Twist Uptown

Twist Uptown
Studio album by The Crystals
Released August 1962
Recorded 1961-1962
Genre Pop, R&B
Label

Philles

PHLP 4000
Producer Phil Spector
Phil Spector chronology
The Teddy Bears Sing
(1959)		 Twist Uptown
(1962)		 He's a Rebel
(1963)

Twist Uptown is the first album by The Crystals, issued to capitalize upon their success with the Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann composition "Uptown" which was a #13 US hit, and their first top forty hit "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (#20 US). Twist Uptown notably features the first released version of "On Broadway," a composition written by Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. The song was later modified by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and became a hit for The Drifters in 1963.

Barbara Alston was The Crystals' main lead singer at the time, and the only songs from this album not to feature her on lead are "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby" on which Patricia "Patsy" Wright sang lead; and "Gee Whiz" and "Frankenstein Twist" which featured Dolores "LaLa" Brooks. During this period, The Crystals appeared as a quintet but this album features the vocals of six Crystals; it contains tracks with original member Myrna Girard as well as Dolores "LaLa" Brooks who was Girard's permanent replacement by its release. Recording sessions took place mainly at Aldon Music in late 1961 and early 1962.

In 1963, the album was repackaged as He's a Rebel to benefit from their hit of the same name (although the song was really recorded by The Blossoms) and the two tracks that were omitted were "Please Hurt Me" and "Gee Whiz Look at his Eyes (Twist)."

Track listing

Side One
  1. "Uptown"- (Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil) - 02:33
  2. "Another Country-Another World"- (Spector/Pomus) - 03:06
  3. "Frankenstein Twist"- (Henry/McCorkle) - 03:01
  4. "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby"- (Spector/Hunter) - 02:28
  5. "Please Hurt Me"- (King/Goffin) - 02:16
Side Two
  1. "There's No Other (Like My Baby)"- (Spector/Bates) - 02:31
  2. "On Broadway"- (Weil/Mann/Leiber/Stoller) - 02:31
  3. "What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen"- (Kolber/Keller) - 02:42
  4. "No One Ever Tells You"- (Spector/King/Goffin) - 02:21
  5. "Gee Whiz Look at His Eyes (Twist)"- (Thomas) - 02:47
  6. "I Love You Eddie"- (Spector/Hunter) - 01:58

Personnel

Singles history

Critical reception

Pig River Records reviewed 'Twist Uptown' on its 50th anniversary giving the record 7.1/10 stating the album "epitomizes this contradiction of innocent purity with a borderline lack of imagination."

References


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