Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters: Collection

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The 20th Century Masters series of budget-priced "Best Of" collections are a double-edged sword. On one hand, the price is always very reasonable, and you (usually) get at least a nice overview of an artist's career. On the other hand, each disc usually ends at about a dozen tracks, and often there are key songs that are ridiculously left off the respective comp. Some discs do a suprisingly good job of covering all the major bases and being a good albeit brief collection (their Buddy Holly release was a nice overview), while others are so lacking it's almost funny (such as their compilation for The Who. I mean, no Baba O'Riley? Really?). On the bright side, their packaging, at least before they started this cardboard digi-pack nonsense, is always clean and attractive.

Of course, I'm far from the first to point out the various faults in the line. As the age-old saying goes, "You get what you pay for". Which brings us to the 20th Century Masters' Jerry Lee Lewis compilation. The Killer has had a long, outstanding career that goes far beyond his 1950's rock output; throughout the late-60's and for a good part of the 70's he was primarily country-based (but this is Jerry Lee, after all, so much of his country work has an energy other artists lacked, and even his more traditional country songs are of superior quality). Being that there is already an excellent single-disc comp for Jerry Lee (Hip-O's The Definitive Collection) that covers both his rock and country output and is twice as long as the 20th Century Masters disc, the most enticing thing about this release is the cheaper price (and frankly, as of this writing the more comprehensive disc is only a $1.58 more here on Amazon). Seeing how I already had both the 24-track Definitve Collection as well as a cheapo 18-track bargain bin comp, my purchase of this version (which, to my credit, I came across used & cheap locally) might seem pretty pointless. But, I was looking for a nice simple disc for the car, so I gave it a shot.

The tracklist is as follows:

1- Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
2- Great Balls Of Fire
3- Breathless
4- You Win Again
5- What Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)
6- Another Place, Another Time
7- Chantilly Lace
8- She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye
9- Middle-Age Crazy
10- There Must Be More To Love Than This
11- Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O'Dee
12- Thirty-Nine And Holding

First off, there's not a bad track here. If one didn't know any better, there'd be no problem with this disc, because the quality of the songs is top-notch from start to finish. But, truthfully, the collection is woefully incomplete, and even some obvious songs are missing. The first red-flag is the absence of High School Confidential. One of The Killer's best known songs, a classic of 50's rock, and an absolute no-brainer inclusion, and it's not here. I know that the titles in this series typically stop at 12 tracks, but given that this CD is only a little over half an hour, they couldn't add ONE MORE SONG? Unbelieveable.

I could give example after example, none quite as glaring as this, but really, just compare this to The Definitive Collection, and it's faults become painfully obvious. No Me And Bobby McGee? Over The Rainbow? And so on and so on...

But, even incomplete Jerry Lee is better than 98% of anything else you'll come across, and there are actually a few surprises. Chantilly Lace is somewhat unexpected; Jerry does a great job with The Big Bopper's hit. Also, the version of Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O'Dee is different from the one on The Definitive Collection; That disc has a recording from the 60's (although, if I recall correctly, the liner notes state otherwise), whereas this disc has the 1973 recording from the London Session album. I don't know if there's ever been a bad version of this song, and if there has been, it mostly likely wasn't from The Killer, but this '73 version really cooks, and is pure Rock & Roll, released at a time when pure Rock & Roll was sadly scarce. I'd probably give the edge to the version on The Definitive Collection, but that's just me, there's certainly nothing wrong with the one found here.

Of course, there's not much I can say about the other tracks that hasn't been said before. Whole Lotta Shakin', Great Balls Of Fire, What Made Milwaukee Famous, There Must Be More To Love Than This, pretty much everything really is just great.

If you can find this one cheap enough and don't care about having a comprehensive collection, this will fit the bill just fine. From start to finish it's a great listen. But, with more complete collections out there for not much more money, you'd probably be better off heading for one of those. I'd highly recommend The Definitve Collection as far a single disc compilations go, but the 20th Century Masters release isn't too bad if the price is right.

Pretty good album, but mostly a rehash of his early titles. The best song on the album is his cover of the Big Bopper hit Chantilly Lace. This shows how Jerry Lee could take almost any song, add his unique touch, and produce a great sound. Unfortunatly, he made this song while he was banished so it went nowhere. It deserves a listen.