Track Listing

1. Two Good Guys
2. Street With A Beat
3. Cool Papa
4. Night Flight
5. Tuxedo Junction
6. Homework
7. All Tore Up
8. Deep Down And Low
9. Tow Head
10. In A Little Spanish Town
11. Lady Whistlebait
12. Gosah
13. Fandango Rock
14. Shufflin'
15. Pushing
16. Night Ride
17. Nine O'Clock Hop
18. Split Level
19. Flip Flap
20. Teenage Strut
21. Big 'N' Bad
22. Stompin' Good Time
23. The King
24. Campus Rumpus

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149729 in Music
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
He was neither a singer nor a musician, but Alan Freed knew just what it took to make the Big Beat of the rock 'n' roll era come alive. The Big Band that he lent his name to in the mid 50s was one of the hardest-rocking outfits of its era, boasting the cream of New York's R&B session musicians in its line-up and featuring such stellar tenor saxophonists as Sam 'The Man' Taylor, 'Big' Al Sears, Freddie Mitchell and 'King Curtis' Ousley taking some of the fieriest solos ever committed to tape.

Freed's band could be heard on four albums that were issued on US Coral and Brunswick between 1956 and 1958 - one recorded under the name of The King's Henchmen. The first of them has been reissued several times but, incredibly, the contents of the other three have remained unavailable for almost half a century.

Ace's A Stompin' Good Time features the King's Henchmen albums in their entirety, along with the Alan Freed Big Band tracks from the two various artists albums that originally featured material from Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly, Terry Noland and Billy Williams among others. You won't find Jackie, Buddy, Billy and Terry here, but what you will find is an hour's worth of uproarious instrumentalism that rocks like crazy and that will be manna from heaven for all lovers of 1950s big bland blastin'.

Customer Reviews

Not Theme Time...but the next best thing
So much about what I have come to love about music is falling away - "albums" are being replaced by singles downloaded from cyberspace, music magazines (so long No Depression) are shuttering their doors due to lack of ad revenue, and great record stores are closing by the dozen. Into these dangerous straits waded XM Radio and Bob Dylan with the Theme Time Radio Hour - a throwback to simpler times wherein Bob Dylan selects an hour's worth of choice cuts loosely centered around a "theme" like flowers, or marriage or coffee. The show has been a breath of fresh air - it's success due in equal measure to Dylan's pithy narrative style and his impeccable taste in popular music.

What we have here is Ace Records' attempt to anthologize the radio show by choosing 50 cuts that have appeared on Theme Time. There is no "theme" and no Dylan. What we do get is 2 hours of music - most of it blues, R&B, and American roots music. Some of the choices are inspired, the Geraint Watkins cut, "Only a Rose" for example; others - two versions of "Pistol Packin Mama" - less so. The overall effect is akin to listening to a jukebox stocked by Dylan. One could do worse. The packaging is excellent, with track and artist information and a photograph to accompany every song. Sound is more than adequate as well.

If you have access to XM radio by all means listen to Theme Time Radio Hour. If not, this makes a more than acceptable substitute.

Great compilation and presentation!
This is the best of the Theme Time Radio Hour presentations where Dylan's commentary is absent. (Get the deluxe version of his latest album if you'd like to hear a disc with his DJ patter, which is fascinating in itself.) The booklet is extremely well-done, as good as or better than any in The Bootleg Series, with many photos of those old artists and the cool old 45 single labels etc., with very informative and well-written info about each song.
The music is very eclectic and wide-ranging, some of it 21st-century though most tends to be from the '50s, '40's and '60's. Many styles, from punk to blues to old-timey country, proto-rock, reggae, R&B, gospel, etc. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed most of the songs, though I can see how some people wouldn't like this or that genre. The sound quality on most is surprisingly good, and where it is bad, it has that haunting, "listening in the dark to that weird AM station that sometimes bleeds through" quality that can make a song so evocative of another time and place. If you aren't too narrow-minded in your musical taste, this is highly recommended.

Faith Restoration or How I Learned To Cry Again
In a world of immitators and regurgitated bland soundscapes, it's so refreshing to see brilliance in the music industry again. Call it a throwback if you will, I'll call it 'actual' entertainment. Either way you slice it there's no denying the musical knowledge stored inside Mr. Zimmerman's brain. I know the show is not entirely all his creation (so thanks go out to the producers, engineers, and everyone else who makes it possible.) but without him as the 'mouth-piece', the show wouldn't have the same style and class. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for taking the time to produce a show that has obvious thought behind it. Looking forward to season 3 and what 'themes' may be in store........