Neil D...thanks for the supposrt on this one.

BTW, you say "The new industry-groomed pop idols were pretty dismal and by the early 60's...".

Perhaps we can separate the folks who were strongly indusrtry-supported from those who were industry-created, such as the two dweebs who did "Tiger" and "Venus".

Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers and Rick Nelson enjoyed great industry support, Buddy Holly, not.

I put those four acts as essential. They sound timeless and I have good collections CDs of all but Buddy Holly so far.