In a prolific, forty-year recording career, singer/drummer/bandleader RAY ELLINGTON covered plenty of musical bases, from Jazz to Pop, touching all known genres in between. During the early/mid 50s, while he was a resident on “The Goon Show”, he became one of the very first British artists to cover US R&R hits (he’d already been covering US R&B since the late 40s). This compilation comprises everything that Ray recorded between 1954-60, which might be construed as either Rock’n’ Roll or Beat, including covers of material like ‘ABC Boogie’, ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’, ‘Framed’, ‘Ko Ko Mo’, ‘Earth Angel’, ‘Stranded In The Jungle’, ‘Giddy-Up-A Ding Dong’, ‘Green Door’, ‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Little Darlin’’, ‘Charlie Brown’, etc. Several of his early/mid-50s Columbia 78s have never previously appeared on CD, which makes this set wholly indispensable to Ellington fans/collectors.
