VA - Liverpool Sounds: 75 Classics from the Singing City (2015)

As you drive into Liverpool you will see a sign Liverpool 'Home Of The Beatles', which is absolutely true, but the city's contribution to popular music is far greater than that, covering the years before the Beatles, the Beatle years themselves, and more recent times. The Wall of Fame in Mathew Street salutes Liverpool's number 1 hit-makers and there is plenty of space for further additions. Compiled and annotated by author and BBC Radio Merseyside broadcaster Spencer Leigh, Liverpool Sounds presents 75 tracks which, by and large, relate to the pre-Beatles area. There are great songs, great comedy and great performances, and every track is here for a reason. There are many hit singles and several number 1s. Even if the Beatles had been born elsewhere, the city would still have made an enormous contribution to modern popular music. From Lita Roza's (How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window (1953) to the Hillsborough Justice Collective's He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (2012), there have been 56 Number 1's from Liverpool. The earliest tracks on 'Liverpool Sounds: 75 Classics From The Singing City' are from the late Thirties, by Dingle-born comedian Arthur Askey; the most recent are 1965 beat recordings made at the Cavern club's Cavern Sound recording studio. In between you will hear jazz performed by the Merseysippi Jazz Band and George Melly, folk courtesy of Stan Kelly and The Spinners (including the traditional Johnny Todd, the tune of which is familiar as the theme to the long-running Merseyside-based police TV drama series Z-Cars), and pre-rock era popular vocalists like Frankie Vaughan, Lita Roza, Michael Holliday and comedian Ken Dodd. Other popular local sons of Liverpool include rockers Billy Fury and King Size Taylor & The Dominoes, and, inevitably, The Beatles (here in their own right and with Tony Sheridan) as well as beat group contemporaries Gerry & The Pacemakers (archival recordings from 1961) and Howie Casey & The Seniors. As a bonus, you can hear Johnny Gentle (who was backed by the Beatles on a 1960 Scottish tour) reminiscing on John Lennon's hand in creating his song I've Just Fallen For Someone.