Tag Archives: Legacy

Elvis Presley: Elvis 75

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Career spanning single CD skims the surface of Elvis’ greatness

This single CD, issued in celebration of Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday anniversary, includes twenty-five tracks selected from the more thorough 4-CD Elvis 75 Good Rockin’ Tonight. Much like the box set, this disc covers the length of Elvis’ career, including early sides for Sun, incendiary rock ‘n’ ‘roll for RCA, hits from the movies, post-Army comebacks, gospel, late-60s Memphis gems, live performances and later studio work from 1972. Unlike the box set, you’ll miss his pre-Sun acetate and his post-72 recordings. More importantly, each phase of Elvis’ career gets only one or a few cuts here, and the lesser known tracks that provide compelling context in the box set are dropped.

Obviously, a career as rich as Elvis Presley’s can’t be summed up in a single disc. Even his Top 10 hits won’t fit on a single CD, and there’s so much material beyond the charts that a fair hearing of the King’s catalog really takes multiple discs or sets. 30 #1 Hits painted a picture of Presley’s career through a recitation of his best-known hits; it’s a fair summary, as is the broader 2-1/2 CD Essential 3.0. But none of these short collections, this one included, provide enough depth on Elvis’ innovations, failures and resurgences to really essay the full arc of his career. A single disc such as this can serve as a map to an artist’s career, but it’s no substitute for a more thorough hearing.

What’s here is fantastic. From the early rave-up of Arthur “Big Boy” Cruddup’s “That’s All Right” through the deeply-felt “Always On My Mind,” Elvis is nothing less than brilliant. The disc is nicely programmed and plays well, but with so few tracks to provide context, you’ll have to figure out for yourself how Elvis got from “Viva Las Vegas” to “How Great Thou Art.” If you want to dig deeper, seek out the 4-CD box, or sets that survey his 50s, 60s and 70s masters, soundtracks, sessions at Sun and American Studios, his ’68 comeback special, and his numerous live recordings.

The disc is delivered in a two-section digipack featuring a pair of full-panel Presley photos. The 16-page booklet includes a short biographical essay by Billy Altman (seemingly excerpted from his much longer essay in the box set), additional photos, and recording and chart data. If you think you only need one disc of Elvis Presley’s music, this isn’t a bad place to get an earful, but be forewarned that it’s a gateway to a large catalog that you may find yourself unable to resist. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: Radio Hits of the 60s

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Terrific collection of AM radio’s highly varied legacy

Rather than picking an artist or label or scene or sound, Legacy’s pulled together thirteen original hit recordings that show the range of music that AM radio brought to its listeners. Collected here is New Orleans R&B (“Ya Ya,” 1961 and “Working in the Coal Mine,” 1966), Dixieland Jazz (“Washington Square,” 1963), Easy Listening (“A Fool Never Learns,” 1964), Folk Pop and Rock (“We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,” 1964 and “In the Year 2525,” 1969), Garage Punk (“Little Girl,” 1966), Soul (“I’m Your Puppet,” 1966 and “Cherry Hill Park,” 1969), Bubblegum (“Simon Says,” 1968), Trad Jazz Vocal (“The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde,” 1968), and Vocal Pop (“Worst That Could Happen,” 1969).

Even within these individual songs you can often hear more than one genre exerting its influence, such as the steel guitar and horns that provide accents to the superb pop production of Merrilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning.” In this day of highly balkanized music channels and individually programmed MP3 playlists, it’s hard to imagine such variety inhabiting a single mass-market playlist, but that was part of AM radio’s power to attract and keep a broad swath of listeners. Playing this collection will remind you how good record and radio people were at picking and making hits – the winnowing process disenfranchised many, but what got through the sieves, particularly what got to the top of the charts, was often highly memorable.

