There Ain't Half Been Some Great Albums: Comps Quiz

Answer: Howlin' Wolf

"Moanin' in the Moonlight" was a collection of singles by Howlin' Wolf released on the now prestigious Chess Records in the 1950s. The earliest one was 1951's "Moanin' At Midnight" and the latest one was "Moanin' For My Baby" from 1958. In 1962, a follow-up album covering the period of 1959 - 1962 came out under the title "Howlin' Wolf". Both are essential listening for anybody even vaguely interested in the history of the blues and its baby, rock 'n' roll.

Howlin' Wolf's immediately recognizable voice is part of what made those singles so great, but not everything. First of all there were his back-up musicians including three Willies: Willie Dixon on bass, Willie Johnson on guitar, and Willie Steele on drums. Secondly, there were the great songs. In just over half an hour, you got blues-standards-to-be "How Many More Years", "Smokestack Lightnin'", "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)", and the Willie Dixon-penned "Evil".

Answer: The Beta Band

"The Three E.P.'s" compiled "Champion Versions" (1997), "The Patty Patty Sound" (1998), and "Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos" (also 1998). Each E.P. featured four songs although the second release was almost twice as long as the first and last. In fact, it could have easily been released as an album since it clocked in at just under forty minutes.

The Beta Band went on to release several studio albums but none of them quite got the group's delicate balance of eclectic music styles quite right. Even the group themselves were vociferously critical of their eponymous debut, maybe overly so. However, the three E.P.s were among the rare highlights of the late 1990s, and furthermore would have stood out in any era.

Answer: John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker's long, brilliant career started in 1948 when he recorded "Boogie Chillen'", "Sally Mae", "Highway Blues" and "Wednesday Evening Blues" for Sensation Records' boss Bernie Besman in Detroit. Besman was shrewd enough to realise that he'd be better off licensing "Boogie Chillen'" to a label with wider distribution, so he got in touch with Modern on the West Coast, and boom, they had a huge hit.

Over the following years, Hooker recorded lots more sides for the label, twenty-four (including "Boogie Chillen'" and its B-side "Sally Mae") of which were collected on this great compilation.

Answer: James Brown

If you are ever going to buy just one box set compilation, it should be this one. I'd go as far to say that "Star Time" should be put in a time capsule to make sure our descendants don't stray too far.

What made it so good was of course the original material. It's incredible to think that there are almost five hours of music covering almost thirty years of James Brown's career here and it's all top class. This four-CD box set wasn't supposed to be a treasure trove for hardcore fans looking for alternative versions or outtakes, but rather a comprehensive look at one of popular music's absolute aces.

Answer: Jackson C. Frank

Folk singer Jackson C. Frank released one eponymous album in 1965, all of which was put on the compilation album "Blues Run the Game". The compilation album was named after his most well-known song. It included all the stuff which had surfaced by the time of its release in 2003, four years after Frank's death. Much of the material not on the original album release was of poor audio quality, but added something to the tragic story of an artist who should be much more than a footnote.

The original album had been produced by Paul Simon, who Frank was hanging out with on the London folk scene in the early 1960s. Unfortunately, Frank's unstable mental health saw him go back to the States before he really blossomed and according to all accounts, he was never really the same again.

Indeed, it was dreadful events in Frank's life which held him back. He didn't have a very good start. He experienced tragedy while still a child when many of his schoolmates ended up burnt to death in an accident. Things didn't get better as an adult and the list of personal tragedies that thwarted his life seems almost ridiculous. Whether that was what made his music so deep is a moot point. What is less open to discussion is how important his contribution to serious folk music has been.

Answer: Buzzcocks

Buzzcocks had already released two brilliant albums in the UK when "Singles Going Steady" was knocked together for the foreign market. In fact, it wasn't even supposed to come out in their native England but was eventually released due to popular demand. It soon became seen as a seminal release and rightly so. It was just top-notch pop punk hit after hit.

