If you were as enthralled by Night Train’s recent Joe Barry reissue as I was, you’ll want to hunt for this complete (?) collection of Jivin’ Gene material. Interestingly, there are several similarities between Barry and Gene. Both were swamp pop artists who vocally were close to Fats Domino and both had careers defined by one hit record. Barry’s was “I’m A Fool To Care,” Gene’s was the equally memorable “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” from 1959. No less than four versions of the classic are contained here, but as the saying goes, “You can’t beat the original.”

The earliest tracks here (1958) are the two-chord weeper “Going Out With the Tide,” complete with one of the most chaotic bridges ever heard on a South Louisiana single, and the frenzied “Up, Up and Away.” Another great earlier rocker is “My Need For Love,” where Gene sounds like he’d been listening to Warren Storm 45s before he went in the studio. The Domino influence can be discerned on “You’re Jealous,” “I Cried,” “The Creek Don’t Rise” and “Little Country Girl” (the ABC-Paramount Domino that is) as well as the cover of “Poor Me,” which unfortunately gets bogged down by an intrusive Nashville string section.

As Gene’s career moved into the mid-’60s, his producers pulled him out of the swamp pop bag, but he was usually able to adjust accordingly. Even when handed country laments like “Release Me” and “Leave Me,” he still sounds like he’s from Beaumont and not Nashville. Ibid. on pop tunes like “Love Medicine” and “Love Light Man,” the latter which has a cool Roy Head groove. Photos and liner notes are annoyingly absent, but it’s good to see that vintage swamp pop music, not to mention Jivin’ Gene, is finally getting some attention by the reissue industry.