Legacy’s disc clocks in at a slim 35 minutes, but what’s here is a terrifically nostalgic spin whose songs stand up to repeated listening forty-plus years later. True, Andy Williams’ “A Fool Never Learns” might wear out its welcome before the other tracks, but it’s part and parcel of the ebb and flow of 1960s AM radio. This set isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive compilation of any one thing in particular, but a reminder of the breadth that once graced individual radio stations across the land. There was a unity to AM radio’s audience that’s been replace by the free choice of the empowered individual. That personalization carries with it many benefits, but the range of this set may remind you of what’s also been lost. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Elvis Presley: Elvis 75- Good Rockin’ Tonight

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4-CD anthology shines as brightly as a King’s crown

Elvis was not only the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll (Little Richard’s claim on the crown notwithstanding), but in his afterlife he has also become the undisputed king of reissues and anthologies. RCA’s four-CD set, spanning from his earliest self-funded acetates through late home recordings and live sides, his last major studio works and a post-mortem remix, offers no new tracks for Presley’s legions of collectors, but provides a superb introduction and deep overview for anyone who’s heard about, rather than heard, the King. Those who know a few hits or have sat through an Elvis movie or two will find the greatness of his musical catalog measures up to the hype and explains the dedication of his most ardent fans.

Collected here are one hundred tracks, beginning with Presley’s very first recording, “My Happiness,” waxed on his own dime as a gift for his mother. His earliest commercial sides show how he forged hillbilly, blues and country roots into his personal strand of rock ‘n’ roll, first for Sun with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, and then, with the addition of D.J. Fontana on drums and A-list guests like Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins, for RCA. These early works aren’t so much primitive as they are elemental – the lack of production pomp or circumstance presents Elvis as an unadorned and raw rock ‘n’ roll spirit. The addition of a backing vocal trio, as can first be heard on 1956’s “I Was the One,” showed a crooning side of Elvis that would continue to reappear even as he continued to explore rockabilly and blues.

From the 50s through the 70s Elvis moved through a variety of producer’s hands and a number of different studios, and got something different from each. His studio recordings took him from Memphis to Nashville, north to New York, west to Hollywood, back to Nashville where he worked in RCA’s legendary Studio B and back to Memphis for his legendary late-60s sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios. By the early ‘70s, on the heels of his televised comeback special, Elvis once again became a live draw, and selected sides find him in Las Vegas, Honolulu and on the road in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Elvis waxed his share of clunkers, but with each new direction and in each new setting he seemed to record something worthwhile, and producer Ernst Mikael Jorgensen has done a masterful job of picking highlights.

More importantly, Jorgensen has intermixed iconic hits with lesser known singles and album tracks, showing the depth of Elvis’ artistry and the catalog he created. Elvis often overwhelmed the charts with hit singles, leaving terrific performances such as the energized “One-Sided Love Affair,” a bluesy cover of Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and the gospel “Thrill of Your Love” to languish as album tracks. Even more surprising is a 1962 version of “Suspicion” that pre-dates Terry Stafford’s hit by two years. Elvis’ soundtracks included their share of dregs, particularly as the ‘60s wore on, but they also included hits and great album tracks like a scorching version of “Trouble” from King Creole and bluesy covers of Dylan’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” from Spinout and Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” from Clambake.

While other artists reinvented themselves to fit the times, Elvis bent the times around himself (excepting “Yoga is as Yoga Does,” thankfully not included here), staying true to his voice as everything around him changed. His producers, songwriters, and musicians kept turning over, but in the center of it all Elvis sang a surprisingly straight line from ’53 to ‘77. Even as his voice matured and the productions were influenced by his Vegas stage show, the fire in his delivery remained. Whether singing rock, blues, country, soul, pop or gospel, his performances found a true line stretched from the Sun sessions through RCA studios in Nashville, New York and Hollywood, a stint in the army, a catalog of often mediocre films, his 1968 resurrection, a triumphant return to Memphis, and country sessions that brought him back to his roots.

