Album: Bert Berns, The Bert Berns Story - Twist And Shout Volume 1: 1960-1964 (Ace)

Bert Berns was the crossover king of early-Sixties R&B pop.

This first of two volumes of Berns’s work demonstrates his aptitude for teen romantic melodrama in songs like The Jarmels’ “A Little Bit Of Soap” and Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me”; but what also comes through strongly is the skill with which he flavoured his compositions with Cuban spice, evident on The Wanderers’ “You Can’t Run Away From Me”.

This collection also includes the originals of “Here Comes The Night” (by Lulu, shortly before Berns re-recorded it with Van Morrison and Them), and The Isley Brothers’ “Twist And Shout” – though it was The Beatles’ cover which would earn Berns his house with a guitar-shaped swimming pool.

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