It's tough to single out a highlight, and as fond of the tales of love seen from just about every point of view, I would have to say "Harmony in My Head" is my favourite. Odd choice maybe since it was sung by Steve Diggle rather than the man who epitomised the group at that time (and since), Pete Shelley. Musically it was something of an anomaly too, but there you go. Having said that, who could resist Shelley's openness and courage in opening up his heart on "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" and "You Say You Don't Love Me", or his wry humour on "What Do I Get?"? Timeless.

Answer: Charlie Parker

Just like any jazz musician worth his salt, Charlie Parker recorded tons of tunes, and in his case in a relatively short period of time since he died aged just thirty-four after about ten years of recording.

There's a plethora of Charlie Parker stuff available, much of which is far more comprehensive than "Yardbird Suite", but as a cohesive, concise collection this two-CD compilation was unbeatable. It didn't quite cover all his career due to record company legal wranglings, but it was about as an good introduction to this extraordinary artist as you could desire. Not only was it a great introduction to Charlie Parker, but also a great one to come back to and listen to while reading the fabulous liner notes.

Charlie Parker changed the face of popular music in the 1940s. What's so amazing is how he still sounds miles ahead and hasn't dated an iota. Apart from his innovation and place in music history, Charlie "Bird" Parker could play the most soulful, blues-drenched jazz on the block which I daresay, and hope, will be connecting with listeners for many years to come.

Answer: Misfits

Back in the days prior to the Internet, tracking down stuff by the legendary Misfits was a real challenge, so getting hold of anything was a treat never mind such a treasure trove of ultra-rare songs like those found on a compilation like "Legacy of Brutality". It was messily packaged, scant on information yet utterly appealing, just like the music therein.

Essentially, "Legacy of Brutality" consisted of nine songs the group recorded in 1978 for an album called "Static Age". Nobody wanted to release the album and the recordings were left to gather dust until the mid-1980s when the group's frontman Glenn Danzig dug them out again. At that point, the Misfits were no more and Danzig overdubbed bits of guitar and bass and remixed the tracks. He added a couple of other rarities, and Bob's your uncle.

Since the mid-1980s, lots of Misfits stuff has surfaced and hardly any rock hasn't been turned, but I'll always return to this rough and ready compilation to get my fix of badly-recorded, badly-executed, fabulous horror punk.

Answer: Roy Orbison

The Big O, Roy Kelton Orbison, was part of a golden generation of American artists which included Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. What he had that the others only hinted at was a sense of sorrow that has endeared him to generation after generation of the forlorn, the broken-hearted and the lonely. Listening to his whole oeuvre you can hear that sensibility right from the early days, well before he had even experienced the terrible tragedies in his own private life. Whether he was the best of his generation or not will always be a matter of opinion and personal taste, but I think he had a slight edge on the others thanks to the vulnerability he embodied.

Another thing Roy had was an appreciation of Hispanic musical styles which gave his music further melodrama. Furthermore, he somehow managed to connect with his audience, despite a certain reserve in his performances and stage persona, simply through his vocal performances which had him hitting a range of notes others could only dream of. In fact, the amount of anecdotes from top performers who were practically blown off the stage by a slightly overweight, pale-skinned bloke in dark glasses who hardly moved while they had to rely on good looks and extravagant stage moves to get the punters into what they were peddling says a lot.

"The Soul of Rock and Roll" was as essential release as any fan of rock and roll could desire. Even the later recordings on this four-CD compilation stand up.

Answer: Lee "Scratch" Perry

To a certain extent Lee "Scratch" Perry is one of the unsung heroes of popular music who sit behind the mixing desk rather than stand in the limelight: the producers. What makes him different is that he has also performed in the limelight and is arguably best known as a performer, although his real genius has always been in messing about with sounds. As contradictory as that sounds, it makes sense in the world of the master.

Most of the stuff on the fascinating three-CD anthology "Arkology" was taken from the glory days of his Jamaican studio The Black Ark in the late 1970s when he was an absolute trailblazer. Despite a constant gist, the range of stuff was breathtaking. Even more amazing was the lack of constraint in terms of sounds: whatever sounded good in the context (and sometimes out of it) went with "Scratch".