For many listeners, disc four will be the least familiar. Covering 1970 through 1977, these selections find Elvis’ singles charting lower, but still delivering the goods. Only “Burning Love” made the top-5, and his other top-10 from that stretch, “The Wonder of You,” is not included. “An American Trilogy,” is at once bombastic and utterly show-stopping, his version of “Always on My Mind” made the country charts but should have found cross-over success before Willie Nelson ten years later, and his last single, “Way Down,” though given to ‘70s production sounds, finds his gospel fervor undimmed. The beat heavy remix of “A Little Less Conversation” that closes the set shows just how easily Elvis’ voice could slide into new contexts (the original film performance from Live a Little, Love a Little is worth searching out on DVD, by the way). These hundred tracks aren’t a complete run through every Elvis highlight, but they tell the entire arc of his musical career in a compelling and thorough way.

The box includes an 80-page booklet that features a biographical essay by Billy Altman, numerous photos, reproductions of original record labels, covers and picture sleeves, movie posters, master tape boxes, and detailed recording, chart and personnel data. RCA/Legacy is releasing a companion 26-track single disc that cherry-picks this box, and though it may prove useful as a guide to further Elvis purchases, it doesn’t provide the compelling, detailed portrait of this four-disc set. With more Elvis 75th-birthday anniversary reissues on the way (and a terrific 2-CD version of From Elvis in Memphis already out) you may be tempted to put together your own collection, but you’d have a hard time assembling a more compelling introduction than this box. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: NOW That’s What I Call Country, Volume 2

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Various_NowThatsWhatICallCountryMusicVolume2Modern country hits – pop, twang and country-rock

Singles – whether 7” vinyl or MP3s – have had a tumultuous history. They were the standard bearer in the juke box and top-40 eras, they shared the spotlight with long-playing albums that were purpose-built as “artistic statements,” were revitalized as soundtracks to MTV videos, lost ground with the demise of rock radio, and were renewed by per-song download services. Throughout the roller coaster ride of rock singles, the country single retained both its marketing and artistic clout. Country radio continues to be a major force in conveying new music to the commercial mainstream, and country music videos still appear regularly on cable channels. To that end, RCA’s second compilation of modern country hits will be quite familiar to listeners who’ve tuned to country radio the past couple of years.

The generous twenty-track set focuses on hits from the last half of 2008 and first half of 2009, extending all the way to recent hits by Dierks Bentley (“Sideways”) and Lady Antebellum (“I Run to You”). Nearly half the tracks are well-known #1s, but the lower-charting hits offer substantial charms. Jamie Johnson’s “In Color” (which peaked at #9) is as good as any of the chart-toppers, Trade Adkins’ “Marry for Money” (#14) is a catchy honky-tonker, Josh Turner’s “Everything is Fine” (#20) digs deeply into his lazy low notes, Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder & Lead” (#7) is firey, Gary Allen’s “Learning How to Bend” (#13) is an emotional tour de force, and George Strait’s “Troubadour” (#7) remains a terrific statement about age, experience and principle.

The bulk of these productions lean to the polished country-pop end of Nashville’s output, but there are a few twangy tracks and some powerful country-rockers. Many of the songs are loaded with radio-ready melodic hooks and sing-along choruses. The instantly recognizable voices of Turner, Johnson, Adkins and Strait and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland will remind you how thoroughly a country singer can stamp a song with the tone of their voice. Oddly, Carrie Underwood is featured singing her 2007 cover of Randy Travis’ “I Told You So” from her album Carnival Ride, rather than the recent hit duet with Travis himself. Perhaps there was a licensing problem, but this over-emotional rendition doesn’t measure up to the more recent remake.

