2-CD (Digisleeve) with 36 page booklet, 42 tracks. Total playing time approx. 130 min.

Wayne Cochran (1939 – 2017) from Georgia, also called ’The White Knight of Soul’, is remembered for his white pompadour hairstyle and the brilliant Last Kiss that he wrote.
Bear Family Records® comprehensively chronicles the most creative period of his career with this double CD, from his beginnings as a young rocker and teen idol to his magnificent recordings as a compelling soul singer.
We present all the recordings from 1959 to 1966 including his rare recordings released on local labels and the recordings for Chess, Mercury and King.
Influenced by and a friend of Otis Redding and James Brown, among others, Wayne Cochran was a convincing performer as one of the best white soul and R&B singers.
Includes the first recorded version ever of These Arms Of Mine written by Otis Redding.
Music historian Bill Dahl wrote the extensive liner notes.
We have remastered the original recordings from the best available sources.

Long before he was anointed as ‘The White Knight of Soul,’ Wayne Cochran made a stack of intriguing but rare early ‘60s 45s for various small Georgia concerns and later considerably larger labels spanning the gamut from hauling rockers to dramatic teen tragedy themes.

They’ve occasionally been anthologized over the years, but never as comprehensively as on Bear Family’s ‘The Bigger The Pompadour… – His Complete Recordings From 1959- 1966 (2-CD),’ a 32-track extravaganza tracing Cochran’s recording career from its humble beginnings with The Coo to just before he fully exploded on the national scene with his explosive brand of horn-leavened blue-eyed soul.

Naturally, Wayne’s immortal pre-J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers rendition of Last Kiss is here in several incarnations (he wrote it) along with its little-known sequel Last Kiss II. So is the equally foreboding Edge Of The Sea.

But Cochran’s output also included plenty of swaggering rock and roll; all of those extreme rarities are on board too, even three extremely obscure instrumentals by his combo, The Rocking Capris.

Towards the end of the set, as Wayne and his C.C. Riders blast through Harlem Shuffle, the Mercury version of Get Down With It, and his thundering original Goin’ Back To Miami, the fully developed Cochran emerges, his sky-high white coiffure remaining awe-inspiringly intact as his mighty C.C. Riders horns blast and his melismatic screams pierce the studio air.

Cochran was a thoroughly electrifying live act, but this jam-packed collection demonstrates that his often-overlooked recording legacy was scorching too.