Not the American outfit of that name, but the British trio of Gordon Mills, Don Paul, and Ronnie Wells are featured here, on 31 of their early-'60s recordings for Pye Records. The sound is a uniquely British/European adaptation of rock & roll, melding pop and traditional tunes with guitars and drums and a beat -- picture a branch of teen pop spun out of the same sensibilities that yielded "Ain't She Sweet" and "My Bonnie" by
the Beatles and
Tony Sheridan from their Hamburg sessions.
The Four Preps' "Money (Is the Root of All Evil)," which is covered here from 1961, is a long way from the Motown-generated "Money (That's What I Want)" as a notion or a song, but it represents what
the Viscounts and their management aimed for as an audience -- and as a warning, a lot of Americans (and Britishers too young to know) may really hate this sort of hybrid of rock & roll and the music hall represented here. The three singers seemed willing to do whatever would sell, and some of what's here did do that -- "Shortnin' Bread" peaked at number 16 in England -- but there were some decent rock & rollers present on many of these records, including British rockabilly guitarist
Joe Brown (who played on their debut Pye single, "Rockin' Little Angel" b/w "That's All Right"), and the group did tour with
Eddie Cochran and
Gene Vincent. They did do a decent cover of "Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp Bomp Bomp)," but it's juxtaposed with "Honey Come On, Dance With Me," a decided pop-style number that was theme to the Spin-A-Long TV show, hosted by DJ Alan Freeman, whose notions of pop-based rock & roll were perfectly represented by
the Viscounts. These guys were hip enough to share a program with
the Beatles early in the latter's national stardom, but not to survive what
the Beatles and the acts they pulled onto the national U.K. charts did to rock & roll and pop music. Actually, the group's material here from 1962 onward is not bad, and is of a piece with the work of
Helen Shapiro and other pre-
Beatles pop/rockers, but be warned -- the last half-dozen songs here were derived from their contribution to a trad jazz compilation album, and feature
the Viscounts shoehorned into a 1920s repertoire that will only be appreciated by listeners familiar with that British offshoot of Dixieland jazz. ~ Bruce Eder