Pianist
Carl Mann was a rockabilly prodigy, cutting his first sides at the age of 14 and entering the Sun studios a year and a half later, in 1958, to record a knockout single. That single, a rocked-up cover of
Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa," hit the Top 40 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, despite intense competition from
Conway Twitty's sound-alike version. Although
Mann never had a bigger hit, he was a fair rocker who wrote a few good originals, including "Rockin' Love" and "Walkin' and Thinkin'" (the latter actually came from his bandmate
Eddie Bush). Unfortunately, he spent most of his time casting around for another hit among a raft of pop standards -- "Some Enchanted Evening," "South of the Border," "The Wayward Wind," and two more
Nat King Cole originals, including
Mann's only other hit, "Pretend." The 2008 compilation
Carl Rocks from Bear Family unfurls 35 tracks of
Carl Mann material, beginning with his early sides for the Jaxon label and including every one of his Sun-era songs. There's no doubt that it's as complete as they come for the early
Carl Mann catalog, but this much material comes with a price -- his vocal mannerisms were pronounced and repetitive, especially on the covers, which often featured the same hiccuping vocal runs as "Mona Lisa."