Popsters They Tried to Rock Vol. 4

• Track Listing

EU-only collection, the fourth installment in Bear Family’s The Popsters - They Tried To Rock series. This set includes tracks that follow the early struggle by popsters who tried to come to terms with rock 'n' roll's challenge to traditional pop music. This took place during the early to mid-1950s, before anybody knew whether it was just a fad that would blow over or something that truly threatened to revolutionize popular music. Many popsters hated it and privately made fun of it, while at the same time they saw their record sales plummet and their radio play and personal appearances affected. Popsters were faced with the same career-altering choice: Do we fight 'em or join 'em? Some popsters were equipped to adapt and did a fine job of it. Others, weren't and didn't. For the first time, Bear Family has collected some vintage performances by popsters who tried their best to pass themselves off as rockers. Many of these tracks – by both the famous and the not-so-famous - have become quite rare. You'll marvel at how good some of them were. Others may draw a well-deserved snicker after all these years. But good or bad, they all remind us just how potent a force rock ‘n’ roll was in the early days, and how even well-established popsters believed they had to change to survive.

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