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Philadelphia was a hugely active, powerful and influential city in the pop music of the late 1950s and early ‘60s, partly reflecting the creative and commercial energy of the Italian-American community there. A number of successful independent record companies were established there, which mostly had one or two highly successful acts and a number of lesser-known ones, who also had hits. Acrobat has compiled two 3-CD collections to bring together all the hits from these labels during these years, and this first volume is devoted to the Swan label, with the songwriting and production team of Bob Crewe and Frank Slay at its core, Chancellor label, whose founders and driving forces were Robert Marcucci and Peter De Angelis, and Guyden, a sister label of Jamie (see Vol. 2) plus the small imprints Landa and XYZ. Swan’s biggest names, who had multiple hits, were Freddy Cannon, Danny & The Juniors, Dicky Doo & The Don’ts and Billy & Lillie, plus many who had one-off successes, while Chancellor’s principal stars were Frankie Avalon and Fabian, along with Jodie Sands and many others with one or two hits. Just about every track in this 91-track 3- CD set was a Top 100 or Hot 100 chart entry, so it’s a thoroughly entertaining insight into a particular aspect of the music scene of the time, with plenty of collectable obscurities alongside the big names.
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