Eddie Cochran - Somethin' Else! The Ultimate Collection

This is one of the best buys I have ever made, it is stunning, everything is right about this item, it really is ''The Ultimate Collection'' and worthy of the man himself.

As with most Bear Family releases it does not get any better than this a must have item for any fan of Rock And Roll one tiny moan a bit more info to go with the pictures of records!

just brillant

excellent

Love this!

what can one say about eddie Cochran, great rock singer, great writer, great guitar player, eddie had everything,so does this box set.definetly the most comprehensive set ever. also great hard back book tells the Cochran story, with great photos and complete discography , recommended with out reservation.

No doubt most of the music carries a full maximum of 5 stars, but I think it has been overstretched in to 8 CDs so they could stretch up the price. There are far too many tracks appearing in stereo, and elsewhere in the set in mono, all because that is how they appeared originally. Furthermore, two other tracks Love Again and Lonely appear exactly how they appeared on the original singles with no overdubbing. But rather pointlessly, they also appear elsewhere in the set with slight guitar overdub, added posthumously, all because that is how they appeared on previous compilations. Summertime Blues appears on this set with no slap back echo overdub in parts which is how it appeared on the original single, but also appears with the added echo in parts, all because that is how it appeared on previous compilations. Another track Somethin' Else appears here with no fade out at the end, but also appears elsewhere in the set with a fade out, all because that is how it appeared on the original single and on previous compilations. Boll Weevil Song appears here at it's original recording speed, but also appears in slightly sped up form, all because it appeared like that on the original single and on previous compilations. Furthermore, C'mon Everybody appears here at it's original recording speed, and undubbed with it's full length ending, but also appears elsewhere slightly sped up with overdubbed echo and a second rhythm guitar layer in the background, and with a quicker fade out at the end, all because that is how it appeared on the original single, and on previous compilations. So you can see there are far too many unnecessary duplicates when these tracks should only appear here exactly how they were recorded originally. As you may know, he already had a series of valuable CDs on the Rockstar label collecting all his non-Liberty label recordings plus tracks by other artists featuring Eddie on guitar, and his duets with the unrelated Hank Cochran as the Cochran Brothers. Among his solo tracks on these CDs were his first commercial recordings he made for the US Crest label which included both sides of his sole single for that label Skinny Jim/Half loved plus alternate takes of the latter and a few previously unreleased songs plus alternate takes of these. Another unnecessary padding out here is that both sides of that single plus another track from his brief Crest era Pink Peg Slacks appear on this set undubbed but also appear with overdubbed piano. Three other tracks form his early sessions, Long Tall Sally, Blue Suede Shoes & That's My Desire also appear here undubbed and elsewhere here with overdubbed instrumentation, presumably added by staff at this reissue label, Bear Family themselves, to pad the set out even more. So there is a lot of filler. These tracks should only appear undubbed. There was a further CD of his on Rockstar, Portrait Of A Legend which contained tracks previously unissued in these formats. It was in fact the first release to contain the aforementioned undubbed C'mon Everybody, the full length Somethin' Else, another track Boll Weevil Song at it's slower but originally recorded speed, and a number of tracks in stereo for the first time, which are duplicated here. But a number of these tracks also had studio chatter at the beginning on that CD which has all been trimmed off here. It was nice to here the studio chatter at the beginning of one track Cherished Memories with somebody saying "What's he doing in there making scotch". But we don't get to hear that here, although I did notice the stereo separation of that track is wider here, with Eddie's voice completely to one channel, but about a couple of seconds shorter at the end. The undubbed C'mon Everybody misses the count-in at the beginning here but lasts a bit longer at the end here, as it fades. He also had a CD on Rockstar called Rockin' It Country Style which contained his 1953-55 acetate demos which was a mix of vocal and instrumental tracks. But because Bear Family who have released this set only claimed it to contain his complete vocal tracks (it misses one of the stereo takes of a track Pretty Girl from Rockstar's Portrait Of A Legend CD but replaces it with another stereo take), with only a selection of his instrumentals and tracks by other artists with Eddie on guitar, quite rightly, Bear Family have only duplicated the vocal tracks of these acetate demos, as admittedly the instrumentals from these demos sounded a bit ragged. But the vocal