Various - The Song Before The Song - Original American Blues / Rock and Roll Classics

Some of popular music's most famous songs in their rarely heard original/early form. This excellent compilation highlights a fascinating period in the development of popular music.

These songs inspired and influenced artists, covering them almost exactly or taking elements and molding it into their own version. For example, Elvis heard Big Mama Thornton's version of "Hound Dog" and copied it almost exactly but in his own distinctive style. Bob Dylan heard "Highway 61" by Jack Kelly's Memphis Jug Band and this inspired him to write his own "Highway 61 Revisited".

Whether the original or early version is better than its more famous offspring is up for debate, but it raises the question - if the song was so good in the first place, why wasn't it the original or early version that became famous?

The answer to this is quite simply that the social and political climate at the time was totally wrong for these songs to be heard by a mass audience. There was no worldwide music industry, marketing, etc as we know it today.