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A Half Century of Hits | 
| Artist: Jerry Lee Lewis
Label: Time Life Records
Category: Music
List Price: $39.98
Buy New: $23.49
You Save: $16.49 (41%)
New (19) Used (10) from $17.79
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 99994
Format: Box Set
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 10 x 5.7 x 0.7
MPN: 19232
UPC: 610583181821
EAN: 0610583181821
ASIN: B000FIMFZK
Release Date: June 13, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On | | • | It'll Be Me | | • | Hand Me Down My Walking Cane | | • | You Win Again | | • | End Of The Road | | • | I'm Feelin' Sorry | | • | Great Balls Of Fire | | • | Lewis Boogie | | • | It All Depends (Who Will Buy The Wine) | | • | Breathless | | • | Down The Line | | • | High School Confidential | | • | Big Leg Woman | | • | Real Wild Child (Wild One) | | • | Let's Talk About US | | • | Little Queenie | | • | Bonnie B. | | • | Night Train To Memphis | | • | What I'd Say | | • | Invitation To Your Party | | • | One Minute Past Eternity | | • | I Can't Seem To Say Goodbye | | • | Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginia | | • | Jarry Lee Lewis and Sam Phillips: Religious Discussion |
Disc 2
| • | Hi Heel Sneakers | | • | I'm On Fire | | • | Green,, Green Grass Of Home | | • | Memphis Beat | | • | Another Place, Another Time | | • | What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me) | | • | Workin' Man Blues | | • | She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye | | • | Me And Bobby McGee | | • | To Make Love Sweeter For You | | • | There Must Be More To Love Than This | | • | Think About It, Darlin' | | • | Chantilly Lace | | • | Once More With Feeling | | • | Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee | | • | Middle Age Crazy | | • | Meat Man | | • | A Damn Good Country Song (Alternate Vocal) | | • | That Kind Of Fool | | • | No Headstone On My Grave | | • | Your Cheatin' Heart | | • | Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On |
Disc 3
| • | Rockin' My Life Away | | • | Rita May | | • | Don't Let Go | | • | I Wish I Was Eighteen Again | | • | Folsom Prison Blues | | • | Who Will The Next Fool Be | | • | Rockin' Little Angel | | • | I'd Do It All Again | | • | Thirty-nine And Holding | | • | Rockin' Jerry Lee | | • | Over The Rainbow | | • | Down The Road A Piece | | • | Miss The Mississippi And You | | • | Crown Victora Custom '51 | | • | It Was The Whiskey Talkin' (Not Me) | | • | Good News Travels Fast | | • | One Has My Name...The Other Has My Heart | | • | Hadacol Boogie | | • | Don't Stay Away ('Til Love Grows Cold) | | • | Jerry Lee's Boogie |
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Album Description
Jerry Lee Lewis has dominated every stage he walked on for fifty years and out-lasted virtually every critic along the way. The last survivor of the Million Dollar Quartet session at Sun, which included Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, his presence remains indomitable. He's recognized by his powerful musical and performance style and his unique personality. A prodigious piano player, Lewis plays with uncontrolled fury and abandon and is never at a loss for words. He's a rock `n roller who could never quite get the country out of his soul, and a country singer who could never forget that he'd been rock `n roll's brightest star. Jerry Lee Lewis is the stuff of legend.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Should've been 4 discs - but great anyway! June 23, 2006
Mr. A. Mc Rae (England)
38 out of 40 found this review helpful
Fantastic looking, excellent presentation, great contents and - overall - a fine summary of JLL's career.
..although there are a few 'buts'...
The Time-Life VP's introductory remark that there has 'never been a truly definitive JLL anthology' is, of course, nonsense and, leaving aside the obvious attraction of the 1952 recordings, this collection bears some comparison with an essentially similar project called ..er... 'The Jerry Lee Lewis Anthology' (aka 'All Killer No Filler') produced by Rhino in 1993. (Albeit the actual marketing is, of course, pitched at a different level, so one can perhaps forgive this 'oversight'). Rhino have, of course, also overseen this Time-Life issue, and the 1993 set would have made a good starting point for this project in terms of track selection, i.e. the 2 discs of 'All Killer No Filler' could have been complemented effectively by much of the third in the new collection.
To some of the particulars. Another reviewer has already commented on the absence of 'She Still Comes Around' and, as was the case with Universal's recent "Definitive Collection", another of Jerry Lee's biggest hits on Mercury, 'Touching Home' is yet again forgotten. Moreover, this set goes further and overlooks another #1 from the same era, 'Would You Take Another Chance On Me'. The collection is, in fact, hopelessly short of living up to the billing of including '..every JLL Top 20 Pop & Country Hit'. In truth, the only way of accommodating all the hits, and retaining the existing balance of lesser known tracks, would have been to expand the set to four discs with two CDs covering the Mercury era, thus also allowing for better coverage of the 'locust years' from '63 to '67, which are represented by a miserly total of four tracks. So this all begs the question 'why doesn't `A Half Century of Hits' include 4 discs?' - the packaging is consistent with a 4-disc set, and who would have begrudged another $8 or so on the list price?
But it goes beyond bizarre that the 'air-brush' has, far more seriously, been applied to 'Crazy Arms' - not simply excluded from the track list, but even ignored in the text. After 50 years we are now told that 'End of the Road' was JLL's first record. Period. No mention whatsoever of 'Crazy Arms'. This is tantamount to saying that Elvis' first record was "Blue Moon of Kentucky" making no mention whatsoever of "That's All Right, Mama", and who would think to do that?
