The Golden Age of American Rock ‘N’ Roll: Special Novelty Edition

After ten outstanding volumes in their “Golden Age Of American Rock and Roll” series, much to the chagrin of collectors, Ace pulled the plug on the series. However, they have continued to please us die-hard collectors and casual listeners alike with the likes of their “Country Edition” based on the “Golden Age” discs and now, with this “Novelty Edition”. Novelty compilations abound in the CD reissue marketplace but in Ace’s true fashion, while including some of the ubiquitous tunes, here are found several rarely-seen ones along with some first-timers to legitimate CD such as Spencer and Spencer’s “Russian Band Stand” and the Dyna-Sores’ version of “Alley Oop”. All told, within the massive 30 tracks total, there are 12 tunes from the top-ten, six from the top-20 and the remaining 12 coming from the lower reaches of the top-100 charts. With this kind of mix, the appeal here is to both the casual listener and avid collector alike. And, in usual Ace fashion, these tracks have been mastered from the best sources available, so sound quality is as good as you’ll find for these vintage tunes. Nine of the tracks (2-4,16,17,20-22,30) appear in stereo with the remainder in mono. Finishing off the piece is a massive 32-page booklet with lots of interesting and eye-opening tidbits on each of the included tracks. Ace has once again proved who is king of the reissue when it comes to golden-age American rock ‘n’ roll. No real collection should be without this. In a word, outstanding.