As with the other titles in the Golden Years series,
Golden Years 1961 looks like a decent if overly brief collection of golden oldies but is mostly made up of latter-day re-recordings of the original hits. The artists sound game in most cases, but the sterile musical backing and production ruins their efforts. Besides who would want to hear the remakes of tracks like
Del Shannon's "Runaway" or
the Marcels's "Blue Moon" when the originals are so magical? Avoid this disc and the rest of the series as well. ~ Tim Sendra