Hey there, Kats and Kittens. Wanna hear the screaminest hollow-body Gretsch guitar music this side of the Atlantic? Look no further. This should be titled THE BEST OF THE STRAY CATS. Because that's what this collection is all about. The only throw away track may be GIVE IT TO ME. The rest is pure rock-a-billy heaven. I wore my pomp real high in the late 70's when these boys first started slapping wood and I'm here to tell ya, it doesn't get any better than this. I WON'T STAND IN YOUR WAY and LONELY SUMMER NIGHTS are the best ballads Brian Setzer has ever recorded and they're both included here. Check out the high-octane guitar power of ELVIS ON VELVET and then tell me this doesn't come close to tearing the throat out of any guitar solo by Chris Spedding. When I first bought this CD it never left the player in my ride and when ELVIS comes on, the windows go down, the volume goes up, and accelerator gets floored. GGGGO Daddy-o. The only thing that would make this collection complete would have been the inclusion of LOOK AT THAT CADILLAC and WILD SAXOPHONE. Otherwise, purrrrfect.

An exemplary best-of, this has 25 tracks from throughout their career, leaning heavily on the earliest and best material. It also contains a few tunes that were previously unreleased in the U.S., the B-side cover of the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love," and all three non-album songs from their 1983 double 45 "(She's) Sexy + 17." Those that prize authenticity might continue to scorn this rockabilly revivalism. But now that the debate over whether the group were poseurs or not has become irrelevant, it's a surprisingly solid guilty pleasure, even if it's more or less reheated Gene Vincent.