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Ruben & The Jets: For Real! (Mercury)

Gene Sculatti, Music World, June 1973

AS DEBUTS GO, this is a competently performed, surely inoffensive first try, but it's not the oldies revamp its title implies. The problem is, it's short on any kind of sustained identity at all, once you remove the campy"Fifties" overtones. Which brings up the core question that's been bugging me for quite awhile; to wit, when is this whole big busload of neo-grease punks, hoods andsax tooters-from SheNa Na on up, or down — gonna sack the Fifties scam and moveon to more substantial musicalfoundations?

Total word count of piece: 331

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