Rockin' Up A Storm: The Best Of The King Recordings (Import) (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Oldies  »  Rockabilly
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: March 22, 2005
• Label: Ace (UK)
• UPC: 029667008020
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106651194
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Liner Note Author: Tony Rounce.

At a glance, this 24-track collection of mid- to late-'50s King material by Boyd Bennett & His Rockets looks to be, as the back cover boasts, "the definitive Boyd Bennett package." And it comes close to being that, with sides drawn from a bunch of 1955-58 singles, as well as a rare 1958 single on which they backed Cecil McNabb Look at the small print, though. The version of "My Boy Flat Top" is not the one from the 1955 hit single -- Bennett's only single, in fact, besides "Seventeen," to make the Top 40. Rather, it's a previously unissued version with Boyd Bennett singing, although the original hit single had Big Moe (aka James Muzey) on lead vocals. Sure, dedicated collectors will welcome the availability of this alternate, but not at the expense of the original hit recording -- and if that alternate is a big selling point, couldn't both the original and alternate versions have been included? For that reason alone, Rockin' Up a Storm can't qualify as the definitive Bennett compilation. It's an odd lapse for Ace Records, which customarily does its reissues with great care and the highest of standards. Otherwise, this well-annotated package does live up to those standards, although it does nothing to dispel the frequent categorization of Bennett as a stiffer Bill Haley of sorts. It is historically important music, as Boyd Bennett & His Rockets were among the first white bands to have a hit rock & roll record, and did their bit to move the combination of hillbilly boogie and jump rhythm and blues toward a recognizably rock sound. In fact, some of the material isn't quite as Bill Haley-like as their big hits, showing more of those boogie and hillbilly roots. Yet there were so many artists following in their wake who did this material with far greater guts, imagination, and variety -- like Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley, who left Bennett's inappropriately polite cover of "Blue Suede Shoes" (a small hit, incredibly enough) sprawling in the dust. Incidentally, there are a couple of other previously unissued items on the CD, those being an unedited version of "Cool Disc Jockey" and a previously unissued mix of "Banjo Rock'n'Roll." ~ Richie Unterberger

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