Recorded between 1956 and 1958. Includes liner notes by Colin Escott.
Bonnie Guitar's Dot recordings are the best of her career, but even at that they're only sporadically engaging. She was an adequate but bland vocalist who worked in an MOR country-pop style that gave her one big pop hit, "Dark Moon," in 1957. The 1961 Dark Moon album includes the original hit version of the title track as well as its minor hit follow-up, the upbeat "Mister Fire Eyes." A theme emerges with nearly half of the songs having "moon" in their titles -- "Baby Moon," "Rocky Mountain Moon," etc. -- the best of which is a rocking rendition of "I Saw Your Face in the Moon" with an aggressive guitar solo. A number of comparisons could be drawn between Guitar and Gale Storm, her pop counterpart at Dot who also scored a big hit with "Dark Moon"; both have mature-sounding voices that seem incongruous and square when they attempt teen-oriented material, as on Dark Moon's "If You'll Be the Teacher." Although Guitar made a couple other big country hits later on, "Dark Moon" is the one people remember, and only a few of her other recordings arouse even mild interest. ~ Greg Adams
