Various Artists – 16 Guitar Greats (1993)

This is one of the most random albums I own. I got this compilation CD as a Christmas present from my parents in the same year as I got my very first acoustic guitar. This must have been in the year 1993 when this album came out. and thus it makes this CD one of my very first CDs. This was my parents way of introducing me to some guitar music. Of course it took me years and years of practice, before I could've realistically been able to play any of these songs. I was never really that much into this kind of old rock n' roll when growing up. This kind of music just wasn't very cool. Now, looking back at this album, it has some historically important rock and blues songs that I really should know. So, I guess the idea behind this album was good, but I just did't realise it until much later on. I don't know if this is the best kind of historical introduction to rock n' roll, but at least it's a start.



It was really difficult to even find out what the track listing for this album is. This CD is currently at my grandmother's house, where I took some records for safekeeping when I moved to London, so I couldn't check the track listing from the CD itself. I finally managed to find a track listing somewhere online, but that only mentioned song titles and I'm not sure if the artists in my Spotify playlist are actually the right performers. Some of the songs I couldn't find at all on Spotify, so this post is merely based on what I could find.

From my childhood, I could only remember one song from this album. Unsurprisingly it was the strangest selection for this album, Batman Theme, by Neil Hefti and his Orchestra. This is, in my opinion, a strange song to select to be among such great guitar heroes as Chuck Berry and Duane Eddy.

The album cover on this old time plastic CD case is quite strange. It's just a bunch of pictures of guitars. I guess the whole reason for this type of CD to exist is the exact reason why I got this in the first place. To introduce the listener to classic rock n' roll where guitar takes the main stage. You can also see that this album has been quite cheap to make, because it doesn't have many of the obvious big names of rock n' roll, such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard or Buddy Holly.

I think I should've given this album more appreciation bak in the day to educate me of music history. Only after writing several blogs and after familiarising myself with countless best ever rock songs lists, I can appreciate that I actually own a CD that is meant purely for educational purposes.

Album on Spotify.