Bob & Earl and The Olympics - Dancetime (1994)

Dancetime U.S.A. consists of late-'60s tracks originally released on Mirwood Records. Split between Bob & Earl and the Olympics, the album as a whole is a quite pleasant -- if somewhat derivative -- collection of soul tunes, but it hardly represents these artists at their peak. Bob & Earl by this time were on their third Bob, with Bobby Garrett (who replaced Bob Relf, who in turn had replaced the original Bob, Bobby Day) handling the singing with mainstay Earl Nelson, and although Dancetime U.S.A. does contain perhaps the duo's biggest and most notable hit, "Harlem Shuffle," it is a re-recorded version and not the original single. The Olympics were a Coasters-influenced vocal group with a penchant for novelty tunes, and while one of their biggest hits, "Baby Do the Philly Dog," is here, the group's best years were obviously in the past at this point. This isn't a bad collection, by any means, but both groups are better represented on earlier releases.