The Very Best Of (50th Anniversary) - Joe Brown Album Review

Joe Brown

Album Review

1962 / 1963 voted Top UK Vocal Performer (MNE) - now he's back with his 50th Anniversary CD release. Joe Brown was the first pop star I saw live. He was part of a pantomime in Birmingham back in the early 60's that included Sid James and Dick Emery, so this collection brings back many happy memories.

At one time, The Beatles supported Joe Brown.

It was, apparently, the idea of the Fab Four's manager Brian Epstein to get bigger exposure for the band. So who better to latch onto than crew- cut Joe Brown an established UK act, regarded as Britain's first guitar hero. Joseph Roger Brown (born May 13, 1941) began his career with his band The Spacemen in 1956 (later rechristened The Bruvvers) and went on to record as a solo artist and with his band in the 60s, becoming a household name and a highly respected guitarist. He effectively followed Lonnie Donnegan's skiffle genre and broadened its appeal, with his recent performance of I'll See You In My Dreams on Later...with Jools Holland (Friday 8 Feb) and also performed at the George Harrison Tribute Concert which brought the house down, confirming his enduring popularity. Because of his versatility, able to play fiddle, acoustic electric guitars, ukulele, mandolin he was much in demand, guesting for Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Johnnie Cash.

This collection mixes original songs with 2008 recordings. It's not a singles collection as such, because of his 11 charted releases only 7 make the cut here. After signing with Decca records he released a unique cover version of Shelton Brooks' Darktown Strutters Ball in 1960. Unique, as it was originally a Jazz standard inspired by the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition in San Francisco.

In 1961 he briefly went to Pye for one single Shine, done here as a 2008 reworking, followed by a run of seven singles on Piccadilly from early '62 September 1963.This collection opens with the introductory pomp of his third single What A Crazy A Crazy World (We're Livin' In) by Alan Klein, sounding more like The King of Skiffle (Donegan) himself. Brown hit the big-time with the Mersey Beat sounding Picture Of You, peaking at 2 and 19 weeks on chart. It sounds just as great today. Klein provided Brown with his penultimate 60's chart success with the folk-pop minor hit Sally Ann in '63, which has a definite Beatles styling. On I'm Henry The Eighth I Am, a 1910 music hall song by Murray and Weston, Brown has some fun, perfectly suiting his Cockney lilt. Hava Nagila (Let Us Rejoice) a Hebrew folk song suits Brown's sense of guitar adventure whereas That's What Love Will Do shows his rockabilly influences. As an example of his virtuosity, check the sublime mandolin workout of instrumental Souvenir D'Alvito and I'll See You In My Dreams for his ukulele skills. His daughter Sam joins him on a delightful cover of Tin Pan Alley hit Lazy Bones written by Johnnie Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael written in 1933. He also does a better version of McGuiness Flint's 1971 hit. Buddy Holly's Well Allright is done as a casual acoustic jaunt, lacking the original's fervour, though Black Betty is a subtle blast of the traditional Afro-American work-song popularised by Leadbelly in 1939 and later Ram Jam in 1977. A cover of Bob Dylan's Well Well Well is awesome.

File under: Must have compilation.

Elly Roberts