demos sound better here, as Bear Family obviously cleaned the discs better, so there are no crackles over the intro of the first track Gambler's Guitar like on the Rockstar CD; pops and crackles on other tracks there are absent here; although bits of chatter at the beginning or end of some of these tracks there have been trimmed off here. Eddie's voice sounds a lot younger on these tracks. CD8 contains multi-takes of a number of tracks. this is the only disc in the set to contain studio chatter which are from the beginning of the tracks here. But illogically, instead of appearing at the front of the tracks they belong to, they appear at the end of the tracks before them. CD6 and the second half of CD5 contain his entire live recordings which are either inferior live re-recordings of songs he had already done studio versions of, or songs he covered from other Rock artists, of which his versions were usually inferior to the originals although I like his live reading of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On. CD7 contains a selection of tracks by other artists, mostly obscure artists, but featuring Eddie on guitar, although he does not sing on any of these tracks. Some are surprisingly good, others are pretty dire. This CD contains both sides of a Capitol label single by country singer Skeets McDonald which were uptempo rockers with Eddie on guitar before his own career took off. But it is the forth time that Bear Family have released these tracks, as they already released them on his own box set on their label with his complete recordings, then on one of their various artists That'll Flat Dig It CDs focusing on Capitol records,and then on his own CD on their label Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight containing a selection of tracks from his box set. The Bob Luman track here with Eddie on guitar has also been released on their label for the forth time, as that was on his Bear Family box set with his complete early recordings, then on another of their various artists That'll Flat Dig It CDs focusing on Abbott records, and then on his Bob Luman Rocks CD on Bear Family. The Gene Vincent track here with Eddie on guitar had already appeared twice on Bear Family, firstly on his own box set with every song he recorded, and then on a CD Gene Vincent Rocks with a selection of tracks from his box set. But the reason they all re-appear on this CD of this Eddie Cochran box set is that Eddie played lead guitar on these tracks. When Suzi Quatro played either of those Skeets Mcdonald tracks on her oldies shows that she used to do on radio 2, she never once failed to mention that Eddie Cochran was the lead guitarist on either of these tracks, likewise Mark Lamaar. As for the omissions, it is a great shame it does not include the backing track to Rock 'N' Roll Blues which was on his Rockstar CD Portrait Of A Legend, as it was such a great track. The version of his instrumental Guybo which appears here was not his best version, which was the one on his Rockstar CD LA Sessions. The sound quality generally is excellent which is typical of Bear family, although some tracks give a slightly lower tone here than on the Rockstar releases, others a slightly higher tone, although this may only be noticeable if you listen through headphones. The huge thick cover book in the set is very illustrative in regards to his story, and the sessionography, detailing his recording sessions with the lineup of each session, plus a list of every track recorded in each session, although understandably, the exact recording dates were only available for all his later sessions. The book also contains loads of photos of Eddie. As for the price, I bought mine reduced to just under 80 pounds including VAT from Amazon. But when it first came out, it was priced at over 130 pounds which included the huge thick hard cover book. But if you already have his Rockstar CDs and his 4CD set on EMI, the label that took over Liberty, the label Eddie recorded for during the bulk of his career, it would not have been worth paying that amount for this set, even with the huge book in it. One further point, I do not like the CD cases within the box, holding these CDs. With the old Bear Family box sets, the CDs came in more decent cases in the boxes, either an individual case for each CD, or in double jewel cases which open like a book. Here, we get these very cheap and nasty horrible CD cases with 2 CDs in each, where you open the lid to get to one CD which is in a middle CD size tray, then to get to the second CD, you have to pull up the middle tray holding the left hand side of it, but because the right hand side of this tray is on a rather brittle hinge, it opens up and then circularly goes towards the right and then downwards with the first CD originally facing upwards, then facing downwards with the second CD fitted to the other side of this tray, then facing upwards, meaning that when you pull the second CD out, as you lift it upwards, you have to be careful that the first CD, then underneath, does not drop down on to the floor. This is all very shoddy. For the price of the box set, you would expect Bear Family to have the decency and attitude to continue to provide proper CD cases.

