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Bob Stanley’s Croydon Municipal label closed out 2016 with a pair of releases continuing the Cherry Red imprint’s mission of excavating some of the most rare and well-done pop music inside and outside of Great Britain.

And This is Me might be thought of as a kind of Golden Throats precursor.  Subtitled Britain’s Finest Thespians Sing, this 24-track compendium features a host of the finest actors, comedians, and personalities from pre-Beatles Great Britain’s golden age of entertainment across its 24 tracks.  Bernard Cribbins, represented by the opening track “What About Me,” has credits ranging from Doctor Who to films such as Casino Royale and Frenzy.  He earned three chart singles in 1962, though not this jaunty tune.  Roy Castle, another Doctor Who vet and a multi-hyphenate singer, dancer, actor, comedian and musician, delivers the standard “Accentuate the Positive” here in swingin’ style.

Notorious hellraiser Oliver Reed (Oliver!, Gladiator) charms on the sweet “Lonely for a Girl” and Spike Milligan, of Goon Show fame but also a talented songwriter and musician, plays it straight on Leslie Bricusse’s gentle “Wish I Knew.”  Milligan is also heard on the goofy “Postman’s Knock,” complete with children’s chorus.  Terry-Thomas, best-known for his portrayals of pretentious members of the upper crust, gets two tracks here: Paddy Roberts’ ballad “Send for Me” and Bob Merrill’s rock-and-roll send-up “Sweet Old Fashioned Boy,” both performed in exaggerated fashion and the latter showing off his skill at various voices.  (As a voice actor, he played Sir Hiss in Disney’s 1973 animated version of Robin Hood.)

Naturally, there are more novelties here such as “Three Nice Mice,” an update of “Three Blind Mice” from Max Bygraves, a star with credits including the West End production of Do-Re-Mi, the game show Family Fortunes (based on Family Feud) and roughly twenty chart entries between 1952 and 1989.  Comedian Norman Wisdom had numerous credits on film as well as the West End and on Broadway; his “Yer Gotta Get Aht” is a humorous musical dialogue.  Ian McShane would go to great acclaim as star of the television drama Deadwood; his 1962 single “Harry Brown” from the film The Wild and the Willing is another western tale.  After this lone single, he would reactivate his singing career for PolyGram in the 1990s.

Croydon Municipal’s second collection, Doo Wop Soda Shop, offers 24 rare, “atmospheric and romantic harmony sounds from the ’50s and ’60s.”  The title conjures up the romantic 1950s image of the soda shop where one could get a milkshake and spin records on the jukebox with a group of friends or, more likely, a sweetheart.  Every track on this collection is from a group, most of which have names that could only have come from this particular era: The Bel-Aires, The Starlighters, and The Melo Gents among them.  The harmonies are rich and the sounds straight from the street corner.

This collection opens with The Wanderers’ version of “For Your Love,” the romantic Ed Townsend doo-wop classic that charted not only for Townsend, but for The Righteous Brothers, Peaches and Herb, Gwen McCrae, and others.  Perhaps the biggest name on this rarities-packed set is that of Frankie Valli, who is heard on the 1959 pre-Four Seasons B-side “Real (This is Real)” as Frankie Valle and The Romans.  (Valli used numerous pseudonyms and versions of his name in his pre-fame years.)  Frankie wasn’t the only doo-wopper to hail from New Jersey, however.  Doo Wop Soda Shop offers songs by The Reminiscents (“Flames”) and The Melo Gents (“Baby Be Mine”).

The famous team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman are represented with one of their lesser-known compositions, “Everybody Knew,” by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s La-Rells.  Another famous songwriter, Van McCoy, led The Starlighters in his early days.  Their swooning, dramatic “I Cried” is featured here.  Marshall Leib, Phil Spector’s friend and fellow member of The Teddy Bears, produced “Be Mine” for Los Angeles’ Uptones.  The Utopians’ “Along My Lonely Way” is strongly reminiscent of The Skyliners’ “Since I Don’t Have You.”

Both And This Is Me and Doo Wop Soda Shop have booklets with original single artwork, and informative and engaging liner notes by Bob Stanley, though neither volume has discographical annotation as to the songs’ original appearances.  These titles are made possible via current U.K. public domain laws, with all tracks predating 1964.  These latest releases from Stanley and the crate-diggers at Croydon Municipal are available at the links below!

Various Artists, And This is Me: Britain’s Finest Thespians Sing (Croydon Municipal CR 9021, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. What About Me – Bernard Cribbins
2. Three Nice Mice – Max Bygraves
3. I Like It – Mike and Bernie Winters
4. I Might Have Known (After) – Philip Lowrie
5. Lonely for a Girl – Oliver Reed
6. Harry Brown – Ian McShane
7. Wish I Knew – Spike Milligan
8. Lemon Twist – Ian Carmichael
9. We Go Together – Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques
10. Yer Gotta Get Aht – Norman Wisdom
11. Double Bunk – Sid James and Liz Fraser
12. Such a Beauty – Clive Dunn
13. Accentuate the Positive – Roy Castle
14. Itchy Twitchy Feeling – Charlie Drake
15. Makin’ Love – Hylda Baker
16. The Disc – Leslie Phillips
17. Send for Me – Terry-Thomas
18. Alone Together – Bernard Bresslaw
19. Postman’s Knock – Spike Milligan
20. Junk Shop – Harry H. Corbett
21. My Big Best Shoes – Bertice Reading
22. It Had Better Be a Wonderful Lie – Barbara Windsor and Harry Fowler
23. Sweet Old-Fashioned Boy – Terry-Thomas
24. Goldilocks – Stanley Unwin

Various Artists, Doo-Wop Soda Shop (Croydon Municipal CR9020, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. For Your Love – The Wanderers
2. No More – Little Victor and the Vistas
3. All at Once – The Uniques
4. Now the Parting Begins – The Larados
5. Looking for You – The Dukes
6. Last Night I Dreamed – The Fiestas
7. Remember – Dennis and the Explorers
8. This Paradise – The Bel-Aires
9. It’s Too Late – The Companions
10. So Blue – The Vibrations
11. Lonely One – The Ravels
12. The Starlighters – I Cried
13. Real (This Is Real) – Frankie Valle and the Romans
14. Be Mine – The Uptones
15. It’s Not for ME – Rudy and the Wheels
16. Along My Lonely Way – The Utopians
17. Somewhere in My Heart – The Ebonaires
18. Baby Be Mine – The Melo Gents
19. You’re Too Young for Me – Johnny and the Dreams
20. All Because – The Varnells
21. Flames – The Reminiscents
22. Everybody Knew – The La-Rells
23. The Night is Quiet – The Vocaleers
24. Impossible – The Velvatones