Ifield Frank, First Edition (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Trying to win a spot on a regional tour headlined by Helen Shapiro (yes, in the winter of 1962-63, 16-year-old Helen Shapiro the four-hit wonder is what passed for a headliner in the U.K.) The Beatles once opened for handsome Australian yodeler Frank Ifield. (Biographer Bob Spitz reports Ifield's crowd shouted at the Liverpool lads "Rubbish! Get them off!", though one reviewer was perceptive enough to note drummer Pete Best appeared to be the problem.) Later, since Vee-Jay records owned the rights to a few Beatles tunes as well as a few Ifield numbers, the low-rent Chicago outfit put out a now-highly-collectible album supposedly featuring Ifield AND The Beatles -- though there's no evidence they were ever actually RECORDED together -- unlike, say, The fab four and Tony Sheridan.) Ifield had English hits in 1962-63 with a cover of the American single "The Wayward Wind" (which Spitz describes as "dirgelike"), with "Confessin' (That I Love You)," and with Johnny Mercer's "I Remember You," but faded with the explosion of rock 'n roll. (The Beatles, by the way, offered their composition "Misery" to young Helen Shapiro, but her producer, Norrie Paramor, turned it down. What a genius.) Anyway, this offering comprises two near-mint Frank Ifield albums, Vee-Jay's stereo SR 1054, "I Remember You," 1962 (also featuring "The Glory of Love," "Unchained Melody," "A Fool Such As I," and Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me") -- as well as Capitol's mono T 10356, "with the Orchestra of Norrie Paramor," 1963, titled "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)", also featuring such driving rockers as "Stardust," "Mule Train," "My Blue Heaven," Bob Nolan's "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," and "Waltzing Matilda." (It was almost like the world was holdings its breath, waiting for British rock 'n roll, wasn't it?) Two LPs for one price; both jackets feature small Previous Owners' address labels to front corners, the pair now reduced from $30.