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Ths 5 CD boxed set includes 100 country/soul/rock classics from Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Sheridan, Will Mercer, Jimmy Isle, Rayburn Anthony, Tracy Pendarvis, Paul Richey, and Sonny Wilson, among others. Composers: Chuck Berry; Don Scaife; Tony Austin; Vic McAlpin; Willie Cobbs; Brad Suggs; Buck Ram. Personnel: Jerry Lee Lewis (vocals, piano); Johnny Cash (vocals). Liner Note Author: Colin Escott. Recording information: Sun Studio Memphis TN. Illustrators: Colin Escott; Richard Weize. Introduction by: Hank Davis. Photographers: Colin Escott; Richard Weize. Unknown Contributor Roles: Shirley Sisk; Rayburn Anthony; Roy Orbison; Wade Cagle; Benny Joy; Bobby Wood. By the time the singles on this four-disc set were released (1959 into 1962), Sun was a much different label than the one that discovered Elvis Presley just a few years earlier. Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison had moved to other labels, and Jerry Lee Lewis was in the middle of trying to reassemble the pieces of his career. Label owner Sam Phillips was in the midst of leaving his fabled 706 Union Memphis Recording Service for a new studio across town, never again finding the warm intimacy that graced his early recorded efforts. The label also pursued trends that seemed to be selling at that moment, and largely gone was that anarchic spirit that made all the early Sun issues so legendary. But there was still a pronounced regional flavor and inherent sound to a Sun record -- even the ones cut in Nashville during this period -- that emerged from the grooves, no matter how much the original master tape was embalmed in chirping female choruses and syrupy strings. Disc one sports more than a few classic sides -- including Rayburn Anthony's "Alice Blue Gown" and Tracy Pendarvis' double-sided blast from Sun's past, "A Thousand Guitars"/"Is It Too Late" -- amid the commercial dross. There were other stray nods to Sun's rockin' past with Sonny Wilson's "The Great Pretender" (sporting one of the most confused guitar breaks ever released on the label) and "I'm Gonna Take a Walk," but perhaps even more interesting was the continual mining of the vaults for more Johnny Cash sides. Disc two follows this pattern, with a pair of Jerry Lee Lewis 45s and Cash singles standing alongside Tracy Pendarvis' "Is It Me" as musical high points, but these were severely undercut by the issuance of pop-inspired crossover material. Disc three kicks off with a major surprise, a two-sided Charlie Rich instrumental issued under the name Bobby Sheridan. More Cash material from the vaults is aboard, along with Jerry Lee's back-to-the-charts hit, "What'd I Say." The final disc illustrates what a hit record did to Jerry Lee's stock at the label, as Sun issued one single after another in its wake, scoring another hit with "Money" alongside "Sweet Little Sixteen," the last Sun chart entry. Harold Dorman's "Uncle Jonah's Place," Johnny Cash's "Blue Train" and Don Hosea's "Uh Huh Huh" (actua
