Bobby Freeman

INCLUDES 12 BONUS TRACKS:

LONG UNAVAILABLE !!!

Still alive but now forgotten, Bobby Freeman was a talented rhythm & blues singer/songwriter from San Francisco who became one of the dace-craze era’s biggest artists. Freeman’s music also combines rock-combo raunch with doo wop and impassioned, scorched soul-singing.

His energetic vocals were excellent, as can be heard on such R&B dance hits of the late 1950s and mid-1960s as “(I Do the) Shimmy, Shimmy”, “S-W-I-M”, “The Mess Around”, and “Mardi Gras Rock”. But he really left an indelible mark on the first generation of rock & roll and soul aficionados with the celebrated smash “Do You Wanna Dance”. It is widely talked about in some circles that a fifteen year old Jerry Garcia, later of The Grateful Dead, played guitar on this side. The song would be covered by various artists, including Eddie Cochran, The Beach Boys, Del Shannon, John Lennon and The Ramones, among others.

This quintessential release presents Freeman’s magnificent debut album, Do You Wanna Dance?, which was originally issued by the Jubilee label in 1959. This remastered collector’s edition also contains 12 bonus tracks, most of them consisting of hard to find sides from the same period. Some of the material here isn’t available on other editions, nor have these tracks ever been previously compiled together on the same CD. These fabulous recordings offer a solid introduction into this man’s special brand of proto-soul, and contain some of the best R&B and rock & roll of the era.

PERSONNEL:

BOBBY FREEMAN, lead vocals and piano.
With rhythm accompaniment and background vocals.

Recorded in California between 1958 and 1962.
Original recordings produced by Morty Palit

INCLUDES 16-PAGE BOOKLET RARE PHOTOS - VINTAGE MEMORABILIA
AND DETAILED LINER NOTES

TRACKS:

DO YOU WANNA DANCE?
01. WHEN YOU’RE SMILING
02. LITTLE GIRL DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND
03. EBB-TIDE
04. MARDI GRAS ROCK
05. A LOVE TO LAST A LIFETIME
06. DO YOU WANNA DANCE?
07. ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET
08. I BELIEVE
09. RESPONSIBLE
10. BECAUSE OF YOU
11. GOOD LOVIN’ IS WHAT I NEED
12. YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE

BONUS TRACKS
13. (I DO THE) SHIMMY, SHIMMY
14. SHE SAID SHE WANTS TO DANCE
15. MARY ANN THOMAS
16. GOODNIGHT, SWEETHEART, GOODNIGHT
17. BETTY LOU GOT A NEW PAIR OF SHOES
18. FEVER
19. NEED YOUR LOVE
20. BIG FAT WOMAN
21. THERE’S GONNA BE A CHANCE
22. THE MESS AROUND
23. LOVE ME
24. SHAME ON YOU MISS JOHNSON 1:56

TOTAL TIME:58:51