2,000 Limited Edition Copies Simply put, Jerry Lee Lewis is nicknamed The Killer for several very good reasons: among them, he is one of the greatest rockers ever to cut a record and one of the greatest live performers of all time in any genre. Anyone who had been lucky enough to see Jerry Lee in his prime pound his piano, toss about the piano stool and those wavy locks while viciously attacking rocker after rocker and breathing pure honky-tonk into a succession of country songs will most surely agree. Whether he wrote a song or not, when Jerry Lee performed it, the song becomes his own, and fortunately, during his prime, Mercury Records (and its Smash and Philips subsidiaries) captured four albums-plus worth of The Killer live. This new collection presents these four albums Live At The Star Club, Hamburg and The Greatest Live Show On Earth, both from 1964; 1966"s By Request: More Of The Greatest Live Show On Earth; and 1970 s Live At The International, Las Vegas plus 16 bonus tracks, including 10 previously unreleased on three CDs. And these discs only reconfirm the power and stature of Jerry Lee. In fact, Live At The Star Club has often been called rock s first great live album, as The Killer roars through a dozen classics (plus a bonus track here) with ferocity and abandon. Liner notes writer Mitchell Cohen compares Jerry Lee s attack here to another set of Rock n Roll Hall of Famers The Ramones it s that visceral. And also instructive as the piano man roars into his own hits as well as those by Elvis, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Hank Williams and others. This is precisely the same diversity and great song selection that informs each of the three albums that follows. The music gets a trifle more country as we progress in time, as Jerry Lee had two solid years of country hits under his belt by the time of The International set, but even then, the singer can t resist pounding out a raucous Stagger Lee, which is here as one of the 10 previously unreleased tracks. This 58-song, over-three-hours-of- killer live music set is complemented by Mitchell Cohen s insightful liner notes, complete credits, and great period photos. Disc 1, Tracks 1-13: Live At The Star Club, Hamburg (Originally Philips UK SBL-7646/Philips Germany 842 945) ("64) Recorded April 5, 1964 Disc 1, Tracks 14-23: Greatest Live Show On Earth (Smash SRS-67056) ("64) Recorded July 1, 1964, Municipal Auditorium, Birmingham, Alabama Disc 2, Tracks 1-11: By Request: More of the Greatest Live Show On Earth (Smash 67086)("66) Recorded August 20, 1966, Panther Hall, Fort Worth, Texas Disc 2, Tracks 12-22: Live at the International, Las Vegas (Mercury SR-61278)("70) Recorded May 22/23, 1970, The International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada Disc 3, Tracks 1-5: Outtakes From By Request: More Of The Greatest Live Show On Earth Recorded August 20, 1966, Fort Worth, Texas Disc 3, Tracks 6-15: Outtakes from Live At The International, Las Vegas Recorded May 22/23, 1970, The International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada Tracks 6 through 15, Disc 3 are Previously Unreleased.