Doo Wop Acappella Starlight Sessions, Volume 21

by Various Artists

This is a somewhat unique acappella album. Not many acappella groups sing in the style of the late 1940's/early 1950's groups like the Ravens or Sonny Till and the Orioles. The Four Sevilles are one group who does, and they do it well. This album has seven cuts by the Four Sevilles in that early vocal group style, the classics Old Man River (Ravens), White Christmas (Ravens/Drifters), What Are You Doing New Year's Eve (Sonny Til and the Orioles), and the lesser known Little Maiden (Chords),You're Mine (Crickets,not the Buddy Holly group), If I Could Be With You Tonight (Nolan Strong and the Diablos) and Oh Baby Don't (one of the few uptempo recordings by the Heartbeats). They do all of them justice. The album also has two beautiful cuts by Charles Moffit's Velours. Strictly speaking, Mio Amore isn't acappella, it has piano triplets in the background, but they don't hurt anything. This Could Be the Night is not the similarly named song by the Velvets. I believe Charles Moffit had passed away before these sides were recorded, and the bass is done by Bill Witt. He does a nice job re-creating Charles Moffit's style of odd numbered note groupings and suspended time. Like most Starlight Session acappella recordings, all the groups on this album have a good, professional sound. Worth special note is the original treatment of Frankie and Johmmy/I Like It Like That by New Image and Deja Vu's rich harmony and nice change to a second lead after the bridge of Over The Rainbow. With 21 cuts, you can't go wrong here. There's a lot of music, and at $2.98 on 11/19/13 from Oldies.com. the price is more than right.