(Early R&B / Rock & Roll) Thurston Harris - (2 CD) - 1983-1995, MP3 (tracks), 128-320 kbps

01-Thuston Harris-Little Bitty Pretty One (2:20)
02-Thurston Harris-Do What You Did (2:00)
03-Thurston Harris-Be Baba Leba (2:16)
04-Thuston Harris-I'm Out To Getcha (1:53)
05-Thurston Harris-I Got Loaded (1:51)
06-Thurston Harris-Over & Over (2:15)
07-Thurston Harris-You're Gonna Need Me (2:04)
08-Thurston Harris-Purple Stew (2:17)
09-Thurston Harris-I Hope You Won't Hold It (2:09)
10-Thurston Harris-In The Bottom Of My Heart (1:56)
11-Thurston Harris-Hey Little Girl (1:46)
12-Thurston Harris-My Love Will Last (1:48)
13-Thurston Harris-Runk Bunk (2:12)
14-Thurston Harris-1 Scotch,1 Bourbon,1 Beer (2:20)

01 Over & Over
02 Little Bitty Pretty One
03 Fine Fine Frame
04 Hey Little Girl
05 I'm Out to Getcha'
06 Hey Baba Leba
07 Do What You Did
08 Cross my Heart
09 My Love Will Last
10 Paradise Hill.
11 I'm Asking Forgiveness
12 I Got Loaded at Smokey Joe's
13 Purple Stew
14 Slip - Slop
15 I Hear A Rhapsody
16 Over Somebody Else's Shoulder
17 Tears From my Heart
18 You're Gonna' Need me
19 Runk Bunk
20 I Hope You Won't Hold It Against Me
21 Bless Your Heart
22 In The Bottom Of My Heart
23 One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
24 You Don't Know (How Much I Love You)
25 Send Me Some Lovin'
26 Only One Love is Blessed
27 Tell Me So
28 Recess in Heaven
29 Moonlight Cocktail
30 Poop-a-Loop
31 Dance On, Little Girl
32 Dancing Silhouettes
33 She's the One
34 Quiet As It's Kept
35 Mr. Satan

Thurston Harris managed to break out of the doo-wop groups The Sharps and The Lamplighters to establish a viable solo career for a while, but substance abuse and a reckless streak helped drag him down. Two of his three hits were covers of Bobby Day songs -- "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Over and Over" -- but the third, "Do What You Did," was one of his own compositions. Little Bitty Pretty One: Complete Early Recordings covers the years 1957-64 and has all of Harris' commercially-released Aladdin recordings, plus most of his later sides for Dot, Cub and Reprise, in no particular order. Many of the early Aladdin recordings feature prominent electric bass and rock rhythms, but Harris could sing sensitive ballads, too, as he does on "I'm Asking Forgiveness" and a cover of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Coctail," a melodically sophisticated song that became a favorite of doo-wop groups. Harris didn't record many novelties, but had a hand in writing the ones he did: "Purple Stew" is yet another installment in the "Purple People Eater" saga that also references "Witch Doctor" and "Stranded in the Jungle," and "(I Got Loaded At) Smokey Joe's" recalls The Coasters' "Smokey Joe's Cafe." Some of Harris' later repertoire, while enjoyable, seems unlikely to have produced any hits. His rockin' cover of Amos Milburn's "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" is good but hardly teen-oriented (unlike most contemporaneous popular music), and "Dance On Little Girl" mimics "Little Bitty Pretty One" while lifting the melody from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" -- not exactly a winning combination for the Anglophile year of 1964. Boasting good sound quality and an incredible 35 tracks (four of which appear in stereo), Little Bitty Pretty One: Complete Early Recordings is a the most exhaustive anthology of Thurston Harris' solo recordings that could fit onto one disc.

Thurston Harris recorded with the Lamplighters, one of the many groups on the early R&B scene in South Central Los Angeles, in the early '50s. The group later evolved into the Tenderfoots, then the Sharps, and it was under this last name they were credited to when they backed up Harris on his most famous hit, 1957's "Little Bitty Pretty One" (number two R&B and number six pop) for Aladdin. In 1957, while signed as a solo artist to Aladdin, Harris recorded a cover of Bobby Day's classic novelty number, with a solid band featuring the ubiquitous Earl Palmer on drums and his friends in the Sharps doing background vocals. The single propelled Harris immediately to the front-ranks of the R&B scene. In 1958, Harris scored a Top 20 R&B hit with "Do What You Did," but he failed to have any chart success afterwards. In 1990, Thurston Harris died of a heart attack in Pomona, CA, at age 58. "Little Bitty Pretty One" has gone on to become one of the best-loved oldies of the late '50s.