V/A – Bear Family Records Rocks Vol. 1
Bear Family Records-BCD 17734
Fats Domino Be My Guest – Champion Jack Dupree Nasty Boogie – Lloyd Price Where You At? – Little Richard Good Golly, Miss Molly – Jimmy McCracklin Get Tough – Arthur Crudup I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole – Jimmy Reed She Don’t Want Me No More – Little Junior Parker I Wanna Ramble – Ella Mae Morse Have Mercy Baby – Roy Milton You Got Me Reeling And Rocking – The Cadillacs Holy Smoke Baby – The Midnighters Henry’s Got Flat Feet (Can’t Dance No More) – Bo Diddley You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover – Smiley Lewis Lillie Mae – The Coasters Three Cool Cats – The Platters Out Of My Mind – Chuck Berry Reelin’ And Rocking – Slim Harpo Don’t Start Cryin’ Now – Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown Boogie Uproar – Clyde McPhatter Deep Sea Ball – Piano Red She’s Dynamite – Big Joe Turner Morning, Noon And Night – The ‘5’ Royales Monkey Hips And Rice – The Treniers Poon-Tang – Louis Prima Jump, Jive An’ Wail – The Drifters No Sweet Lovin’ – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Just Don’t Care – Amos Milburn One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer – Shirley And Lee I Feel Good – The Johnny Otis Show Good Golly
V/A – Bear Family Records Rocks Vol. 2
Bear Family Records-BCD 17735
Jimmy Cavallo and His House Rockers Rock, Rock, Rock – Ritchie Valens Come On, Let’s Go – Carl Mann Ubangi Stomp – Sonny Burgess Feelin’ Good – Marty Robbins Respectfully Miss Brooks – Roy Orbison Chicken Hearted – Scotty McKay Rollin’ Dynamite – Ronnie Hawkins Baby Jean – Glen Glenn One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette – Wanda Jackson Baby Loves Him – The Johnny Burnette Trio All By Myself – Ricky Nelson Milk Cow Blues – Roy Hall Diggin’ The Boogie – Carl Perkins Caldonia – Link Wray Raw Hide – Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me – Buddy Knox My Baby’s Gone – Jerry Lee Lewis Birthday Cake (Keep Your Hands Off Of It) – Billy Lee Riley That’s Right – Dale Hawkins Four Letter Word (Rock) – Charlie Feathers Jungle Fever – Eddie Cochran Pretty Girl – Rusty York Sweet Love – Bill Haley and His Comets Where’d You Go Last Night – Bob Luman Wild Eyed Woman – Narvel Felts I’m Headin’ Home – Sanford Clark Usta Be My Baby – The Everly Brothers This Little Girl Of Mine – Sleepy LaBeff Ride On Josephine – Conway Twitty I Viberate (From My Head To My Feet) – Don Gibson Sea Of Heartbreak – Bobby Darin I Want You With Me – Frank Virtuoso Rollin’ An’ A’ Rockin’ – Mac Curtis Missy Ann – Jack Scott The Way I Walk
With over 70 volumes (and counting), each one better than the last, Bear Family’s Rock(s) series has built up a perfect anthology over the years, based on meticulous selections and robust booklets.
These two compilations bring together the best of the best from this series. For both, the selection reads like a Who’s Who of the genre, and it’s impossible to find a weak track. Volume 1 focuses primarily on the origins, drawing from the Blues and Rhythm ‘n’ Blues repertoire with a majority of African-American artists, while Volume 2 focuses on the Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rockabilly side, sometimes with a Country influence.
Once again, the German label cleverly avoids the pitfall of a simple best-of, by presenting tracks that we don’t necessarily expect. Here, there’s no Shame Shame Shame or Mystery Train for Smiley Lewis and Junior Parker, but rather Lillie Mae and I Wanna Rumble. Both volumes follow the same logic. Thus, on volume 2, for artists such as Carl Perkins, Dale Hawkins or Roy Orbison, instead of the eternal and well-known Blue Suede Shoes, Suzy Q or Rockhouse, we have respectively Caldonia, Four Letter Word (Rock) and Chicken Hearted. And these are just a few examples among many others.
Ultimately, these compilations of compilations are capable of appealing to the greatest number of people.
They will delight connoisseurs by offering them unusual compilations, but above all, they will allow novices to get a first taste with a cutting-edge selection, representing a fantastic gateway to deepening their knowledge.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
