Some Single Sparklers Among the Boxed Sets

Most of the attention in the album reissue and retrospective world this time of year is onboxed sets, because they invite the most commentary by critics and offer most glamour as gift items.

The downside of this focus is that lots of modest but noteworthy reissues get largely ignored.

Today’s group of mostly single-disc albums, selected from scores of possibilities, either offer unexpected looks at the various artists’ careers or draw attention to underappreciated performers.

The subjects range from reggae’s Jimmy Cliff and country’s Dolly Parton to synth-pop’s Yaz and R&B;’s Clarence Carter. All are recommended, and might make ideal stocking stuffers.

Jimmy Cliff’s “Ultimate Collection” (Hip-O). The late Bob Marley is the first name that should come to mind when you think of reggae music. He is the field’s most commanding figure and its leading ambassador around the world.

Cliff is one of the other essential names that should come to mind--though I’m not sure it does with younger reggae fans, who may think of him as too soft or too pop.

There is a sweet, disarming, almost gospel-like quality to Cliff’s vocals, which is one reason that he may be thought of as a reggae pop star, as opposed to Marley’s harder-edged musician-activist.

But there is a strong sense of commentary in several of his songs, including “Struggling Man” (included here), and “Trapped,” a gripping song that isn’t on this collection, but which Bruce Springsteen has frequently sung in concert.

Born James Chambers in 1948, Cliff is best known as the star of director Perry Henzell’s movie “The Harder They Come,” a 1972 cult classic that touched on the harsh realities of the recording scene in Jamaica and also addressed the larger issue of Third World struggle.

The 19 tracks here include four songs from the outstanding “The Harder They Come” soundtrack, including the uplifting title tune and the enchanting “Many Rivers to Cross.” Also featured here: a version of Johnny Nash’s 1972 “I Can See Clearly,” a Top 20 hit in the U.S. in 1993, and Cliff’s version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” a Top 10 single in England in 1970.

Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” (Buddha). You wouldn’t know it by most of her recordings in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but there was a time when Parton showed the potential to be the most rewarding female country artist ever--a title that eventually went to Emmylou Harris.

Long before the movies and the crossover pop records, Parton flashed signs of greatness as a songwriter and as a singer, exploring country’s classic themes of family ties and romantic conflicts with assuredness and character.

Thanks to the intimacy and conviction of such tunes as “To Daddy,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” Parton began establishing a body of work that might well have rivaled the brilliance and range of Merle Haggard, if she had maintained the pace. But she didn’t, and the early promise has gone largely unfulfilled.

This album, originally released by RCA in 1971, shows Parton at her creative prime. Whether singing her own title tune or mentor Porter Wagoner’s “If I Lose My Mind,” she demonstrates a magic that lifted her--for a while--above rivals Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. It’s a magic that remains undiminished.

Various artists’ “Street Corner Serenade/Greatest Doo-Wop Hits of the ‘50s and ‘60s” (Rhino). It’s tempting these days to think of all doo-wop hits as essentially the same record, which is the same thing unsympathetic adults said in the ‘50s when their kids fell in love with the style.

But there was something in the soaring harmonies and youthful exuberance of such records as Frankie Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” and the Moonglows’ “Sincerely,” and the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” that gave each--and scores more--an individuality that young fans might not have been able to explain to disbelieving parents, but that the fans fully embraced.

There is great range in these 22 selections, as if compilation producer James Austin wanted to demonstrate the wide boundaries of doo-wop to all those early skeptics. The disc contains the three songs mentioned plus such hits as the Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby,” the Marcels’ “Blue Moon” and the Monotones’ “Book of Love.”

Clarence Carter’s “Clarence Carter” (Koch). Just as Cliff has long been in the shadow of Marley, this Alabama native has remained in the commercial and artistic shadow of such Southern soul singers as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd. While he’s certainly not in the Redding league, Carter made records that were competitive with the others.

This single-disc package brings together two of the albums he recorded in the ‘60s for Atlantic Records, “This Is Clarence Carter” and “Testifyin’.” In the 23 tracks, he frequently shows a humorous edge, but that didn’t hide the soulful longing and desire in his voice. Working with celebrated producer Rick Hall, Carter was blessed with some extraordinary material. Among the writers represented in the two albums: John D. Loudermilk, Wayne Carson Thompson, Curly Putman and the team of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. The album includes “Slip Around,” Carter’s biggest R&B; hit, but it doesn’t contain “Patches,” his most successful pop single.

