Cliff Richard - The Rock 'N' Roll Years 1958 - 1963 (4CD, 1997)
FLAC tracks | 4:06:35 | 1,5 Gb
Genre: Rock, Rock & Roll / Label: Parlophone UK
Such an unimaginative title for such a imaginative boxful. Across four discs and 105 songs, Cliff Richard's earliest catalog comes in for precisely the kind of treatment every rock & roll star should have: an all-encompassing study of his most important period. Even more impressively, though the song titles all sound familiar, the performances rarely are. Thirty-seven tracks are bona fide unreleased (South African 78s notwithstanding), but several dozen more are culled from scarce EP-only mixes, rarely resurfacing B-sides, and unusual mixes. One cut, an undubbed take of "Willie and the Hand Jive," was hitherto available only on a mid-'80s budget-priced single disc, covering much the same period as this. It wasn't aimed at collectors, it wasn't heavily advertised, and it probably didn't sell many copies. Of such things do completists dream, but when you have a beakful of hen's teeth to sort through, do such things really matter? Discs one through three are the conventional ones.