I also think it unfortunate that in an essay spread over more than thirty pages no room could be found for a mention of Kenneth Lovelace, who has served loyally at Jerry Lee's side for no fewer than forty years of this 'Half-Century of Hits', both on stage and in the studio. Kenny is probably far too modest and unassuming to worry about it, but it is an unfortunate oversight to say the least. I suspect, however, that Colin Escott's words have been rather crudely edited at various points in his text.
These gripes apart, though, overall it is a fantastic collection. Terrific value for money!
The best concise career retrospective available June 18, 2006
J. Bonich (Woodbridge, VA)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
Time-Life managed to pull off a great feat by putting together a set that will not only be pleasing to the casual fan, but will also appeal to the die-hard JLL collectors. It consists of three disks, each focusing on a particular phase in his career.
The first disk consists of recordings from his 1956-1963 stint at Sun studios, where he became the biggest rock star this side of Elvis. The inclusion of the religious discussion is a nice touch. But the ommission of his first single, "Crazy Arms" and the instumental of "in The Mood" in favor of the so-so cuts "Night Train to memphis" and "I'm Feeling Sorry" is a bit puzzling. The last three, more country-oriented singles at the end of this disk make for a nice lead in to the second disk and phase of his career, the Smash/Mercury years.
Disk two contains what is probably the best single-disk collection of his smash/mercury era recordings I've ever heard. Its a great mix of his rockers and hard-lived country recordings, and doesn't skip over any of the hits. Its clear why the original vocals he recorded for "A Damn Good country Song" weren't used; his voice was in horrible shape. But in some strange way, they fit the song very well and it was a treat for time-life to include this version in the set.
The third disk is the true jem of this set- The Electra recordings! Just about every cut on this disk has been out of print for a while. It covers his stint at Electra and Sire records (and gracefully skips over the mediocre MCA sessions). I believe some of the Killers best work was from the three electra albums, and this disk has all the best cuts from them. While the killer had more or less passed his prime by the time he made the sire records, they prove he still has a ton of talent to share with the world. The final two tracks are the much-hyped New Orleans acetate sides he made for himself as a teenager. "Don't Stay Away" shows that Jerry was ready to shake up the world long before he made the trip to Memphis. What I found most interesting was the flip side- his "New Orleans Boogie". He became completely engrossed in the energy generated by the music and let the beat slip away from him several times. It painted a vivid picture of a young rebel who refused to be tamed by society's rules- the world's original punk rocker!
Jerry Lee Lewis - The Greatest of Them All June 16, 2006
G. I. Knight (Aberdeen, Scotland)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Thanks to Amazon I received this fantasic new release here in Scotland just two days after it came out in America.
It is only right that Jerry Lee Lewis - the greatest of them all - has been chosen to inauguarate Time Life's "Legends of American Music" series.
The biggest hits of Jerry's 50 year career are here together with a some never before seen Lewis family photographs.
54 years ago a seventeen year old Jerry and his friend from schooldays - Cecil Harellson - made a trip from Ferriday Louisiana to New Orleans. While there Cecil paid two dollars to cut a "demo" record. Cecil kept this "dub" and Time Life have made these two tracks available for the first time along with some later previously unreleased material.
Jerry Lee Lewis fans worldwide never ever thought that we would be able to hear Jerry's first ever recording. This is history!
The Boogie Jerry cut in New Orleans is fantastic - I have played it more than 100 times since receiving the package.
It is amazing to think that we can now hear a recording that Jerry made in 1952 - four years before he signed up with Sun Records in Memphis and went on to record all the million sellers.
This record is worth its weight in Gold!
Thank you Time Life and thank you Amazon for your excellent courier air service.
Graham Knight
Graham@knightsaberdeen.com
 awesome June 17, 2006
Matthew C. Tate (sandston,VA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
every song is great and it goes through his whole career. the only complaint is as a box set how can it be missing so many good songs. wheres "crazy arms", "save the last dance for me", "that lucky old sun", "ubangi stomp", "when the saints go marching in", and"she still comes around (to love whats lefts of me)"? these were all big jerry lee lewis songs and should be on here.
A few glaring oversights in an otherwise fantastic package April 26, 2007
A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to give this one an "A" for effort. A 3-disc retrospective of rock 'n roll's original bad boy, with extensive liner notes, is a fine idea. But calling this a "career retrospective" is a bit misleading.
For starters, where's Lewis's first single, Crazy Arms? You read that right: His FIRST SINGLE. A 3-disc set, 65 songs, but not his very first commercially-released song? Also MIA in this set: The seemingly-biographical ballad That Lucky Old Sun (and yes, I'm aware it was recorded by others prior to Lewis's version). And whatever you might think of the 1989 film GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, the "Killer" recorded some great material, including updated versions of many of his best-known hits. There was also his 1993 "Youngblood" album.
A fourth discs of rare and unreleased songs would have also been nice, although many such gems can be found on Rhino's Rare and Rockin': Original Sun Recordings.
This may all sound like nit-picking to casual fans. And it is. And for most folks, this is all the Jerry Lee Lewis they will ever need. And I'm certainly glad to have the set in my collection. Although I have most of the songs on previously-released discs, the sound quality of those eariler recordings varies greatly. So these discs will no doubt receive some heavy rotation at my house. But if you want the WHOLE Jerry Lee Lewis story, you'll have to look elsewhere to complete your collection.
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