Those who buy the physical CD gain web access to five recent tracks from young artists: David Nail’s “Turning Home,” Easton Corbin’s “A Little More Country That That,” Chris Young’s “Getting’ You Home,” Caitlin & Will’s “Address in the Stars,” and Emily West’s “Blue Sky.” That’s a nice bonus on top of the hit-packed disc and a clever way for the label group to expose new artists to modern country fans. Note that downloading the bonus tracks will require you to run a piece of Java code downloaded to your browser from Push Entertainment; this applet validates that the CD is present in your computer’s drive. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Elvis Presley: From Elvis in Memphis

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ElvisPresley_FromElvisInMemphisStellar expansion of 1969 Elvis milestone

Elvis Presley wasn’t just the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, he was an artist who prospered in spite of an unsympathetic manager, and a star who rose to a second great peak, resurrecting himself from the ashes of a moribund career. His incendiary, game-changing hits of the ‘50s led to the start of a bright film career, but after losing his crown in a repetitive string of artistically lean popcorn movies, it took a string of three key performances to regain the throne. The first, 1967’s How Great Thou Art, was a gospel album anchored in Elvis’ musical roots; the second, an iconic NBC comeback special in 1968, proved he still had the rock ‘n’ roll spark; and the third, this 1969 return to his Memphis home ground, showed he still had something new and potent to offer. There was more, including live and country albums in 1970 and 1971, but the artistic and commercial renaissance of 1967-69, capped by this soul and gospel masterpiece (and its hit single, “In the Ghetto”), is one of the great comebacks in music history.

Even more impressive, the album’s dozen tunes are less than half the Memphis sessions’ output. RCA’s 2-CD Legacy reissue collects 36 tracks from Elvis’ stay at Chip Moman’s American Studio, adding ten tracks from the second platter of From Memphis to Vegas – From Vegas to Memphis (subsequently reissued as Back in Memphis), four single mixes of album tracks, six non-LP singles (including the trio of chart hits “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “Kentucky Rain”), and four bonus tracks. Having recorded in Nashville and Hollywood since his mid-50s departure from Sun, Elvis returned to Memphis to find soul music still heavily influenced by gospel and blues, but also powered by the bass-and-horns funk developed by the Stax, Hi, FAME, American and Muscle Shoals studios.

Buoyed by the success of his televised comeback, Elvis shook off the insipid material he’d been recording, and dug deeply into a set of blues, country, gospel and pop sounds, pushed by Moman and his crack studio band. You can hear Elvis rediscovering himself as he tests his crooning, wandering through a loose arrangement of “I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” that turns Eddy Arnold’s 1940s country twanger into an emotion-soaked gospel. He’s commanding with the testimony of “Power of My Love” and swaggering and blue at the same time on “After Loving You.” He nails a slow-burning gospel-tinged cover of “Long Black Limousine,” lightens to horn-lined Memphis melancholy with “Any Day Now” and closes the album with the stunning “In the Ghetto.” The extras on disc one are finished tracks that include Bobby Darin’s “I’ll Be There,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and the gospel “Who Am I?”

The ten tracks of the follow-up album open disc two, and though the sessions were well picked-over for the original album, there are several highlights in the second set, including the slow building blues rocker “Stranger in My Own Hometown,” the dramatic farewell of “The Fair’s Moving On” and the gospel soul “Without Love (There is Nothing).” Disc two’s pay-off are the original mono single mixes, six of which don’t appear on either Memphis album, including the hits “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain,” and the supremely funky “Rubberneckin’.” All of these tracks have been previously released, scattered across LPs and singles, and brought together on collections such as The Memphis Record and Suspicious Minds. But never before has Elvis’ homecoming been drawn as such a vivid portrait.

