Door Oddities

Is a four-CD box set of Fairport Convention 1967-1974 BBC recordings excessive? After all, even the Beatles only got two CDs of Beeb tracks into official release. But it really isn't too much for fans of the band, for the quality of most of the stuff here is truly good, even if the very best of it was already issued on the Heyday compilation…

Like Omigod! The 80s Pop Culture Box (Totally) is a seven-disc, 142-track box set of popular music hits of the 1980s. Released by Rhino Records in 2002, the box set was based on the success of Have a Nice Decade: The 70s Pop Culture Box, Rhino's box set covering the 1970s. Like Omigod! includes a 90-page booklet of cultural comment, a timeline for the decade, and liner notes for the tracks included in the set. As does Have a Nice Decade, the tracks tend to be from the lesser-known artists who were one-hit wonders, although music from the best-selling artists of the era are also included. In addition, many of the 1980s musical styles — rock, pop, country pop, new wave, funk, disco and rhythm and blues — are represented.

The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box,' a very special box set that features expansions of the 13 original scores that Elfman has composed for Burton's iconic films. This is a newly-produced library of 16 CDs each packaged with artwork by Burton, adding up to more than 19 hours of music, including 7 hours of previously-unreleased Masters, demos, work tapes and other rarities.

Various Artists - The End Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD205 rec 1957-1965}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 820 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 367 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 25 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1957-65, 1999 End Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 205
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Soul / Rock 'n' Roll

England's Westside label has released four two-disc sets that spotlight labels owned by George Goldner in the '50s and '60s: Rama, Gee, Gone, and End. The End Story collects 63 rock and R&B cuts recorded from 1957-1965 for the End label, from big hits by the Flamingos and Little Anthony & the Imperials to total obscurities by forgotten artists. Most of the recordings are doo wop and R&B with only a handful of rockers – far fewer rock cuts, overall, than appear on The Gone Story. For a number of artists, End was a stopover on the way to or from greener commercial pastures: the Bobbettes, Little Richard, the Shells, and the Teenagers after Frankie Lymon left to pursue a solo career.

An assortment of remixes, re-recordings, old singles, and one new song ("Never Enough"). Most of the remixes are quite radical, leaving only the bare bones of the original song. There are enough oddities and rare tracks on Mixed Up to make it necessary for Cure fans, but it's too specialized for casual listeners.