Pop Music: The Golden Era 1951-1975

Home of the Columbia and Epic labels, CBS Records (now Sony Music) was late getting into the rock & roll game, despite issuing some classic '50s R&B singles on the subsidiary OKeh. Corporate aversion to the music was largely due to Mitch "Sing Along with Mitch" Miller, the A&R head whose philistine bent helped run Frank Sinatra from the company in 1952, shortly before he revived his career at Capitol with some of the greatest American music ever recorded. Not surprisingly, the The Golden Era volume of Sony's massive Soundtrack for a Century project is a mixed bag. Pre-Elvis gems such as Sinatra's "Birth of the Blues" sit alongside unforgivable schlock by Miller and the Four Lads before rock & roll-based pop finally shakes things up. With everyone from Dylan and the Yardbirds to the Cyrkle ("Red Rubber Ball") and the Looking Glass ("Brandy [You're a Fine Girl]") on hand, these two CDs are a mishmash, but highly representative of what CBS had to offer Top 40 once it realized Buddy Greco (not included) wasn't the future. --Rickey Wright