Reviewed by Anthony Longville

For me Pat Boone will always be the man who played skinny preacher, David Wilkerson, in the classic film release of The Cross & The Switchblade - probably his finest hour. For many others, of course, he was a '50s million-selling star who crooned ballads like "April Love" and made very polite attempts at rock 'n' roll. This compilation is presumably of '50s recordings of hymns and sacred songs and with the impossibly clean cut pic on the cover looks decidedly dated. And by golly is it dated! The whole crooning and choir approach reminded me of the sort of thing I used to hear as a child when my parents played their Jim Reeves gospel LPs. But this takes you to a different level altogether (I never disliked Gentleman Jim's LPs). The whole sound and mood is so depressing, there's no emotion, no joy. The mournful vocals are interspersed with corny spoken interludes to a background of squawking lady vocalists. Death seems to be a major theme on the disc, which hits a rock bottom during the spoken story of a "negro" boy's funeral in the midst of "Steal Away". The track list has a sort of predictable inevitability with oldies such as "It's No Secret", "Whispering Hope" and the "Old Rugged Cross". This music is definitely of its time, and it's hard to see that many people are going to enjoy this even if they do get change from six quid! So, I'll dust off my 'The Cross & The Switchblade' DVD and hope that as Nicky Cruz gets out of his seat, the preacher doesn't decide to sing us a song!

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