THE BARGAIN BUY: Dave Edmunds: Original Album Classics

The final album in this five CD box set -- I Hear You Rockin' from '87 -- reminds you just how popular, rockabilly and rocking Edmunds was back when he was mentioned in the same breath as his running mates Elvis Costello, Graham Parker and Nick Lowe.

It opens with Costello's Girl Talk then its into his own rockabilly Here Comes the Weekend, later he covers Otis Blackwell's Paralyzed (a hit for Elvis) and Dion's The Wanderer, then there's Graham Parker's Crawling from the Wreckage, his cover of I Hear You Knocking (which Lennon in his Rolling Stone interview said he'd rather hear than Dylan's New Morning) and Lowe's I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock and Roll.

It's a flat-tack rock'n'roll set which owes very little to pub rock/punk/post-punk and New Wave which he'd come up parallel to. (And interestingly the pianist is Geraint Watkins, a great New Orleans-syled player who now has a fine solo career alongside playing in Lowe's bands.)

It's a pity his Rockpile album isn't among this collection, but here are the covers album Subtle As a Flying Mallet (material made famous by Ray Charles, the Crystals, Chuck Berry and others, proving he really was a human jukebox) and D.E. 7th which opens From Small Things Big Things Come which Springsteen gave him and asked if he'd do it . . . if he wanted.

There are also the Information and Riff Raff albums which he co-produced with Jeff Lynne but which come a little short.

So while this doesn't exactly live up to the "album classics" part of the series title, this is a very sound reminder of just how enjoyable Dave Edmunds could be . . . and might, with any luck, send you on a search for the album Seconds of Pleasure (with the band Rockpile).

Edmunds mostly spent his days as a producer after an initial rush of fame, the studio's gain being a loss for unashamedly entertaining and unpretentious rock'n'roll. 

So for just $20 at JB HiFi stores here you get two cracking albums which bookend this set, and three others with a balance of killer and filler. Still a Bargain Buy.