Yaz’s “The Best Of” (Mute/Reprise). Though Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet may both wince at the suggestion, the best of their work together in Yaz almost two decades ago was the electronica equivalent of ABBA.

The duo was formed in 1982 when Clarke, a founding member of Depeche Mode, left that group and responded to a British music paper ad placed by Moyet in search of “rootsy blues musicians.” Though Clarke’s synth-pop style didn’t seem to fit Moyet’s goals, the pair created a sound together that is still influencing dance-minded acts.

The collection, filled with lilt and soaring emotion, is drawn from 1982’s “Upstairs at Eric’s” and 1983’s “You and Me Both” albums. While some tracks are in a harder pop direction, the group’s best-known tunes, “Only You” and “Don’t Go,” would surely be finalists in any ABBA appreciation contest today. The disc includes both the original version and a remix of both of those songs.

Clarke and Moyet have both had success after Yaz--Clarke as a member of Erasure and Moyet as a solo artist. But there is something elegant and soulful about these tracks, which remain each artist’s most endearing work.

Various artists’ “Rebels & Outlaws/Music From the Wild Side of Life” (Capitol). Think of this as a companion piece to the “Street Corner Serenade” doo-wop collection. The music is radically different, but this album also helps combat a stereotype. If you listen to country music today, you might think it was always characterized by timid, conservative sensibilities.

The 14 songs on “Rebels and Outlaws”--including such eye-openers as Johnny Paycheck’s “(Pardon Me) I’ve Got Someone to Kill”--show that it wasn’t. The CD doesn’t aim for the artistic heart of country music but for its wild side. Proclaim the liner notes: “This is outrageous, rockin’ country music . . . from a time when ‘politically correct’ was a concept still decades away and songs about murder, livin’ fast, doing time, cheatin’ and raisin’ hell were standard fare.”

While the tone varies from stark (Johnny Cash’s classic “Folsom Prison Blues” and Merle Haggard’s “Branded Man”) to novelty (Wanda Jackson’s version of the R&B; hit “Riot in Cell Block Number Nine”) to cowboy storytelling (Marty Robins’ “Big Iron”), there is an adventurous spirit that is missing from today’s Nashville product.

Jerry Lee Lewis’ “The Best of Jerry Lee Lewis” (Hip-O). Here’s another example of country music’s wild past. Country strains were present in Lewis’ landmark ‘50s rock hits on Sun Records, including “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” and “Breathless.” He even recorded Hank Williams’ “You Win Again” as the flip side of “Great Balls of Fire.”

But Lewis didn’t officially enter his country music stage until he left Sun for the Mercury Records family in the ‘60s. It was there that he recorded a series of tunes--from the straightforward melancholy of “Another Time, Another Place” to the novelty-edged desolation of “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)”--that merged country music’s honky-tonk roots with Lewis’ fiercely independent and totally self-absorbed vocal style.

The 12 tracks include two songs that have become as much pop culture trademarks as his early Sun hits--songs that not only extended Lewis’ musical legacy, but also summarized his own restless spirit: “Middle Age Crazy” and “Thirty-Nine and Holding.”

Louis Prima & Keely Smith’s “Wild, Cool & Swingin’ ” (Capitol). There has been a lot of worthless music pushed at us under the “lounge” marketing tag in recent years, but this is the real stuff.

For a while in the ‘50s, Prima was the king of the Las Vegas lounges. With gifted vocalist Smith and the dynamic band the Witnesses (featuring saxophonist Sam Butera), Prima--a minor player during the swing era who was best known for writing “Sing, Sing, Sing”--put on some of the most energetic shows that Vegas has ever seen. It was as if he was trying to duplicate on stage all the high-stakes emotion that the gamblers were used to at the tables--and he achieved his goal.

From novelties such as “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You” and “The Closer to the Bone (The Sweeter the Meat)” to highly customized versions of “That Old Black Magic” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” Prima and company captivated audiences, mixing bits of Dixieland jazz, jump blues rhythms and an independent attitude that some have linked with rock ‘n’ roll.

One reason for the frantic edge to the music is that Prima’s career was in desperate shape. Without a record contract, he was lucky to get a gig at the Sahara Hotel lounge, which was the lowest rung on the Las Vegas show-biz ladder at the time, not the hot spot that Prima helped lounges become. Prima was signed for just two weeks, playing five shows a night, starting at midnight. He was such a hit that he eventually signed a $3-million-a-year deal at a rival hotel lounge.

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Robert Hilburn can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]