The Newbeats

The third and final installment in Ace's series of Newbeats reissues brings its comprehensive overview of the group's Hickory recordings to a close. Unlike the previous two Ace Newbeats CDs (Bread and Butter/Big Beat Sounds and Run Baby Run), however, this disc doesn't reissue '60s Newbeats LPs with bonus tracks, instead gathering a surprisingly large quantity of rarities, including 1969-1972 non-LP singles; both sides of the four 1963-1965 singles billed to Dean & Mark, a duo (Lewis "Dean" Mathis and Marcus Mathis) who comprised two-thirds of the Newbeats; and both sides of five 1963-1965 singles by the third Newbeat, Larry Henley. In addition, there's the previously unissued 1966 outtake "Come on Baby and Love Me" (penned by Jill Jones and Annette Tucker, more famous for writing the Electric Prunes' psychedelic hit "Get Me to the World on Time"). And, finally, there's a previously unissued instrumental backing track, "Jingle Jangle (World of Love)," though it's not quite certain whether this should be classified as a Newbeats recording, since the liner notes say it was actually done for Joe Melson and Larry Parks (though it was cut at a Newbeats session). Certainly it's amazing that all of this scarily rare material is available on one comprehensively annotated CD, but like the other Newbeats reissues, it doesn't contain very interesting music for the most part. The late-'60s and early-'70s singles are passably reminiscent of the late-'60s Four Seasons, perhaps with a slightly more pronounced soul-pop flavor, with the most successful of these, "Groovin' Out on Life" (written by noted swamp-pop singer Bobby Charles), reaching number 82 in 1969. The Dean & Mark sides vary between country-pop and pop/rock, with the most interesting of them, the 1963 single "With Tears in My Eyes"/"Kissin' Games," being one of the closest imitations of the early-'60s Everly Brothers ever waxed. Larry Henley's solo efforts are also in the country-influenced pop/rock category, though his wobbly vibrato vocals are hard to take, especially when they're not surrounded by two other singers. There are some obscure tunes by noted songwriters here, such as John D. Loudermilk, Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant, Sonny Curtis, and Mickey Newbury, the last of whose "East Ham Prison Farm" takes a lot of inspiration from the far more famous song "Parchman Farm." But as thoughtfully as this package was assembled, there's nothing here to attract anyone but die-hard Newbeats collectors. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide