From Small Things: Best of Dave Edmunds [Original recording remastered]

Dave Edmunds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Sbme Special Mkts.
• ASIN: B0012GMVWG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,693 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock & Roll)

2. I Hear You Knockin'

3. Born to Be With You

4. Let It Be Me

5. Crawling from the Wreckage

6. Almost Saturday Night

7. Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love)

8. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)

9. Girls Talk [Live]

10. Information

11. Slipping Away

12. Something About You

13. Stay With Me Tonight

14. Ju Ju Man [Live]

15. Do You Wanna Dance

16. Run Rudolph Run

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's one of pop music's most enduring ironies: The caretakers of America's original rock and blues legacy have as often as not hailed from closer to London than to Louisiana. This 16-track collection of recordings by Welsh-born roots-rock acolyte Dave Edmunds deftly underscores the point with ever-upbeat aplomb, spanning four decades and seven record labels (the first such comprehensive anthology of his work) in the bargain. There's a remarkable 32-year gap between this album's opening cover of Rockpile cohort Nick Lowe's "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)" and Edmunds's breakthrough 1970 American hit, "I Hear You Knockin'," but his vibrant performances suggest that not only does the circle remain unbroken, it's scarcely been dented. Crucially, the rockabilly-besotted singer seldom let slavish devotion get in the way of his own considerable creative drive (the exceptions here are a Beach Boys-fetishized cover of "Do You Wanna Dance" and a precious take of the Everlys' "Let It Be Me" from the soundtracks of Porky's Revenge and Stardust, respectively). But his versions of Graham Parker's "Crawling From the Wreckage," John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night," and Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" amply display Edmunds's innate ability to make a song his own. He even rises above the patent, synth-driven production of Jeff Lynne on "Information" and "Slippin' Away," turning them into unlikely rockabilly-meets-new-wave successes. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

These 16 Columbia, Swan Song and Arista tracks take you across Dave's entire solo career: his hits I Hear You Knocking; Girls Talk (live); Almost Saturday Night , and Slipping Away plus Information; Let It Be Me , and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Guitar Architect gets his day, August 16, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: From Small Things: Best of Dave Edmunds (Audio CD)

Forget all you have heard about other rock gods, they constantly leave out one of the greats. And by that, I mean Dave Edmunds. Maybe he didn't have the flair of Hendrix or the breeze of Clapton, but this Welshman understood basic riff rocking better than anyone this side of Carl Perkins. He could sling Chuck Berry energy and 60's psychedelia (sadly, his hit with Love Sculpture is not here) in the same song and not miss the honesty of either. That his style barely changed over near 30 years, nor ever lost its purity speaks volumes (and volume!) about Edmunds' work.

And finally, a single disc that covers the majority of it. The criminal deletion policies of record companies have moved almost the entirety of Edmunds' solo output to out of print status. "From Small Things" collects work from the Columbia and Swan Song tenure plus a few other oddities for almost an hour of great rocking. It also shows that, when it came to picking songs and writers, Edmunds was a genius. Be it Graham Parker's "Crawling From the Wreckage" or Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" (performed live here), he made them sound perfect next to John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night" and the Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me." He was such an admired player and artist that Robert Plant hand picked Edmunds to his fledgling Swan Song label (right after Bad Company, no less) and Bruce Springsteen tailored one of his unreleased songs ("From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)") for his Columbia debut "DE7th." And if you listen closely, you'll hear Jeff Lynne formulating the Traveling Wilburys concept around the "Information" and "Riff Raff" album selections.

If there are any minuses here, it's that a couple great cuts could have easily fit onto this CD without bouncing any songs. I would have liked to have seen "Sabre Dance," "Close To The Flame," "Queen Of Hearts" and "High School Nights (From Porky's Revenge)" here to sweeten the deal. But that's just a quibble. This is, next to Rockpile's "Seconds Of Pleasure," as good as Brit pub rock ever got.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gems from one of the greats, December 27, 2004

By 

Nicolas S. Martin (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Small Things: Best of Dave Edmunds (Audio CD)

Looking back, the rock era produced few artists of originality and excellence. Edmunds didn't invent the twangy guitar or rockabilly, but he honed them to perfection. For the most part, he had a knack for choosing quirky and interesting songs. His production was second to none, as was his guitar work. Since he often played all of the instruments, it must be said that he was skilled on all of them. Dave also possessed one of the best rock voices. Despite being Welsh, he sounded quintessentially American while singing quintessentially American music. I recommend this set in addition to the Anthology because the latter doesn't contain Dave's version of Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run, my favorite Christmas song, and one that captures the essence of Dave Edmunds as well as any other song he recorded. How unfortunate that Dave has stopped recording; he was one of the best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An guitar architect gets his day, May 14, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: From Small Things: Best of Dave Edmunds (Audio CD)

Forget all you have heard about other rock gods, they constantly leave out one of the greats. And by that, I mean Dave Edmunds. Maybe he didn't have the flair of Hendrix or the breeze of Clapton, but this Welshman understood basic riff rocking better than anyone this side of Carl Perkins. He could sling Chuck Berry energy and 60's psychedelia (sadly, his hit with Love Sculpture is not here) in the same song and not miss the honesty of either. That his style barely changed over near 30 years, nor ever lost its purity speaks volumes (and volume!) about Edmunds' work.

And finally, a single disc that covers the majority of it. The criminal deletion policies of record companies have moved almost the entirety of Edmunds' solo output to out of print status. "From Small Things" collects work from the Columbia and Swan Song tenure plus a few other oddities for almost an hour of great rocking. It also shows that, when it came to picking songs and writers, Edmunds was a genius. Be it Graham Parker's "Crawling From the Wreckage" or Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" (performed live here), he made them sound perfect next to John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night" and the Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me." He was such an admired player and artist that Robert Plant hand picked Edmunds to his fledgling Swan Song label (right after Bad Company, no less) and Bruce Springsteen tailored one of his unreleased songs ("From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)") for his Columbia debut "DE7th." And if you listen closely, you'll hear Jeff Lynne formulating the Traveling Wilburys concept around the "Information" and "Riff Raff" album selections.

If there are any minuses here, it's that a couple great cuts could have easily fit onto this CD without bouncing any songs. I would have liked to have seen "Sabre Dance," "Close To The Flame," "Queen Of Hearts" and "High School Nights (From Porky's Revenge)" here to sweeten the deal. But that's just a quibble. This is, next to Rockpile's "Seconds Of Pleasure," as good as Brit pub rock ever got.