The Newbeats
' third album was anchored by their 1965 smash hit
"Run Baby Run,"
which had a sort of
Four Seasons
-meets-
Motown
sound. The rest of the record was, unfortunately, rather typical of the hasty way in which many
rock
LPs of the time were filled out. There were about half-a-dozen extraneous covers of mid-'60s hits by the likes of
the Beatles
,
the Rolling Stones
Roy Orbison
, and
the Supremes
. A handful of other mediocre numbers drew lightly on contemporary influences like
Merseybeat
(particularly on
"This Old Heart"
),
Tommy Tucker
's
"Hi-Heel Sneakers"
(whose gait is aped in
"Lookin' for Love"
), and
the Four Seasons
, all using one of the shrillest male falsetto voices (
Larry Henley
's) to grace 1960s
recordings. [
Ace
's 2004 CD reissue added 15 bonus tracks, all taken from 1965-1968 singles. For the most part they were mainstream
pop/rock
efforts in varying styles, from
-lite and a near Middle Eastern
polka
hybrid called
"Short on Love"
to a cover of
the Everly Brothers
'
"Bird Dog."
There was also a mono version of
"Run Baby Run"
and a number called
"Swinger"
that sounded like a rejected
James Bond
theme.] ~ Richie Unterberger