Johnny Hallyday's fans are loyal to the core, and have many opinions as to what should be included in a career retrospective. This triple-disc set from Universal France covers 41 years, from the very beginning in 1961 all the way through latter successes in 2005. It contains no less than 60 tracks, meaning virtually every hit single is included, along with a selection of live cuts and surprises. ~ Thom Jurek

Three disc collection released by Universal in France. 2009.

Strutting Texas blues. This compilation album at least features the man doing what he does best. Many collections concentrate on his dire seventies rock'n'roll glutfest and his even direr mid-sixties early embarrassments. It's the blues that defines him from 1969 onwards, and this CD thankfully concentrates on that definition of him as an artiste. Johnny Winter has many hardcore fans, myself obviously included. His fire, precision and inventiveness combine with his songwriting talents and his ability to quote stock phrases of the Blues Bible in a new and exciting way. This creates instant classics. I'm sometimes surprised to find I'm listening to a Winter original when I'd assumed it was something from the early rustic days of the blues. As for his guitar playing, well, combine the sting and attack of Albert "the Ice Man" Collins and the raw scrape of slide legend Elmore James and the development of musical sentences from Clapton's Cream days and you'll have a fair idea of Johnny's appeal. That voice too is pretty cool - it's like a coyote gargling with sandpaper. Diehard fans will have all these tracks anyway - they've appeared on his three Alligator Records releases from the early to mid eighties. And they're terrific. A healthy helping of Texan blues with extra chili - he yodels, growls, yelps and brags through these songs with an energy and relish that's kinda hard to resist. Each solo is a delight- the slower numbers feature exciting developments of licks and phrases - you can follow the ideas through each solo, and the faster songs combine Chuck Berry chops with sudden high register flurries. Guitar fans will argue until the end of time about the merits of their particular hero. My mind was made up in 1969 with one song from a CBS sampler. Yep, it was I Love Everybody by Johnny Winter from his third album, confusingly called Second Winter. I bought every album for the next 40 years and the tracks on this compilation represent a period I recall with great fondness. At the risk of sounding cliched - Go Johnny Go! (Amazon's Customer)

There was a knock on my door last week. Two women. Do you believe in God? No. They smiled sympathetically. How do you think we were created? Er, biology I guess. Ah, they smiled again, some people do think that. They offered to leave me a booklet to read which I politely declined. To convert a confirmed atheist it was a feeble attempt. Their good Lord alone must know their success rate. Not high I shouldn’t wonder. Now, had they left me with Johnny Cash singing “God Must Have My Fortune Laid Away”, “It Was Jesus” or “When He Reached Down His Hand For Me” they would have stood a better chance.

This is a fine collection, comprising six full Johnny Cash albums from the period 1958-1962, presented chronologically, along with a number of bonus tracks from around the same period.