Ronnie Self - Bop-A-Lena (1990)

This is one Bear Family disc that's a bargain any way you slice it, containing 30 songs cut between 1956 and 1963, covering his sound from the hard, raspy rockabilly of the title track to slightly bluesier slow numbers like "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere." At his best (and he was always at his best in the recording studio), Self could rock as hard as Elvis in his wildest Memphis days, edging into Little Richard territory -- "You're So Right For Me" is almost scary in its echoes of the latter -- or handle a ballad with the kind of wistful innocence that Rick Nelson turned into a career. The stuff here is all good, not a weak song or track in the 30, and anyone who thinks they know early rock & roll or rockabilly and doesn't own this CD is kidding themselves.