This brief leave from Col. Parker’s stifling control gave Elvis a chance to go home, both literally and figuratively, and the circumstances in which to wax one of the two or three finest albums of his career. The energy created in Memphis sustained the King through a resurgent live show, but as the bubble closed back around him, these blue-eyed soul sessions turned into the last studio high point of his extraordinary career. Legacy’s 2-CD set is delivered in a tri-fold digipack that reproduces the covers of both From Elvis in Memphis and Back in Memphis, and includes a 24-page booklet stuffed with photos and excellent liner notes by Robert Gordon and Tara McAdams. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Dave Brubek Quartet: Time Out

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DaveBrubek_TimeOutSuperb 50th anniversary expansion of landmark jazz album

Though jazz was the popular music of the US for many decades, there are few post-40s jazz albums – modern jazz albums – that go down easily with non-jazz listeners. There have been pop-jazz crossovers that caught the public’s ear and even climbed the charts, but true jazz albums that can keep a pop listener’s attention are few and far between. The Dave Brubek Quartet’s 1959 release contains two tunes, the opening “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and the iconic “Take Five,” that surprised even the group’s own label with their popular acclaim. The album peaked at #2 on the pop chart, and “Take Five” was a hit single in both the US and UK. Much like Vince Guaraldi’s compositions for A Charlie Brown Christmas, listeners took to the melodies and performances without drawing genre lines around them.

The quartet’s approach wove Brubek’s blocky piano chords, Paul Desmond’s warm alto saxophone, and the gentle swing of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello into a most inviting sound. One can’t compliment the rhythm section enough, as it’s their steady work that keeps one’s toe tapping through Brubek and Desmond’s melodic explorations, and its their rhythm that guides listeners through this album’s unusual time signatures. Morello’s introduction to “Take Five,” followed by Brubek’s vamping, have you tapping your foot in 5/4 time even before Desmond insinuates his sax with the theme. It has the rise and fall of a waltz, but when you count it out, the measures go to five instead of three. Amazingly, it feels completely organic. Morello’s spare, mid-tune solo provides a brilliant example of drumming dynamics.

The album opens with the 9/8 time of “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” with a 2/2/2/3 pattern that’s hard to count even with the numbers in front of you. The music swings in a frantic way that suggests rush hour in New York City until it transitions to a relaxed 4/4 (with 9/8 inserts) for the piano and sax solos. The fluidity with which the band shifts between the two time signatures would be even more breathtaking if it didn’t flow so naturally. Other tunes are played in waltz (3/4) and double waltz time, but you won’t notice until you count them out loud. Eugene Wright’s bass provides the steady pulse around which Brubek and Desmond swing, and the contrast between Brubek’s percussive piano and Desmond’s smooth sax gives the quartet its signature balance.

1959 was a banner year for jazz, seeing the releases of Giant Steps, the soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder, Mingus Ah Um, Kind of Blue and many other milestones. But Time Out was the only album to break wide of jazz audiences, to seed itself in the broader public’s consciousness. And it did so on its own terms, rather than by pandering to the pop sounds of the mainstream. It foreshadowed the lightness and optimism that would mark the transition between the Eisenhower and Kennedy eras, and its tone obviously caught the mood of the times. Ted Maceo’s production paints an excellent stereo soundstage, which adds to the recording’s excitement.

Columbia Legacy’s 2-CD/1-DVD reissue augments the album’s seven tracks with a CD of live performances from the ’61, ’63 and ’64 Newport festivals that include the album’s hits and six additional titles. The basic roles of the players remain from their live-to-tape studio albums, but the concert performances are driven by fresh group interplay and more audacious soloing, and stoked by the audiences’ enthusiastic responses. “Pennies From Heaven” winds up with a forceful piano solo, and the original “Koto Song” provides a good example of Brubek’s interest in world sounds. “Take Five” is played at a hurried tempo that diminishes the song’s swing, but stretched to seven minutes it provides more space for soloing, including a longer spot for drummer Joe Morrello’s crackling snare and punchy tom-toms. All eight live tracks are recorded in stereo.

