This is the sixth of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap series of "Rock 'n Roll Legends" featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.
These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin's, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada's National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.
There's a "Fanzone" that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the "Quantum Leap Propaganda" section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.
While this "Rock 'n Roll Legends" series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.
The "Fanzone" includes fairly extensive biographies of all of the artists on this release, including: Tommy Sands, Joey Dee, Frankie Ford, Bobby Vee, Tommy Roe, Lenny Welch, Troy Shondell, Ray Peterson, Buddy Knox, Jack Scott, Jimmy Calvallo, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Cirno & the Bowties, and Paul Anka. While these sections do make interesting reading, the visual quality is far less than ideal.
The "Quantum Leap Propaganda" section is an eccentric mix of archival footage, rough edits and promotional material, including a quirky, clip-packed documentary video that seems more like a sampler pieced together from diverse sources plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. The purpose of "Quantum Leap Propaganda" appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar in these segments is what appears to be a release number indicating the release on which that clip may be found. The visual quality is again often less than desirable and the editing is rough and amateurish, but the viewing experience is interesting and sometimes even educational.
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