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This 26-track compilation isn't just The Very Best of Eugene Church. It has most of what this rock & roll journeyman recorded, from his doo wop roots in the mid-'50s to his early-'60s singles for the King label. Church was ultimately a fair but minor R&B-leaning early rock & roll singer, with nothing else up to the level of the biggest and best of his four chart hits, the much-covered "Pretty Girls Everywhere." That 1958 pop Top Forty hit opens this anthology, naturally, and it's got a hip-strutting boogie that Church simply couldn't match again. He kept trying, however, with an assortment of singles for the Class, Rendezvous, and King imprints, with a competently average period late-'50s sound, somewhat similar to his Los Angeles peer and labelmate Bobby Day. The problem is a common but inescapable one: many of the songs stick to a standard early rock & roll melody and chord progression, and hence don't stick with the listener. He was nonetheless proficient at grinding out likably sung, upbeat material. However, it was only on 1961's "Mind Your Own Business" -- with its mildly tough-minded lyric, jerky beats reminiscent of the Olympics' hit "Hully Gully," and a snarling stop-start chorus -- that he approached either the quality of chart success of "Pretty Girls Everywhere," this single making the R&B Top 20. Ending the CD are five more doo wop-rooted sides he was involved with prior to "Pretty Girls Everywhere" on Modern (on tracks credited to the Cliques) and Specialty, as well as a previously unissued alternate take of his 1959 single "Miami." ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide |
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