A-teens Music:

Short Shorts: Golden Classics Track Listing:
1. Short Shorts
2. Royal Blue
3. Little Trixie
4. Why
5. All Right Baby
6. Believe Me
7. My Memories of You
8. Shamrock
9. Dottie Ann
10. Wounded Heart
11. My Kind of Dream
12. Open the Door

Short Shorts: Golden Classics Reviews:
Short-Sheeted Again
2007-07-28 - Let's enter the realm of fantasy. I'm the producer of this CD and I decide to limit the contents to 12 selections. No problem. After all, the group only HAD three charted singles, and since they weren't exactly world leaders in album sales it shouldn't be a problem coming up with 12 songs.

But wait a minute. I suppose what those annoying "completists" out there would REALLY like is to see all three hit singles plus their B-sides, along with six album cuts or failed singles. So the best way to approach this is to give them NO B-sides, and only two of the three hits. Yeah. That'll do it.

And that's exactly what they gave us. They couldn't very well do a Golden Classics and leave off Short Shorts [# 2 R&B/# 3 Billboard Top 100 early in 1958 on ABC-Paramount 9882], nor would it do to omit their only other Top 40 hit, Believe Me [# 26 Billboard Hot 100 in late 1959 on Capitol 4261]. But they did contrive to overlook Harvey's Got A Girl Friend which peaked at # 78 in August 1958 on ABC-Paramount9945. And no flipsides at all [Planet Rock, Hangin' Around, and Little Cricket]. WHY? It's not like we're ever going to see Volume 2!

The fact is, this quartet from New Jersey [Bob Guadio, Bill Crandall, Billy Dalton, and Tom Austin] had a very ordinary sound, and it was only the quirky novelty description of a late Fifties fashion statement [Short Shorts - first released unsuccessfully in 1957 on the small Power label which had limited promotional capability and probably no funds for Payola] that attracted mass attention. The low ranking of their second hit proved that and ABC-Paramount dumped them.

By the time of Believe Me for Capitol in 1959 Crandall had been replaced by Larry Qualiano and a fifth member added in vocalist Joseph "Joe Villa" Francavilla. Later that year it was extended to a sextet when Al Kooper came aboard. It didn't matter. No further hits ensued.

Guadio would have greater success as a keyboardist/songwriter with The Four Seasons, a group he joined in 1960, while Kooper was the organizer of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Although he didn't hang around long enough to participate in their string of 10 hits, starting in 1969, he did do some significant studio work for Bob Dylan in 1965 and was the organizer of the Super Session LP that featured renowned guitarists Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield.

With these glaring omissions there is no way I can go higher than one star.

Short Changed
2007-07-01 - This is a must buy, if you want a copy of Short Shorts or Believe Me, one of my favorite songs of 1959 -- right up there with the Crests' The Angels Listened in -- both of which I used to hear on the jukebox at the local A&W back in the day. Neither of these songs are on Time/Life's wonderful collection of 50's and early 60's gems, The Rock 'n' Roll Era, which comprises some 50 CDs!

The problem with this release is that it's sourced (or at least the older copies, I bought mine in 1997) from an L.P., not the master tapes. Listening to the "samples," I doubt that anyone at Collectables has bothered to upgrade it; and, in fact, the master tapes may be "lost" or destroyed. In which case, this is the best we'll get and may explain why Believe Me is not on any of Time/Life's or Rhino's Doo Woop compilation CDs...

I've been searching for an upgrade for years; hopefully, the masters will show up one day and we'll get the quality release these two wonderful songs deserve.

John

A very pleasant sound from an underrated group!
2005-05-24 - I grew up in the Fort Lee, NJ area, literally down the road from the Royal Teens. Consequently I was able to get access to a liberal sampling of their music. I must heartily agree with the last reviewer regarding "Believe Me". The song should have easily been a national top 10 hit but for some unexplained reason stalled outside of the New York/New Jersey area. It's very reminiscent of "Little Star" but different enough to stand on it's own merits as a doowop classic.

I've always been particularly impressed by the Royal Teens' sax-flavored instrumentals and two excellent ones are featured in this short compilation ("Sham Rock" & "Royal Blue"). With only twelve tracks this is not an ideal "Best of" collection. I missed songs like "Leotards" (an obvious attempt to cash in again on "Short Shorts"), "Big Name Button" (another gimmick tune) and "Harvey's Got A Girlfiend". All in all, a vastly underrated group stuck with the "one hit wonder" label.

A Cute Nostalgic Sound
1999-10-08 - It is a shame that The Royal Teens are known for their novelty song "Short Shorts" because they were more than that. "Believe Me" is a terrific song with a wonderful lead voice and it brings back so many fond memories. All in all it's a listenable,enjoyable,nostalgic sound.