Howie Casey & The Seniors - Twist At The Top (Reissue, Remastered) (1962/2002)

HOWIE CASEY. This ace sax blower started his long career in Liverpool back in 1959 with Derry & The Seniors. In 1961, he began fronting the Seniors, and the following year his first (and sole) album came out: an explosive mixture of Beat, Rock 'n' Roll and Twist, laid down by an excellent band with tremendous soloists. Casey spent a long time on Hamburg stages and even now is still an outstanding session musician. He has played for Paul McCartney among many others. The new Bear Family CD – Howie's first after more than 40 years in the biz – presents the wild man at his wildest. It includes his complete original Fontana/Wing album (featuring the smashes Bony Moronie and the Boll Weevil Song), two extra tracks culled from singles and two previously unissued archival finds.

THE SEARCHERS. Founded in the late '50s to back the now forgotten Johnny Sandon, this Liverpudlian foursome first played the Star-Club in July 1962, and made their 19 Philips recordings on March 1, 1963. Soon after they signed with PYE in England and went on to score many pop and folk-rock hits. This, though, is the rawer side of the Searchers. Hard, pounding beat music. All the Philips tracks are on this brand new CD: one original album, A&B sides of the singles, plus a miscellany of songs strewn around on compilations. Here are all the early Searchers classics like Sweets For My Sweet, Ain’t That Just Like Me, Sweet Nothin’s, Beautiful Dreamer, and many others.

THE MERSEYBEATS. Pulled together from the remnants of two amateur Liverpool bands, the Mavericks and the Pacifics, the Merseybeats are still active these days – with forty years of touring behind them! Bear Family’s new Merseybeats anthology is a smash and, for the very first time, boasts all 31 tracks the band has ever recorded on a single compact disc! Included are classic early works such as Fortune Teller and Mister Moonlight, UK chart successes like I Think Of You, It’s Love That Really Counts and Wishin’ And Hopin’, and even a couple of highly sought-after German-language ditties Nur unsere Liebe zählt and Nur du allein which are worth a fortune these days!