1953 Let's Have A Good Time! (Silly Sally Records SSR 231A)

Excerpt from The New York Times, 'What is Pop?' by Neil Holmes, December 8, 1953

"… which brings us to the latest release from Silly Sally Records (so firmly established as true connoisseurs of chronically lowbrow fair) who appear eager to follow their regular muse and garner the attention of the sophomore crowd.

Let's Have A Good Time! is the optimistically titled debut of Dusty Carr, a teenager known to many for his execrable 'performances' on The Milton Berle Show. The 'hit' from the LP, that is, the song that has received the most unwarranted attention, is You Are My Angel, which consists of a terribly ordinary melody superimposed on garish lyrics (and here I truly abuse the word 'lyrics' - with apologies to Mr. Ira Gershwin, et. al.). I shall not attempt to condemn that which will rightfully die…"

1954 Let's Have A Really Good Time! (Silly Sally Records SSR 246A)

Excerpt from Time Magazine, 'Looking at Love in Music', by Derby Waits, August 14, 1954

"It is the overanxious obviousness of today's youth-oriented music that is truly distressing. Where Sinatra may imply through nuance and phrasing, performers such as Dusty Carr bludgeon with military directness. When Carr shouts, "Let's have a really good time!" it sounds like an imperative, not an invitation. The song, "Thinkin' 'Bout Somethin' Stupid", replete with corrupt syntax, must be autobiographical."

1955 Good Times Are Over: Dusty Sings The Blues (Silly Sally Records SSR 32-1A)

Excerpt from The Village Choice, 'Today's Music', by Amos Johnson, July 12, 1955

"Perhaps it's improper, if not unprofessional, for a music critic to publicly admit an ingrained dislike of particular genres, but my antipathy toward the emergence of 'hillbilly' music grows exponentially. That said, Dusty Carr, with his maudlin simpering and manufactured worldliness, makes Elvis Presley and his ilk seem like downright artistes. Carr's wretched rendition of 'The Gal That Got Away' should raise howls of laughter from even the most sedate cocktail party… The self-penned, The Loneliest Boy On Broadway, had me on the floor in hysterics. Surely there must be impoverished nations in the world who could make better use of the wax expended on Good Times Are Over: Dusty Sings The Blues…"

1956 Hey, Let's Go To Crazy-ville: 'On The Road With Carr' (Silly Sally Records SSR 926)

Excerpt from the Toronto Star, 'The Pied Piper of Dunces', by Clyde Cohen, September 9, 1956

"It's been a strange year for popular music. The emergence of rock and roll ("beat music"), which the cultural academia profess to be a 'fad', is gaining momentum. Even a cursory look at the CHUM Radio 'Top 100' reveals an uneasy commingling of traditional performers - such as Perry Como and Patti Page - with more eccentric appellations, be they Bill Halley and the Comets, Elvis Presley, or Dusty Carr. What's going on?

Perhaps a few clues may be divined from Dusty Carr's most recent album, Hey, Let's Go To Crazy-ville: On The Road With Carr. The performances, musicianship and songwriting are so uniformly mediocre, it's as if the producers are striving - and succeeding - to keep the tunes at an imbecilic level of appreciation. And therein lies the appeal of rock and roll: it is a collective idiocy in which young people, bereft of wisdom and knowledge, can feel comfortable. In this regard, Dusty Carr is truly the pied piper of dunces, consistently unchallenging with the outrageous, though tiring appeal, of a precocious ten year old."

1959 C'mon Everybody, Get Happy! (Muscle Shoals Hotwax Productions DC-345)

Excerpt from the Mobil Post, What's In A Name? by Jake Bodine, February 16, 1959

"Listening to Dusty Carr's C'mon Everybody, Get Happy! is about as inspiring as attending a mass burial. Get happy? Are you kidding? This collection of 14 dirge-like songs should be named Music To Slit Your Wrists By. Let's look at a few song titles: I Cut My Lips On Your Love. Growing Fatigue. Valley Of Death. A Sudden Movement From The Shadows. Point made. Carr needs a few years of intense therapy, not a recording contract."

