The Crew Cuts - The Best of the Crew Cuts: The Mercury Years (1997)

Twenty-two tracks from their 1954-57 prime, with over a dozen hits, including "Sh-Boom," "Earth Angel," "Crazy 'Bout Ya Baby," and "Ko Ko Mo." Now that the original R&B/doo wop versions of most of the material is available for easy comparison, you'd have to be nuts to prefer these whitewashed covers, which sound incredibly quaint and lightweight. The Crew Cuts were never a bona fide rock & roll group, however. Judged solely within the context of other young White male harmony pop quartets of the time, such as the Four Freshmen and the Four Aces, they acquit themselves well with their accomplished vocal arrangements.