The bonus DVD offers a 2003 interview with Brubek, intercut with historical television and concert footage, and a few then-contemporary sequences of Brubek at his trusty Baldwin. Brubek discusses the album tracks and the dynamics of the band, and shows immense pride in both. An additional bonus provides a 4-angle piano lesson from Brubek as he plays through “Kathy’s Waltz.” The 3-disc package is presented in a quad-fold digipack with a 28-page booklet that includes detailed liner notes by Ted Gioia and fine archival photos. If you don’t have a digital copy of the album, this is the one to get; if you already have a much loved copy, this is well worth the upgrade. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Dolly Parton: 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

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dollyparton_9to5Country and pop from Hollywood Dolly

In celebration of 9 to 5: The Musical‘s Broadway debut, RCA/Legacy has reissued Parton’s 1980 album with a trio of bonus tracks. Building on the 1977 pop breakthrough, “Here You Come Again,” 9 to 5 (as a film, album and single) cemented Parton’s draw beyond her core country audience. She’d released Dolly, Dolly, Dolly earlier in the year, and its orchestrated AOL covers freed her to indulge more country sounds here. The 9 to 5 album topped the country chart and the title single topped the country, pop and AC charts. The album’s second single, a light-pop cover of the First Edition’s “But You Know I Love You” (originally sung by future duet partner Kenny Rogers) also topped the country chart, and a disco cover of “The House of the Rising Sun” made the top twenty.

The hit singles provide a fare representation of the album’s variety. Parton’s originals include the hopeful, country gospel “Hush-A-Bye Hard Times,” the unapologetic portrait “Working Girl,” and the homespun values of “Poor Folks Town.” The covers are more diverse, including a delicate reading of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee” and a solemn take on Merle Travis’ “Dark as a Dungeon.” Less successful is the pedestrian Nashville backing given to Mel Tillis’ “Detroit City” and Mike Post’s badly aging arrangement of “Sing for the Common Man.” Yet even when backed by hackneyed keyboards, liquid guitars and by-the-numbers strings, Parton’s voice still shines.

The struggles and successes of working people provide the album a theme, but the album never musters the artistic force of Coat of Many Colors, My Tennessee Mountain Home or Jolene. Parton’s in excellent voice throughout, but her bid for broader commercial success leaves several tracks uncomfortably laden with pop clichés. Legacy’s 2009 reissue adds a previously unreleased session cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” a beat-heavy 2008 house remix of “9 to 5,” and a lead vocal-free remix of “9 to 5” that puts you in Dolly’s rhinestone-studded high-heeled shoes. Bonuses aside, it’s the album’s originals and selected covers that make this an essential entry in Parton’s catalog. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)

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denniswilson_pacificoceanblueRoyal reissue of first Beach Boys solo release

As a drummer, harmony vocalist and occasional songwriter, Dennis Wilson wasn’t the obvious member of the Beach Boys to be first to market with a solo album. But with this 1977 release he stepped outside the shadow of his brother Brian and showed off surprising. These rock productions, thick with guitars, drums, keyboards and orchestration, combine his legacy as a part of Brian Wilson’s troupe, along with influences of West Coast collaborators like Gary Usher and visionaries like Curt Boettcher. Interestingly, by the time Wilson completed the album in 1976, the sounds upon which he was weaned were giving way to rootsier singer-songwriter introspection and more bombastic arena rock. Both of those flavors can also be heard here, the former in Wilson’s introspective lyrics, and the latter in the grandiosity of the productions.

There’s a sophistication to this solo effort that sets it apart from contemporaneous work by the Beach Boys, who in 1977 were still lyrically in thrall of Brian Wilson’s childlike wonder. By this point Dennis Wilson’s ragged voice was no match for his brothers’, but he made canny choices: what to sing, how to sing it and how to surround himself with instrumentation. As other reviewers have noted, Dennis Wilson’s rasp is an acquired taste, and can be wearying at album length, but there’s no denying the feeling in his vocals or his commitment to the lyrics. Emotionally and sonically this is an album both of its time and of the times in which Wilson grew up as an artist, and the palpable air of depletion is heart-wrenching in contrast to the lyrical optimism. The album can be a wearying spin beginning to end, but the individual tracks make for very great surprises in a mix.