1962 Surf's Comin' Up! (Self Published Productions CRP 31-3)

Excerpt from the San Fernando Community News, Surfin' The Wave, by Betty Collier, April 5, 1962

"Surf's up Hotdoggy, and shooting the big curl is Dusty Carr with Surf's Comin' Up! Anyone remember Dusty's old hit You Are My Angel? Well, take a listen to this new version that kicks off the LP. Gotta dig those quaking guitars. My close friend Dusty tells me this 'vibe'is all the rage. And I say, Give me more! It's good to have my pal back after a three-year (well-deserved) break.

1968 Screaming Lights And Cartoon Faces (Warner Music CB-E5-22R)

Excerpt from the Haight-Asbury CrossRoads, Echoes Off the Big Wall, by W.R. Davis, March 10, 1968

"So I ask my self, 'Self, what the hell is the Jefferson Airplane doing with a Vegas-has-been like Dusty Carr?' My self says, 'just being beautiful man, just being beautiful, so lay back and dig it'. And dig it I do! Lend an ear. Who can truly remonstrate against Carr's many bourgeoisie bon mots, such as, "Hey, you know who the loneliest guy in Haight-Ashbury is? A barber!" I mean, the forceful stupidity of this man's patter is infectious, even trippy. Carr gives gauche a wonderful, exciting, celestial funk that makes this album my premier choice of the year."

1972 A Time To Be Thoughtful (WEA Music THX -ll38)

Excerpt from the New Yorker, Oh Lord, How Much Longer? by Dowbert Keele, August 1969

"I pause to wonder how much self-congratulation, and, let's face it, unctuous palavering, is behind Leonard Bernstein's recent acclamation of Beatles' music. Messers. Lennon and McCartney have given us undeniable gems, but the way Bernstein jabbers ad nauseum about their achievements makes one suspicious. Maybe this is my opportunity to belie my age and claim profound affection for the trite, the fabricated, the hyped, the crude, and fully embrace Dusty Carr and his 'music' (how inappropriate that poor word seems to me now). A Time To Be Thoughtful comprises about forty minutes of guitar tuning, primal screeching and offbeat drums. I thought 'thoughtful' is a word that means, well, 'thoughtful'. That said, perhaps I can now continue my own career development (move over Bernstein!) and conduct the New York Philharmonic with that zesty passion heretofore reserved for white-haired teenagers."

1979 Gotta Disco 'Til I Die' (Casablanca Records DR-12)

Excerpt from the Seattle Post, The Unintentional Court Jester, by Garth Tynan, September 12, 1979

"Who knows what a 'chunka' of funk is compared to a 'lotta' funk? But whatever the quantity, Dusty Carr (yes, that Dusty Carr) has the platforms twisting with Gimme A Chunka Funk, from his album Gotta Disco 'Til I Die. Who woulda thunk he had it in him? The former teen star, lounge lizard, surfin' bum - whatever, has transmogrified himself once more, entering Bee Gee land, puffed hair on head, gold chain around neck - the full gear for a very funky white guy. The fact that this album is as disposable (and less useful) than toilet paper should not hinder your enjoyment. For isn't that the point of disco, it's just 'dumb fun?' And if that's true, Dusty Carr has surely spent a lifetime shaking his moneymaker as the unintentional court jester of pop."

1990 Really Fast Carr (Tuo-Tone Music, IMC - 16)

Excerpt from the Miami Herald, Dusty Starr? Ringo Carr? by Tal Scott, April 12, 1990

'Shout!', Phillip Norman's definitive Beatles biography, makes it clear that Ringo Starr knows how to show up for work and keep a beat. Would the Beatles have been as successful sans Ringo? Yes - but not nearly as much fun. It's been twenty years ago since the band split up, marooning their drummer without a voice or songs. To his credit, Ringo has periodically cobbled together enough talented performers to make some of his droning downright likeable. But sadly, this past year, he has tried his hand at music production - and for a reason only he knows, selected Dusty Carr as the 'produced'. The result is Really Fast Carr, which is - and I'm guessing - some kind of paean to 'lost America', an America that made big stars out of innocent, smiling teenagers like, well, Dusty Carr… The unbridled pathos of Carr's songs really grates the nerves. For instance, 'Early One Morning I Wept' (yes, that is the title), has the attention-grabbing first line, "My coffee's cold and lumpy baby, but not as cold and lumpy as you." And this song is intended (again, I'm guessing) to be somewhat wistful and contemplative… Really Fast Carr goes really fast into a brick wall.