Dead Man's Curve: The Rock 'n' Roll Life of Jan Berry

If you lived outside America during the 1950s, when rock & roll exploded across the world, the opportunities to see your idols in the flesh were few and far between. Even at home, in North America, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis could only be in one place at a time when performing live. So the obvious marriage was made, between rock & roll and the movies. And back then, all the songs you hear spread over this comprehensive 3CD collection could be heard – and seen! – at the cinema.

Here are 10CDs of the very best Rock n Roll tunes ever made from ’Rock Around The Clock’ to ’Johnny B Goode’ and everything else in between. Includes original performances from legendary artists like Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Roy Orbison and many, many more…

This second volume of producer Steve Hoffman's discoveries in the Chess Records vaults features some less-prominent Chuck Berry tunes, again in the form of demos, unreleased alternate takes, and stereo remixes. Listeners are getting into collector territory here, but there are still some enjoyable examples of the Berry repertoire.

A 60 track monster including all of the greatest names from the Rock 'n' Roll era performing some of their best know songs along with some enticing obscurities to keep the party going. Included are Bip Bop Boom (Mickey Hawks), and Love Me (The Phantom) both of which have recently been used in international TV advertising campaigns.

Rock & roll music scholars debate when the genre really began and which artist produced its first recording. But critics can agree that the music which defined a generation had its roots in the blues and rhythm & blues artists of the 1940s. Many of those early artists were African Americans who saw their songs recorded by young white musicians who liked their music so well they thought they wrote it. Setting aside the important issues of copyright piracy and musical equities, the kaleidoscope of contributors to the rock & roll idiom makes for interesting listening. This CD is part of a series that goes back to those days in the 1940s before rock & roll had a name and started a cultural revolution. This volume focuses on the year 1948, when an avalanche of great music was released, all bearing the throbbing beat that was to characterize the music later called rock & roll…