Since
Roddy Jackson
put out just three singles on
Specialty
, you wouldn't think it easy to compile an entire CD of his work. With typical industrious ingenuity, however,
Ace
has managed to scrounge together a 16-track collection. It includes not just both sides of all three of his late-'50s
singles, but also a bunch of previously unissued outtakes and demos from the same era, as well as an alternate take of
"I've Got My Sights on Someone New."
Jackson
really didn't have enough going for him to be a major rock & roller, as both his material and vocals were pretty derivative of
Little Richard
and
Jerry Lee Lewis
, with some
Eddie Cochran
Elvis Presley
thrown in for good measure. Still, he did have some unhinged energy, and could muster vocals that were about as raw as any
rock & roll
heard on large indie labels such as
at the time. The material ranges from frenzied rockers to milder, toned-down tunes that seem aimed at smoothing
out for the
pop
market. But despite the involvement of a young
Sonny Bono
in these sessions on both the production and songwriting end, none of the songs are so memorable that they can be marked out as cuts that should have been heard by a much wider audience. One of the previously unreleased items is a recording described as the "original demo" of
"She Said Yeah,"
later cut for
by
Larry Williams
and covered in the '60s by
the Rolling Stones
; in this form, it's more of a lewd piano-based rollicking
boogie-woogie
number. ~ Richie Unterberger