Betty Rollin

Full Title - Rock Island Line - The Singles Anthology 1955-1967. The first comprehensive singles anthology for the UK musical pioneer. 86 tracks across three CDs (slimline) in a slipcase box, many appearing on CD for the first time. All Lonnie's A & B-sides between 1955-67, including his very first hit 'Rock Island Line'. The first time his Decca & Pye recordings have been compiled in the same package. More than 30 UK hits, including three UK #1s. Castle. 2002.

There was way too much great early soul, R & B and blues being produced in New York City to squeeze onto one double CD, so here we are again with another selection of the best. Several artists on this new compilation are very well known: Ray Charles, Little Willie John and Ike & Tine Turner for example, but many others less so. It speaks volumes about the wealth of talent in the Big Apple around the turn of the 60s that gifted singers such as Ruby Roberson, Bobby Long and Betty O Brien never quite made the grade.

Compiled by R&B authority Lois Wilson, who writes for for Mojo and Record Collector, Chicago Bound is a wide-ranging 3 CD set, capturing many of the finest moments of the legendary Chess Records in it's heyday from the late Forties to the early Sixties. With 86 tracks, there is plenty of opportunity to celebrate the prime blues, R&B and rock 'n' roll released on Chess and it's associated labels Checker and Argo, as well as it's predecessor Aristocrat.

New liner notes include a history of all the 1970s reissues and their variations. “Walter Hyatt, David Ball and Champ Hood have been an inspiration to me ever since the first time I heard Uncle Walt’s Band,” said Lyle Lovett, a journalism student at Texas A&M University when he first heard the band. “Musically, their finely crafted original compositions reflect diverse influences, while lyrically they demonstrate a sensitive, sophisticated understanding of the dignified South.” Uncle Walt’s Band, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, was an eclectic music trio that moved to Nashville in 1972 and shortly thereafter, to Austin at the urging of Willis Alan Ramsey.

2014 three CD collection. GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK brings together 90 magnificent recordings, mostly R&B, but with a smattering of Jazz and Ska, which reflect what mods would have been enjoying on the early to mid '60s club scene. The first two discs on GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK collect together the R&B, Blues, Soul, Jazz and Ska singles you would have heard at during the '60s. Disc 3, meanwhile, captures the sounds from the same period (many of which were unreleased in the UK at the time) that light up the mod scene today. GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK has been carefully compiled to avoid track overlap with Fantastic Voyage's previous mod collection Boogie Chillen.

Few composers could list an array of artists as diverse as BB King, Steppenwolf, Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, The Crusaders, The Kingston Trio and Ringo Starr who have covered their songs. Hoyt Axton’s best-known song ‘Joy To The World’, a # 1 hit for the American vocal band Three Dog Night in 1971, starts with the line “Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine”. Hence, after many albums with the Vee-Jay, Capitol, A&M and MCA labels through the 60s and 70s, when Axton started his own record label in 1979 he named it Jeremiah Records.

Compiled by R&B and rock & roll authority Dave Penny, the 90-track 3CD set Voodoo Voodoo pays tribute to the distaff side of 1950s R&B music that would inform the rock ’n’ roll explosion of the latter half of the decade, from the last shout of the 1940s big band “thrushes” such as Ella Johnson and Dinah Washington, through the fearsome vocal power of the likes of R&B trailblazers such as Big Maybelle, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker and Big Mama Thornton, to the early experiments of the mainstream pop singers such as Ella Mae Morse, Kay Starr, Peggy Lee, Lillian Briggs and Jaye P. Morgan.

Craig Charles is one of the UK’s best-loved Funk & Soul DJs. Broadcasting for over 10 years Craig Charles is spearheading the Funk & Soul revolution with his shows on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2. Funk & Soul Classics is his roots and heritage. This three-disc Set displays the rich routes and sultry rhythms of a genre that has touched and influenced many. The sixty tracks collectively represent some of the finest pieces of genre-defining music spanning across six decades, Craig Charles added “Having the chance to put together a collection featuring my personal favourites from the golden age of American soul & funk music, alongside some absolute funky nuggets from the contemporary bands keeping that raw soul sound alive in the 21st Century is a dream come true!” This definitive collection includes some of the heavy weight classics alongside some outstanding modern hidden gems. Funk & Soul Classics features some of the most celebrated vocalists and musicians, collectively earning multiple Grammy and Soul Train Awards.