TÄSTÄ EI ROCK`N`ROLL-ROCKABILLY MUSIIKKI PARANE! KLASSIKKOJA NYT!

In this CD, you get to hear:

· all the original Sun and Judd 45s (that’s 18 tracks)

· all the LP tracks issued on Judd (that’s another 5)

· unissued versions of every Sun title not originally issued (a further 9 cuts)

· and extra versions of Sail Away and of Breakup (making 34 tracks in all). And you get to see:

· a 56-page booklet by Martin Hawkins based on original interviews with Sam and Jud Phillips, Ray’s manager Charlie Terrell, and with Ray himself

· a number of stunning-quality photographs from the Sun and Judd era. We think we made a hit – just like Ray.

Ray Smith made some of the greatest records on the Sun label. No argument – just listen. From raucous rockers like You Made A Hit, to rhythmic rompers like So Young, and on to Sail Away and other amazingly memorable ballads. Many of his songs were written by Charlie Rich, who plays piano on this CD, including the original model for Jerry Lee Lewis’s Breakup. You can hear them all on this CD, sung in Ray’s strong voice – warm, controlled, yet always on the edge.

But Sun is only half the early Ray Smith story. After recording for Sam Phillips in Memphis, Ray took his classy act to Judd Records, owned by Sam’s brother, Jud, where he registered one of the best rock-pop hits of the late 1950s,

Rockin’ Little Angel. Using the best Nashville sessionmen, Ray’s Judd recordings reveal an even wider range of his vocal abilities.

Kentucky-born Smith melded his country roots with a great ability to sing rockers and pop ballads, and he had his moments of fame on ’American Bandstand’ and in the clubs of Vegas. He recorded throughout the 1960s and 1970s but he never realised his full potential, becoming no stranger to the bottle and to bouts of depression. He committed suicide in his adopted home of Canada in 1979.