EMI Launches Another Rock Retrospective

EMI Records has reached into its vaults a second time to initiate a series of rock retrospective albums and this time the company seems to be avoiding the embarrassment of the first ill-fated effort.

When the label released in 1987 a series of “best of” CDs devoted to such ‘50s rock hotshots as Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson, the results were unsatisfactory on virtually every level, from packaging to sound quality.

The entries were especially disappointing because all that EMI had to do to find an excellent model for the series was to look in its own archives.

Cochran, Domino and Nelson were among the artists spotlighted in the “Legendary Masters Series” of albums released in the early ‘70s by United Artists Records, whose catalogue now belongs to EMI.

This time around, EMI has produced a series of CD reissues that is far closer to the integrity and spirit of the ‘70s series than its own 1987 collections. It’s no accident, then, that these albums, too, carry the “Legendary Masters Series” tag.

While not an exact duplicate of the United Artists concept (there are only 20 tracks in most of the new, single-disc albums versus 25 to 30 selections in the old albums), the first five albums in the new series are characterized by good sound quality and solid liner notes.

The most noteworthy artist in the first group of EMI reissues is Cochran, an especially imaginative singer and guitarist who was killed at age 21 in a 1960 auto crash in England. He was one of the first 25 artists elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Though Cochran’s album carries a “Volume 1” tag, his best known songs--including “Summertime Blues,” “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Something Else”--are contained in this album.

By contrast, some of Nelson’s most popular tunes--including “Travelin’ Man,” “Hello Mary Lou” and “It’s Up to You”--have been held back, presumably for Volume Two. He is represented on Volume One by such hits as “Poor Little Fool,” “Be-Bop Baby” and “Lonesome Town.”

Nelson, also a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was less original and compelling an artist than Cochran, but there was a consistent craft to his records, and he expressed teen innocence with remarkable purity.

The other artists represented in the first wave of the new EMI series: Shirley & Lee, Bobby Vee, and Gary Lewis & the Playboys.