on 6/9/2025, 11:47 pm
can't really go wrong with any of them.
AND -> the first five KINGSTON TRIO studio recordings reached #1 on Billboard's Top Selling Albums chart:
1 - THE KINGSTON TRIO
2 - AT LARGE
3 - HERE WE GO AGAIN
4 - SOLD OUT
5 - STRING ALONG
My all time favorite NBD album would have to be STRING ALONG for several reasons.
For one, the LP cover was perfect. Bob Shane & Dave Guard standing with their banjos in hand while Nick Reynolds was kneeling holding his guitar.
The guys looked real good...or as (producer) Voyle Gilmore would say to (manager) Frank Werber: "They Look Like Stars."
I remember it well -> it was the summer of 1960. No School... and off to enjoying BBQs...Picnics...Campfires...and Beaches!
Life Couldn't Be Better!
And the Trio's "Bad Man Blunder" got a lot of air-play on our radios stations, competing with:
Alley-Oop - Hollywood Argyles
Be-Bop-A-Lula - Everly Brothers
Everybody's Somebody's Fool - Connie Francis
I'm Sorry - Brenda Lee
Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison
(and others, of course)
Different Time / Different Place / Different World
Going back to the fantastic KT record STRING ALONG, it had a very unique feel to it.
Nick yelling "Bang! You're Dead" after "Bad Man Blunder" (excluded from the 45rpm single) - scared the heck out of me when I first heard it ----
and Dave Guard harshly screaming "YEAH" after his exquisite lead vocal in "Leave My Woman Alone" (written by Ray Charles).
The Kingstons also paid more attention to their instruments, and if you ask me (and admittedly nobody is), Nick Bob & Dave never sounded better!
(although "Coast of California" and "This Land Is Your Land" left off STRING ALONG made it to their LP a year later on GOIN' PLACES" - Dave Guard's final KT outing)
THE KINGSTON TRIO's follow-up Christmas album LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR (Oct/1960) also showed Nick Bob & Dave at their very best ----
though it never got the appreciation or the exposure it deserved....and disappointed Capitol Records in the "Sales" department.
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