Jerry Lee Lewis - Another Place Another Time / She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye (1968/70) (Remastered, 2002)

Raven's 2002 two-fer CD reissue of Jerry Lee Lewis' 1968 album Another Place Another Time and 1970's She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye contains the added bonus of six tracks -- over half the album -- from 1969's She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me). By doing this, the disc transcends typical two-fer status (which, frankly, would have been enough, since these two albums are so tremendous, their first CD release is something to celebrate) and becomes the best single-disc collection of Jerry Lee's country material. There have been other discs that tackle the same recordings for Smash (all unfortunately out of print as of this writing), but their scope was a little broader, including many of his '70s hits for Mercury as well as Smash sides unheard here. On the surface, this may seem to be a drawback -- more is usually better, after all -- but the narrow focus of this two-fer highlights his peak as pure country singer, when he found his voice and ran with it. He made great music after She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye, to be sure, and had plenty of hits, but these three albums are classics, bristling with excitement and infused with hardcore honky tonk pathos. It's not just that Jerry Lee sounds great on these songs -- he rarely sounded bad, after all -- but it's that the songs are perfectly suited for him, and the performances are as bold and robust as he is. Also, all the key country hits -- "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)," "Another Place Another Time," "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)," "Once More With Feeling," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye" -- are here, and the depth of quality of this material is richer than on some hit collections. These are not just three of the best Jerry Lee albums, they're three of the best and hardest country music ever waxed, and even if one of the records isn't here in its entirety (the best cuts are, though), this is the best way to currently hear them. It's an absolutely essential collection.