The Harptones - The Goldner Recordings 1956-57 (1991)

An excellent (almost) best-of album by a superb doo-wop group that, inexplicably, never had any national hits, although their reputation has deservedly, grown over the years (and connoisseurs of the genre always knew how good they were). The Harptones most famous record, "I Want a Sunday Kind of Love," isn't here, but most everything else gives the group's sophisticated harmonies and lead singer Willie Winfield's keening tenor plenty of room to shine. Songs like the impassioned "Shrine of St. Celia" and the mambo-esque "Oo Wee Baby" represent doo-wop at its most eclectic.