Legacy’s deluxe reissue is one of the best they’ve ever put together in this series. In addition to superbly remastered versions of the album’s original dozen tracks, disc one is filled out with four previously unreleased items, and disc two contains sixteen tracks from Wilson’s unfinished second album, Bambu. Wilson’s voice was spent and at times tuneless as he recorded the follow-on tracks, making Bambu even more of an acquired taste than POB. Much of the bonus material has circulated on bootlegs, but this is its first official release in full master tape fidelity. The quad-fold cardboard slipcase includes a 40-page booklet stuffed with photos, an essay by Ben Edmonds, a Dennis Wilson artistic chronology, song and musician credits, and lyrics. Disc one also features a PDF that includes a 16-page essay by noted Beach Boys biographer David Leaf and a slightly extended version of the booklet’s chronology. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Waylon Jennings: The Essential 3.0

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waylonjennings_essential30Eco-friendly expansion of stellar career overview

Several of Legacy’s two-disc Essential releases have been upgraded with a third-disc and plastic-free eco-friendly packaging. Such is the case for the original 42-track 2007 issue of this set, augmented here with eight additional tunes on a third disc. Although disc three clocks in at only 26 minutes, it adds several tracks that, in retrospect, should have been included in the original line-up. Highlights of the newly added tunes include a live version of Jimmie Rodgers “T For Texas,” Jennings’ superb cover of the Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See,” the autobiographical 1981 hit “Shine,” the chart-topping cover of Little Richard’s “Lucille (You Won’t Do Your Daddy’s Will),” and the title track from the Highwaymen’s first album. This isn’t collector’s bait intended to lure fans into repurchasing the Essential set – all of the newly added tracks are (or have been) available on CD – it’s sweetener to a set that’s already quite sweet. The original two-disc version of this title provided a superb overview of Jennings’ career, with a deep focus on his most productive years at RCA. The first two discs are reproduced here verbatim from the original release, as is the booklet’s excellent liner notes, recording details and chart info; the eight new additions are detailed on the inside of the four-panel cardboard slipcase, along with four full-panel vintage photographs. At the same list price as the original two-disc version, this is a terrific upgrade to a terrific set. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Sly & The Family Stone: The Essential 3.0

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Eco-friendly expansion of effective career overview

Several of Legacy’s two-disc Essential releases have been upgraded with a third-disc and plastic-free eco-friendly packaging. Such is the case for the original 35-track 2003 issue of this set, augmented here with eight additional tunes on a third disc. Although the third disc clocks in at only 32 minutes, it adds an additional track from each of Dance to the Music, Life, Stand!, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Fresh, and Small Talk. Nearly fourteen minutes of the bonus disc is taken up by the funk instrumental “Sex Machine,” but more impressive is the group’s tour de force cover of “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).” The set’s booklet is a straight reproduction from the original release; the third-disc’s extra songs are credited on an inside panel of the quad-fold digipack.

The bulk of the collection as originally issued surveys tracks from the group’s 1967 debut LP A Whole New Thing through Sly Stone’s 1975 solo album High On You. Left out is the 1976 reunion album Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I’m Back and later albums recorded for Warner Brothers. The selections weigh more heavily to the group’s peak mid-period albums, with the group’s last first-run album Small Talk represented by only two cuts, and Stone’s solo album only one. For most fans this will be a welcome balance, leaving room for a trio of group-defining hit singles (“Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Everybody is a Star” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”) that turned up on the 1969 Greatest Hits album. What’s missing, and what might have made the bonus disc more attractive to collectors, is material not readily available elsewhere on CD.

The forty-three selections provide a representative sampling of tracks from the group’s seven Epic albums (eight if you include Greatest Hits), creating both a one-stop shop for those who want to get to the core of the band’s legendary blend of soul, funk, jazz, rock and psychedelia, and a roadmap for those who want to explore the original releases. The 12-panel foldout booklet provides cursory discographical and chart details, a personnel listing, a few photos and disappointingly generic liner notes. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]