Customer Reviews

All the Classic Hits 1938-52

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Now that the excellent three-disc box set "Big, Bad & Blue - The Joe Turner Anthology" isn't available anymore, this very thorough and reasonably nicely packaged compilation may well be the serious Turner-fan's choice.

"Classic Hits 1938-52" is a five-disc, 123-track collection of Big Joe Turner's earliest recording sessions before finding stardom with his mid-'50s R&B sides, and it's quite a luxury to have Turner's sides for National, Aladdin, Freedom, MGM, and Imperial remastered and together in one collection.

This is no cheap, second-rate product...the only problem is that it is not anywhere close to being a complete career overview.
These recordings were all made before 1953, and Joe Turner lived another 33 years, recording songs like "Honey Hush", "TV Mama" (with slide guitarist Elmore James), "Shake, Rattle & Roll", "Honeydripper", and "Love Rollercoaster".

3 3/4 stars. A nice compilation, but not the definitive word on Joseph Vernon Turner.

Check out the "1947 - 1948 - Big Joe Turner CD ( Tower Records ) which has some fantastic live recordings ( Riding Blues, Plaful Baby and others ) that are great !!

These two songs were also put out on RMP records ( 78's ) in the late 40's or early 50's. But the quality was poor compared to the perfect quality of the CD.

This is Joe Turner at his very best !!!!