The Earls had only one hit of any significance, "Remember Then," which, with its big bass vocal hook, performed nearly as well on the R&B charts as the pop ones. Remember Then: The Best of the Earls has 25 tracks that made up most of the recordings they made for Old Town and Rome between 1961-1965. The Earls' sound isn't as delicate as the Mystics (although they come close on "Remember Me Baby"), nor as manic as the Dovells, but falls somewhere in between. The group has a wonderful predilection for coming up with outrageous doo wop chants that add a humorous dimension to several songs. Aside from their big hit (big being relative here since it peaked short of the Top 20), the Earls had three other singles that "bubbled under" the Billboard Top 100. Those semi-hits are here along with unissued versions, alternate takes, single B-sides, and album cuts. "All Through Our Teens" is a rewrite of the traditional song "All Through the Night" and "Let's Waddle" is an invitation to a dance craze that never was, while later recordings show the group experimenting with alternately funkier and more serious approaches (the latter includes a long virtuoso performance of "Old Man River"). Remember Then: The Best of the Earls might be more of the Earls than the average listener requires, but it's an excellent expanded anthology of this talented vocal group's prime cuts. ~ Greg Adams
