Woo-Hoo by The Rock-A-Teens (CD, Mar-2006, Collectables)

Over the years, it seems like most every movie from Quentin Tarantino has had a song that will forever be associated with it. Reservoir Dogs had “Stuck in the Middle With You,” Pulp Fiction had “Miserlou,” and Kill Bill Vol. 1 had “Woo-Hoo” by The 5.6.7.8.’s that effectively introduced this Japanese girl band to the rest of the world. What many people didn’t know is that the song was previously a hit for the rockabilly band that first recorded it in 1959. That group was the Rock-A-Teens, an early rock group formed in 1956 and originally made up of six high-schoolers who put out one album then disappeared from music history. Their one hit song though (the writing of which, through a series of unusual events, has wound up being credited to Virginia record store owner George McGraw) has remained a favorite over the years due to its wordless refrain and upbeat nature, being covered by numerous groups and featured in movies and commercials alike.

The Rock-A-Teens 1960 debut album also entitled Woo-Hoo contains nearly everything the band produced in their four year career and runs a grand total of 26 minutes. It’s certainly a fun record to listen to, having that joyous old time feel with a stand-up bass cranking out bluesy chord progressions, while frontman Vic Mizelle (on lead guitar and vocals) rips out twangy guitar chords and belts out song lyrics. One really gets the idea when listening to Woo-Hoo that the Rock-A-Teens were basically the Mizelle show; it’s his guitar and occasional vocals on the album that are featured prominently. Only intermittently was I really able to hear additional guitarists Bobby Walke and Bill Cook, and even Paul Dixon’s bass is relatively quiet on the album mix. Drummer Bill Smith pumps out the standard uptempo early rock beats and unleashes a drum solo or two in a few songs, and sax player Eddie Robinson gets thrown a few bones to provide harmonies, accents and a couple feature numbers. About half the tunes here are purely instrumentals, with the remaining ones being a showcase for Mizelle to wail and scream lyrics about the usual boy-girl matters, “dancing at the hop,” or even sing a tune about his mom.

The disc starts off with the title tune that has a drum beat that barrels right along almost recklessly, “wild man” background hollers, and the signature “woo hoo” falsetto main vocals. Drummer Smith is going at the song hard, threatening to go completely out of control at times and I wouldn’t be surprised that learn the hollering going on in the background is his animalistic contribution to the song. “Doggone It Baby” has a more backwoodsy feel to it, with a bouncy beat and all sorts of “hip” lingo - “see ya later alligator” and the like. Mizelle’s vocals certainly are confident and full of attitude; he almost snarls some of the words to these songs, though he displays nice vocal range that stretches well into tenor territory during the song “That’s My Momma.” “Janis Will Rock” has the sound and feel of an old Elvis tune, with Mizelle tearing up a tinny guitar solo, and by the time the album’s twelfth and final track “I Was Born to Rock” shows up, most listeners would be in no position to argue that this band could throw down some good tunes.

While these tunes are perfectly enjoyable to listen to, most of them provide exactly what one would expect from late ‘50s rock and roll. Some tracks here actually sound a little lazy, which I think has more to do with the fact that some of the backing players couldn’t really keep up with the pace Mizelle was setting with his rapid-fire guitar strumming. I would almost say that Mizelle was somewhat held back by the band mates he was surrounded with. He certainly seems capable of going crazy with both his vocals and guitar, but the group he was playing with simply wasn’t capable of holding up their end of the bargain. Mizelle’s performance is energetic, but I can’t say the same for some of his band mates and I think the music suffers somewhat due to the lethargic backup players.

Personally, I think more disappointing to me is that the recording has a very high timbre. There’s almost no bass going on, and to be completely honest, the backing band doesn’t make much of an impression at all. I’m not sure what the real purpose was of having two additional guitarists screwing around in the background of these tracks. Although there are a few songs here (including “I’m Not Afraid” that has somewhat annoying “oooing” and “aaahing” going on throughout in place of real vocals and “Pagan” that’s the perfect, relaxed-pace song to saunter along to) that slow the overall pace of the album down a bit, there’s not much variety going on. That lack of variety combined with the somewhat dicey sound quality of the recording (at least in terms of the backing instruments), I’d have to say this disc is completely average. Fans of old time rock and roll and/or rockabilly would probably enjoy Woo-Hoo (released on the Roulette Records imprint) and the title song is a classic for sure. Still, I’d be more inclined to tell interested parties to check out one of the more influential, really cool obscure bands of the era such as The (Fabulous) Wailers or The Sonics.

Recommend this product? Yes