Pretty Little Angel Eyes - The Best Of

by Bruce EderThe two most well-known songs here, the title track and "Under the Moon of Love," are so heavily anthologized that it's difficult to imagine that any fan doesn't already own them. On the other hand, there's more where that came from, as this 17-track collection demonstrates, all soaring romantic doo wop-style rock & roll. Lee's falsetto serves him well on "Gee How I Wish You Were Here," "Beverly Jean," and most of the rest, most of which is solid midtempo pop-rock without a lot to distinguish it. "Pledge of Love" is a tear-stained weeper that seems to owe quite a bit of its sound to "Tell Laura I Love Her"; "Beverly Jean" is another in a long line of songs that use the names of girls from other songs ("Peggy Sue," "Mary Lou") as incidental hooks; "Then I'll Know" sounds like a partly successful attempt to give Lee a Del Shannon-type sound (a la "You Didn't Talk About Me"); "Wobble" is a silly dance tune; and "Pickin' Up the Pieces of My Heart" was an attempt at emulating Ricky Nelson's sound. There are no real surprises here except perhaps the sound quality, which is exceptionally good, even on an alternate take of "Under the Moon of Love."