It's astonishing to think that when Ray Edward Cochran was taken from us in a freak car accident while on tour in England in April 1960 - he was only 6 months into his 21st year and had already clocked up over 200 recordings - the bulk of which are presented in this eagerly awaited and sumptuous box set..."Somethin' Else - The Ultimate Collection" by EDDIE COCHRAN is typical of Bear Family's legendary excellence - released February 2009 - 8 CDs are housed in label-themed 2CD jewel cases inside a 12" x 12" Box Set offering up a huge 262 tracks. There's a beautifully illustrated album-sized 194-Page Hardback Book that is a truly a thing of beauty.The set was compiled and prepared across several years by noted expert ANTOON VAN OLDEREN and Bear Family label boss RICHARD WEIZE. But this kind of quality and high-art finish doesn't come cheap - there's little change out of one hundred & fifty pounds - even online.The remastering was handled by 'BOPPIN' BOB JONES, JAY RANELUCCI and PETER J. REYNOLDS - and being Bear Family - the sound quality is GORGEOUS - first generation tapes used, meticulous transfers - a typically superb job done. It's distributed in the UK by John Beecher's Rollercoaster Records of Chalford, Gloucestershire.CONTENTS:Disc 1, 35 Tracks, 74:13 minutesDisc 2, 35 Tracks, 74:10 minutesDisc 3, 34 Tracks, 76:45 minutesDisc 4, 24 Tracks, 50:27 minutesDisc 5, 24 Tracks, 60:04 minutesDisc 6, 43 Tracks, 78:17 minutesDisc 7, 28 Tracks, 62:09 minutesDisc 8, 39 Tracks, 63:32 minutesFor US fans there's the first 3 singles on Ekko as The Cochran Brothers, the lone 7" on Crest, the 14 that followed on Liberty (A&B for each) and the 3 Liberty albums proper from 1957, 1960 and 1962. For UK fans there's the 13 London singles followed by the 10 Liberty ones and the 4 important albums - "Singin' To My Baby" (1958), "The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album" (1960), "Cherished Memories" (1962) and "My Way" (1964). I've checked and they're ALL on here.The 70's to 90's gave us major EMI retrospectives - the "Legendary Masters" 2LP set from 1972, the 4LP "20th Anniversary" box from 1980 and the "Eddie Cochran" 6LP/4CD box of 1988 - the bulk of these are here too (with some omissions). On top of that, Tony Martin's ROCKSTAR label of the UK carried the flag for Cochran for years and put out 9 EPs and 9 LPs worth of material (much unreleased) - the bulk (not all) of these reissues are also here.The songs themselves consist of master versions, alternate takes, stereo mixes, interviews, live tracks, false starts and studio chatter - and as you can imagine, it's a mixture of the great and the un-listenable (the stereo stuff on Disc 5 is thrilling while the live tracks are badly recorded and filled with screaming...)THE HARDBACK BOOK:The book is both gobsmacking and problematic. Firstly it's bent and curved when you take it out (other buyers have had the same) because the binding can't take the weight. And while the endless photographs of British, Irish, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch and even Israeli 7"s, 78"s, EPs and Albums are a wonder to behold and most are in colour - there's an unforgivable 'lack' of info beneath or beside them. Text should be embellishing all of these snaps - chart positions, B-sides, writers credits, what album it came off - but nothing - there isn't even release dates on them...Take Page 161 - you're shown his July 1958 UK debut LP on London HA-U 2093 with another sleeve beneath it - Liberty LBY 1158. There's no explanation that LBY 1158 is the May 1963 reissue of HA-U 2093 - there's no track list for either LP - there's no rear sleeves pictured either. All the Rockstar photos are slightly blurred - like their copies of copies. And disappointingly there's no printed US or British discographies for easy reference - numerical pointers as to where the tracks are on this massive box. (I've created my own for fans in the 'Comment' box - both singles and albums).What is good is the 5000-word essay by Stuart Coleman peppered with rare full-sized photos combined with stunning outtake stills and global posters for his 3 movies "The Girl Can't Help It", "Untamed Youth" and "Go, Johnny Go". My favourite photos are on Page 37 where the beautiful actress Yvonne Lime from "Untamed Youth" holds Eddie's cheeks in her hands with a look of pure affection and then on Page 66 there's Cochran and his flame Sharon Sheeley flicking through records racks in a Hollywood vinyl store - she clearly in love with him and unable to hide her pride.The Discography between Pages 99 and 118 is more of a jazz-style date-by-date Sessionography compiled by Antoon van Olderen, STUART COLMAN, RUSS WAPENSKY and RICHARD WEIZE. 120 entries start with his earliest stuff in mid 1953 through to his last recordings in January 1960 - including all session work and collaborations in between. You find out that the June 1961 UK single "Weekend" b/w "Cherished Memories" on London HLG 9362 has exclusive mixes - different to the US versions. Also I count a little under 10 previously unreleased versions exclusive to this box, with the bulk of others having appeared on albums/CDs now long deleted.Ultimately it's down to the music - and as I sit here listening to "Weekend" and "Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" in STEREO - tears are in my eyes. God bless you Eddie Cochran wherever you may be...Wallet-buster or not - and despite the book niggles - this is a stone 5-star recommended.PS: this review is dedicated to "Boppin' Bob Jones" who died in April 2009 - he remastered 1000's of recordings for Ace Records, Bear Family and other top reissue labels and brought joy to millions of fans...