Rocks

The Godfather of cool! The greatest hits of lounge Rock 'n' Roll! Features the original honkin' sax man, Sam Butera! - 'I'm not trying to say that Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera had any appeal for 50's teens,' writes Billy Vera in his liner notes. 'They did not, but what they were playing was, in every other sense, Rock 'n' Roll. Rocking music for the working guys who were past high school and unlikely to attend college.' Louis Prima came out of New Orleans and his high energy music was, as Billy Vera says, Rock 'n' Roll in all but name, so he well and truly belongs in our acclaimed ROCKS! Series. Out of fashion for years, Prima came back with a vengeance as the unseen star of a movie, 'Big Night,' and the Godfather of the Nineties Swing craze when rocker David Lee Roth revived his 'Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody' and clubs and young bands played this music for a whole new generation of dancers who dressed in the clothes of an earlier, hipper time. Writer Nick Tosches was the first to rehabilitate Louis Prima: 'He presaged the Rock 'n' Roll of the ridiculous. He perceived and embraced in all it's tutti-frutti glory, the spirit of post-literate, made-for-television America.'