Johnnie Ray was one of the few singers who successfully bridged the creative and commercial gap between traditional early ‘50s pop and the rock ‘n’ roll era, which he achieved with a string of memorable hits, and was also notable for the fact that he was every bit as popular and successful in Europe and Australia as he was in his native US. He came to performing as a white R&B singer, and developed an emotionally-charged delivery and dynamic stage presence that brought him a string of hits, scoring his first No. 1 in 1952 with “Cry”, and as a result his performing histrionics he acquired outlandish nicknames like “The Prince Of Wails” and “The Nabob Of Sob”. Between 1952 and 1960 he had around forty hits, including UK No. 1s with “Such A Night”, “Just Walkin’ In The Rain” and “Yes, Tonight Josephine”. It was remarkable, that although his initial hits were in the traditional pop era of the mid-‘50s, he had a huge teen following in the early rock ‘n’ roll years breaking box office records when he toured. This great-value 110-track 4-CD is a comprehensive anthology comprising just about every A & B side which he released in the USA and UK during this era, which encompassed all of his chart entries on both sides of the Atlantic.
