7. Sam Phillips – The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll
I don’t normally pick anything that is reissue stuff for my Top 10, but this is just too great. The songs were picked by Peter Guralnick for a companion piece to his new book on Phillips and he did a great job. It’s got all the things you expect, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins however, at least half of the things on here I have never heard or even heard of. Hell, I didn’t even know that he had recorded the superlative first Howlin’ Wolf tracks released on Chess Records. This collection is much more varied and musically diverse than I expected. And it sounds cool as hell. Sam Philips had it going on. So it’s on the list. I went to buy a copy for my brother for Christmas and every store I checked in Seattle was out of it– even Amazon. Wowza!
Northwest Underground rock 1980 'til the End of Time
- Tom's Rant