Santo and Johnny

Wow!


The debut album by Brooklyn-born Italian brothers, Santo & Johnny Farina, is pretty effing amazing!  Or to put it in Brooklyn terms, "Hey Vinny! Haveya heard dese greaseballs?  Itsa good!"


Sparsely produced with some virtuosic pedal steel guitar work, this 1959 release is both haunting and frenetic. Its like the soundtrack to a orgy on the backlot of "Happy Days"!  


This is the LP that includes their huge, ubiquitous hit, "Sleepwalk", but it's also chock full of other great early rock'n'roll/loungey guitar-based instrumentals like "Caravan", "Blue Moon", Chuck Berry's "School Day" and Bill Justis's "Raunchy."


RATING: 4.5 bowls of pasta out of a possible 5