Foot Stompin'

by The Flares

Overview

Like many a one-hit early rock & roll vocal group, the Flares never came up with anything else to match their sole smash ("Foot Stomping Pt. 1") creatively or commercially. So this 26-track collection of 1960-1963 material will be of interest almost solely to serious doo wop collectors, assembling most of the songs from the singles they did for the Felsted and Press labels (including the Press single they did under the name the Peppers), adding a few tracks from their 1961 album and three previously unreleased cuts. The Flares were good singers and their records had solid R&B/rock & roll backing with shades of soul, blues, and jazz, but they came up against the limitations so common to many second-division groups of the era: their material wasn't that special and also stuck to a formula too often. In the Flares' case, that formula was up-tempo early soul records wedded to a type of dance, whether it was "Hand Clappin'," "Doing the Hully Gully," "Shimmy and Stomp," "The Monkey Walk," or covers of "The Stroll" and "Pony Time." Occasionally they broke away from that pattern, though not with astounding results, as on the contrived two-part novelty "Rock and Roll Heaven" or several cuts that find a female vocalist taking the lead part. Some of the later cuts edge toward a more modern sound akin to early Motown sides by groups like the Contours, though the songs and production weren't as good. The liner notes gamely make sense of the group's complicated and confusing evolution from the '50s doo wop act the Flairs into the related but different early-'60s aggregation of the Flares. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	05/07/2002
Label:	Ace
UPC:	0029667184120
Rank:	148579

Tracks

1. Foot Stomping, Pt. 1
2. Hotcha Cha-Cha Brown
3. Loving You
4. Jump and Bump
5. What Do You Want if You Don't Want Love
6. So Fine
7. Dishes
8. Rock and Roll Heaven, Pt. 1
9. Rock and Roll Heaven, Pt. 2
10. Doing the Hully Gully
11. Yon He Go
12. Hand Clappin'
13. Shimmy and Stop
14. Make It Be Me
15. Mad House
16. Do It With Me
17. Do It If You Wanna
18. It Wouldn't Be the Same
19. A Little Piece of Paper
20. I Didn't Lose a Doggone Thing
21. Sweets for My Sweet
22. The Stroll
23. Sock Hop
24. Pony Time (aka the Pony)
25. The Hucklebuck
26. The Monkey Walk

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Flares   Primary Artist
The Peppers   Primary Artist
Cookie Jackson   Primary Artist
Red Callender   Bass
Rene Hall   Guitar
Earl Palmer   Drums,Percussion
Plas Johnson   Sax (Tenor),Sax (Baritone)

Technical Credits

Aaron Collins   Composer
Jools   Package Design
Don Covay   Composer
John Berry   Composer
Sonny Boy Williamson II   Composer
Clyde Otis   Composer
Doc Pomus   Composer
Charlie Benante   Composer
Frank Bello   Composer
Lynn Paul   Composer
Scott Ian   Composer
Alan Freed   Composer
Buck Ram   Composer
Duncan Cowell   Mastering
Mort Shuman   Composer
Dan Spitz   Composer
B.J. Baker   Composer
Joey Belladonna   Composer
Johnny Otis   Composer
Roy Alfred   Composer
Vince Weaver   Composer
Andy Gibson   Composer
Nancy Lee   Composer
Bill Millar   Liner Notes