John Lennon

This is the kind of comp that fans love and casual listeners label as "crass commercial product." The first half of this collects the discarded tracks from Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll covers LP (including two self-penned cuts that lead off this collection). The second half features stripped-down versions of songs from Lennon's slick soft rock LP Walls and Bridges.

The late-night session-band workups of songs later embalmed on Walls and Bridges are startlingly stark and clear, making side two the finest music of the hiatus between Imagine and Double Fantasy, whose precisely felt studio-rock they prefigure. Phil Spector produced the commercial versions. He also produced Rock 'n' Roll, source of the outtakes on side one, which were rejected because they're even stiffer than the intakes. John never could figure out what to do about loving Rosie & the Originals. And Phil wasn't the guy to tell him. (Grade - B+)