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Various Artists - High School Caesar (Buffalo Bop) (1994)

Track listing:
  1. High School Caesar Reggie Perkins 1:52
  2. Jitterburg Joe Nighthawks 2:11
  3. Panic Stricken Bill Curtis And The Jayes 1:43
  4. High School Love Ronnie Allen 2:39
  5. Undecided Jerry Parsons 2:06
  6. Thinkin' 'bout Your Love Lee Dresser 2:58
  7. School's Out Bill James And The Hex-O-Tones 2:07
  8. Drink Wine Earl Reed 2:25
  9. Teen Town Hop Eddie Mckinney And The Belvederas 2:12
  10. What's The Matter With Bob Callaway And The Spiro Hep Cats 1:56
  11. I Love My Baby Donald King 2:50
  12. Summer School Blues Walt Benton 2:35
  13. Remember Me Ron Berry 2:14
  14. Record Hop Blues Sonny Stafford 2:16
  15. Pretty Little Woman Frank Triolo And The Shipmates 2:04
  16. Take Me Back Jack Rodgers 1:30
  17. Rock-A-Bayou Baby Moonlighters 2:02
  18. Hocus Pocus Raiders 2:30
  19. Treehouse Bob Alexander And The Coaxials 1:52
  20. If You Want To Be My Baby Danny And The Galaxies 2:12
  21. Little Joe Jack Day 2:11
  22. Dirty White Bucks Jerry Siefert 1:47
  23. Judy Judy Melvin Blake And The Star Rockers 2:46
  24. Mother Goose At The Bandstand Jerry Fuller 1:54
  25. Been Cheated Larry Kirk 2:04
  26. Sweet Little Sixteen Rufus Brown 2:47
  27. To My Baby Skeet Richardson 2:33
  28. Rockin' Boppin' Teenager Jim Shaw And The Starlighters 1:31
  29. Never Baby Never Jerry Siefert 1:50
  30. Sock Hop Charlie Gore 2:17

Notes

This is a pretty uneven collection, which is not surprising given the fact that the title track by Reggie Perkins is one of the coolest things here and it's from a juvenile delinquency B-movie of the same name. The Jays' "Panic Stricken" is pretty fair rock & roll, but "Jitterbug Joe" is one of those minor embarrassments of the genre, a silly novelty tune. Ronnie Allen's "High School Love" sets the middle-range here, a pleasant, serviceable but undistinguished piece of rock & roll that doesn't quite come off, missing the cues that would make it a good record. Jerry Parsons' "Undecided" represents the more countrified sound well enough, and Lee Dresser's "Thinking 'bout Your Love" is a good piece of mainstream rock & roll, with a full band (with sax). Bill James' "School's Out" sounds a lot like a later Cadillacs' number (specifically "Please Mr. Johnson"), a comic novelty piece complete with basso-voice commentary; it isn't bad, but it's not what you pay your money for. "Drink Wine" by Earl Reed is one of dozens of renditions of "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee," and is raunchier than some but a little cold and lacking in the style needed to make it stand out from the best of the others (starting with Sticks McGhee's). Bob Calloway's sax-driven "What's the Matter with Me" is an exercise in teenage angst that falls flat, and Walt Benton's "Summer School Blues" is similarly weak, suffering in comparison with, say, Eddie Cochran's far more clever "Summertime Blues." Ron Berry's "Remember Me" is a passable piece of R&B crooning, unusual in this series. At the center of this disc are the best rock & roll tracks, "Pretty Little Woman" by the always reliable Frank Triolo, "Rock-A-Bayou Baby" by the Moonlighters, and the Raiders' lunatic-paced "Hocus Pocus." The rest is also pretty fair: Danny & the Galaxis ("I Want You to Be My Baby"), Jack Day ("Little Joe"), Jerry Siefert ("Dirty White Bucks"), Melvin Blake ("Judy"), and Larry Kirk, who sings "Been Cheated" like a cross between Elvis Presley and Jackie Wilson. These are balanced by several bummer tracks, including Charlie Gore's "Sock Hop," a pathetic attempt by someone several years past school age to reach out to that audience.