Capitol #3224 (1955)
17. Take A Chance - Capitol #3224 (1955)
18. Please Have Mercy - Capitol #3074 (1955)
19. That's Love - Dynamic #201 (1956)
20. The Gypsy - Dynamic #201 (1956)
21. Beedle Lump Bump - Brunswick #55022 (1957)
22. Poor Joe - Brunswick #55003 (1957)
23. Buzz Me - Brunswick #55003 (1957)
24. Never Let Me Go - Dot #15107 (1953)
25. Love Birds - Roulette #4101 (1958)
26. We Wanted To Marry - Roulette #4101 (1958)
27. Such A Night - Roulette #4186 (1959)
28. A Million Miles From Nowhere - Roulette #4186 (1959)
29. We're Only Young Once - Gordy #7017 (1963)
30. I'm Hooked - Gordy #7017 (1963)
31. Sentimental Rhapsody - Vargo #29031 (1948)

Copyright � 2003 - Doo Wop Gino

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Last updated 8 June 2003.

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