

Like their Cameo Parkway label mates Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp, the Philadelphia vocal group did its best work on the dance floor, as in the infectious 1961 hit “The Bristol Stomp.” Despite expeditious lyrics, “Hully Gully Baby” is fun, funky stuff (credit raspy vocal lead Len Barry), but the Dovells’ rockin’-est cuts are the clap-happy “You Can’t Sit Down” and its cut-off cousin “Betty in Bermudas.” “Your Last Chance” and “The Actor” prove the quintet’s adeptness at straight doo-wop and ballads. For a change of pace, they move the dance-craze phenomenon into outer space for the Bo Diddley-meets-“Frogman” Henry-styled “Mope-Itty Mope.”