NRBQ "Peek-A-Boo" The Best of NRBQ (1969-1989)

NRBQ have been one of America's great rock & roll bands since they emerged in the late Sixties, but given their checkered recording career -- nothing approaching a hit, several short stays at major labels and a longer tenure at their own Red Rooster imprint -- and a sense of creative wanderlust that strains the boundaries of the word "eclectic," pulling out an album that will convince a novice listener of the Q's greatness has been something of a challenge. Thankfully, Rhino compiled a near perfect NRBQ sampler with Peek-A-Boo: The Best of NRBQ 1969-1989. You name it, NRBQ can play it, and they offer up a little bit of all of it on this set -- hard roadhouse stomp ("Flat Foot Flwezy"), jazz-influenced exploration ("Here Comes Terry"), glorious driving tunes ("Green Lights"), rockabilly in overdrive ("12 Bar Blues"), sublime pop songs ("If I Don't Have You"), sweet and subtle folk-rock ("Mona"), collaborations with great men of professional wrestling ("Captain Lou") and any number of stops in between. While Peek-A-Boo spans two decades of record making, the pleasant surprise is that the group's musical vision was obviously in place from the start, and while their range expanded with time, they remain playful but committed to the serious joy of making music throughout, and regardless of who was in the band at any given time (though the bulk of this set is devoted to the longest-lived lineup of Terry Adams, Al Anderson, Tom Ardolino and Joey Spampinato). Given how much music NRBQ has released since Peek-A-Boo was issued, this collection is no longer as definitive as it once was, but as an introduction to a great band's singular body of work, it remains invaluable and an awful lot of fun.(mark Deming, Allmusic)

trax CD 1:

01 Flat Foot Flewzy 02 Magnet 03 Howard Johnson's Got His Ho-Jo Workin' 04 Mona 05 Deaf, Dumb And Blind 06 RC Cola And A Moon Pie 07 That's Alright 08 I Got A Rocket In My Pocket 09 Ridin' In My Car 10 Still In School 11 I Want You Bad 12 It Comes To Me Naturally 13 I Love Her, She Loves Me 14 Green Lights 15 Get Rhythm 16 Wacky Tobacky 17 It Was A Accident 18 Christmas Wish

trax CD 2:

01 Me And The Boys 02 You Can't Hide 03 Never Take The Place Of You 04 Feel You Around Me 05 Captain Lou 06 Things To You 07 12 Bar Blues 08 Rain At The Drive-In 09 A Girl Like That 10 How Can I Make You Love Me 11 Crazy Like A Fox 12 Here Comes Terry 13 Every Boy, Every Girl 14 Whistle While You Work 15 It's A Wild Weekend 16 If I Don't Have You 17 Little Floater

...served by Gyro1966...