Scroll down for a review of the Rock Baby Rock It! Soundtrack

Various Artists
Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy Of Sun Records

(Sire / 31165-2)

In the booklet notes none other than Sun Records founder Sam Phillips proclaims this multi-star tribute to be "One helluva record," but how well his label’s legacy served by this 16-song collection is open to question.

On the positive side, Paul McCartney’s collaboration with Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana on Elvis’ "That’s All Right," features an extra verse and is solid rockabilly tinged with skiffle. Scotty and DJ also assist ex-Roxy Music leader Bryan Ferry on a classy, trembling version of Presley’s 1956 RCA hit "Don’t Be Cruel." Johnny Hallyday leans into a pretty fair ersatz Elvis version of Carl Perkins’ "Blue Suede Shoes," replete with some wild and snaky guitar breaks. Led Zeppelin founders Jimmy Page and Robert Plant bring lots of slapback know-how to a faithful remake of Sonny Burgess’s "My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It." Finally, a previously unreleased blues by Van Morrison and Sun legend Carl Perkins, "Sittin’ On Top Of The World," is shaky but decent.

The set’s best contribution is also its most perplexing. Allow this writer to digress. During the early 70s, British superstar Elton John gave not one but two interviews to Rolling Stone wherein he bad-mouthed Sun legend Jerry Lee Lewis. The former pianist for Edison Lighthouse disparaged Lewis’ career-saving shift to Country Music, his guest star laden LP "The Session," the cigars he smoked, and even his nickname ("And calling himself ‘The Killer,’ I killed more people with one finger than he did the time I saw him"). To top things off, John even proclaimed that he refused to meet with Lewis because "He’s crazy, y’know."

Yet on this disc Elton John can be heard rakin’ the keyboards and shouting with verve through a completely enjoyable version of JLL’s signature tune "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On." Sure, the popstar is a recalcitrant hypocrite, but like many veteran English musicians, he at least knows what the Sun Sound is all about. Unfortunately, not many of the other guest stars do.

Sheryl Crow turns in a soft and saucy version of Charlie Rich’s "Who Will The Next Fool Be," but like Mandy Barnett’s Patsy Cline-influenced "You Win Again," her sound is more Nashville Countrypolitan than Memphis honkytonk. Chris Isaak’s transformation of another Hank Williams ditty, "It Wouldn’t Be The Same Without You," into an Elvis RCA-era ballad is competent, but makes one wonder if he lacks the courage to really rock when the occasion cries for it.

Worst of all are the disappointments proffered by the CD’s biggest names. Eric Clapton and the Impressions recast Johnny Bragg & The Prisonaire’s soulful "Just Walkin’ In the Rain" into clumsy r&b. Bob Dylan’s hoarse expressionless voice ruins Warren Smith’s "Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache." Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers seem lost in Elvis’ "Blue Moon Of Kentucky." LIVE neuters Johnny Cash’s "I Walk The Line" by redoing it as a plaintive folk-rock hybrid and, despite some tasty guitar by Jeff Beck, ex-Pretender Chrissie Hynde’s tuneless histrionics turns "Mystery Train" into an object of pure ridicule.

Lowest of all? Matchbox Twenty’s slacker rock rendition of Charlie Rich’s "Lonely Weekends" and the Howling Diablos and Kid Rock’s hip-hop destruction of Jerry Lee’s "Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee." These performances are so artistically gruesome that in future these groups should be paid a monthly stipend to be kept from recording anything from the Sun catalog ever again!

If this wildly uneven, sometimes distasteful collection is truly Sam Phillips idea of a great record, than perhaps it’s good thing that he no longer produces music.

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Various Artists
Rock Baby Rock It! Soundtrack

(Goofin Records / GRCD 6111)

One of the most wonderfully incompetent flicks of the early rock era, the 1957 production "Rock Baby Rock It" was poorly acted, sloppily shot, abruptly edited and entertaining as hell. Filmed on a shoestring budget, it was not even seen outside the Dallas/Ft. Worth area until Rhino Home Video found a solitary copy and committed it to their essential cult series "Teenage Theatre" during the mid 80s.

Blessed with a plot and villains that you don’t need drugs to laugh at, "Rock Baby Rock It," is notable for three things: Kay Wheeler’s bop dance at the end, the only surviving footage of Johnny Carroll at his greasy rockin’ peak, and a damned fine soundtrack.

This seventeen-song Finnish import is lifted directly from the film. As a result, bits of dialogue and the dancer’s shoes scuffling on the floor are heard on the CD amid some great music.

Cell Block 7 blasts Bill Haley style through "Hot Rock." Don Coates & The Bon-Aires imitate the white r&b of the Diamonds with the defiant "Stop The World." The 5 Stars get a fine energetic Doo-Wop groove going on "Molly Molly," "Your Love Is All I Need," and juice up the calypso craze with "Juanita." Preacher Smith & The Deacons leer through the stop-time, New Orleans-flavored shuffles "Eat Your Heart Out" and "Boogie Doogie." The Belew Twins croon and hiccup like ersatz Everly Brothers on the weirdly alluring "Lonesome" and "Love Me Baby." (Both songs written by their dad, Country star Carl Belew.) Former Sun records r&b man Rosco Gordon, the only established star on the set, delivers danceable, piano-pounding renditions of "Chicken In The Rough" and "Bop It."

Best of all are the contributions made by Texas rockabilly legend Johnny Carroll. Just nineteen years old when these recordings were made, he and his regular band imbue the film versions of "Crazy Crazy Lovin’" and "Wild Wild Women" with more raw punk energy than his classic Owen Bradley-produced Decca recordings. Never recorded for vinyl, the intense "Rockin’ Maybelle" and openly erotic "Sugar Baby" one-up both Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent on their own wild turf. (Carroll is also given credit for writing songs for many of the other artists, possibly the heavy hand of his controversial manager J.G. Tiger at work.)

Boasting brighter sound (courtesy Dave Travis) than the Rhino video and a booklet that folds out into a reproduction of the film’s original poster, "Rock Baby Rock It" is a brilliant example of the zingy melting pot that was 50s rock’n’roll. Get this. www.goofinrecords.com. Goofin Records P.O. Box 01601 Vantaa, Finland

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