 The Rivingtons secured their place in musical history when their first 45 reached the top half of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1962, and the insistently catchy title 'Papa Oom Mow Mow' turned every listener into a sing-a-long bass voice.
The group followed this with their own answer-disc, 'Mama Oom Mow Mow', and went on to capture the dance-craze market with 'The Bird Is the Word', a crossover hit in spring 1963, while their two Hot 100 hits were merged into a medley as 'Surfin' Bird' by The Trashmen at the end of 1963, ironically out-selling the originals to reach the top 10, later being used as incidental music by movie director Stanley Kubrik in "Full Metal Jacket".The Rivingtons were more than just a rock'n'roll novelty group, however, and at the dawn of the soul era, produced a number of superb deep soul ballads, of which 'I'm Losing My Grip' and 'Deep Water' have long been hard-to-find classics of their genre. While the pedigree of featured vocalists Al Frazier and Carl White stretches back deep into the doo-wop era. This CD brings together all of the group's recordings for Liberty in the early 1960's, combining novelty rock'n'roll with wailing deep soul ballads, the title track being a much-played oldie on global radio and the ballads having been in-demand collectors' items since their previous reissue in 1991. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow / Deep Water / Kickapoo Joy Juice / My Reward / Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Bird) / Waiting / Love Pill / Long Tall Sally / Unchain My Heart / You Are My Sunshine / Happy Jack / Slippin' And Slidin' / Old Time Love / Have Mercy, Mercy Baby / Standing In The Love Line / The Bird's The Word / I'm Losing My Grip / The Shaky Bird (Part 1) / The Shaky Bird (Part 2) / Cherry / Little Sally Walker / The Weejee Walk / Fairy Tales
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