The Playmates - Beep Beep! The Playmates Collection 1957-62 (2021)

The Playmates were a vocal trio who came together at the University of Connecticut and developed an act based around novelty pop material and vocal harmonies, signing to the Roulette label in 1957. Over the next five years they had ten hits, the best-known being the No. 4 US novelty hit “Beep Beep”, which became a perennial favourite on radio request shows on both sides of the Atlantic – the song had to be rerecorded for the UK to cut out the mention of commercial car brands so that the record could be played by the BBC. This great-value 58-track 2-CD set comprises just about all their A&B sides from this era, plus the titles from their “At Play”, “Wait For Me” and “Cuttin’ Capers” albums not otherwise featured on singles, and selected titles from their album “Calypso”. It features all their career hits, including “Beep Beep” and the Top 30 entries “Jo-Ann”, “Don’t Go Home” and “What Is Love”. It’s a substantial and reasonably comprehensive selection of their recordings from what was the primary era of their career, and it’s a thoroughly entertaining showcase for their highly distinctive talent as songwriters and performers of an unusual style of pop.