Search - Various Artists :: Blowing the Fuse: 30 R&B Classics That Rocked the Jukebox in 1956

Better than you can imagine

David Greene | Palo Alto, CA USA | 04/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review applies to all 16 volumes (1945-1960) of the "Blowing the Fuse" series.



I've been collecting 50s rock & roll and r&B for nearly 40 years. I used to review reissues for national publications. This is the best multi-artist series of CDs I have ever encountered (think the Smithsonian collections, Motown box sets, Rhino's blues series and other collections, HipO select, Atlantic R&B).



You can see the selections and sequencing on this site. What you can't see are the lavish packages. Each volume comes with a booklet, about 80 pages, with great notes by Colin Escott and amazing pictures and artifacts relating to every track on the CD.



And you can't hear the transfers and remastering. Out of the 460 tracks on the 16 volumes I've listened to, there are only two (!) that are not the best I've ever heard. The top end is beautiful. Voices sounds present, Drums sound real. And the bottom end and mid-range are full and natural. I have been collecting the "best sounding versions" of these recordings obsessively for decades; and these trump them all. Best dynamic range, too. I'm using these CDs to replace all other versions of these tracks on my iPod but one: the mono version of "For Your Precious Love" (1958), which is available only on Ace's Golden Age of Rock & Roll vol 10.



Even for songs I've heard hundreds if not thousands of times before, the impact of hearing them pop off these CDs is a joy repeated with every track."