THIS IS A CD -- WHY SO SKIMPY ON THE SONGS?
341335
As someone else here mentioned, the CD format allows up to 78 minutes of music on one CD.  Why is this simply a re-issue of the decades-old compilation?  Yes, the songs are WONDERFUL and The Byrds get nothing less than 5 STARS.  But I'm rating THIS CD. I can't give it more than 3 stars when there's scarcely 40 minutes of music here.  Yes, I know people get nostalgic over certain albums and the EXACT song selection (I'm that way about "CHICAGO IX - Chicago's Greatest Hits", even though I own all the other albums. I like the songs in the order they're in on that album).  But why not represent the original running order of the LP, then add "bonus tracks"?
644438
Some dubious mastering on this CD. The sound is very thin, could be software compression, and on some tracks (Blue Day in particular) the mix seems to be a mono sum of one stereo track because some key instruments and licks are very faint or missing entirely. Most likely because they were panned to one track of the original stereo mix - the track missing off this master!

The whole CD sounds like a bunch of highly and poorly compressed mp3's but better than nothing if you can't find a genuine master.
3775767
The CD has a lot of songs my husband and I are unfamiliar with. Those songs were o.k., but not great. The songs we are familiar with are great songs.
707690
Well, the cd is just a recording.  Which is not why I bought this product.
935010
Not quite what I expected, but I still think the CD is great!
3658723
Like many who would spend money to listen to this type of music so as to occasionally stroll down memory-lane, I bought this CD last week.  Well, even though it arrived very quickly in excellent condition (thanks to the sender for keeping his or her word), I was disappointed with the content.  Don't get me wrong.  The CD is suppose to be the embodiment of two great albums from the past of which it does have all the songs.  It's just that some of the tracks are (now hold onto your seats) edited.  That's right, edited.

I already had the original "COMMODORE" CD (the one that has "EASY", "ZOOM", etc.) with all the full length songs for years anyway so, fortunately, that wasn't really a let down.  However, I specifically bought the CD for the "HEROES" album because it's extremely hard to find these days.  Like with the vast majority of the Commodores albums, I already have the "HEROES" album in vinyl.  Still, like many who collect old albums in CD format, I want my musical nostalgia without all the snap, crackle and pops.  However, the crystal clarity of a fondly remembered musical cut isn't worth much if edited from its original full length version.  As far as I'm concern anyway.

Don't get any misconceptions though.  I have many "old-school" music CD's in the double-album layout that comes complete with the cuts in full length just as it is on the original albums.  In fact, this and another double-album Commodores CD are the only ones that have edited tracks that I've come across so far (and I hope it's the last).

So, for those who want a bit of nostalgia and don't mind such nuisances as edits, this is probably for you.  However, if you are a connoisseur of old-school music like me and, at the very least, would settle for the original full album version if not being able to get the extended version, you'll heed the warning titled above.
3621094
We were very disappointed in this CD set. Yes, this particular set may not have been 'released'...but most of the songs were
already very familiar! The title is very misleading!
3043308
I was expecting some heavy, dark, and noisey music. From all the reviews I read, it sounded like a great cd. But in fact, it is not. It lacks intensidy, compresion, and diversity. Only 3/10 songs from this cd are worth listending to; #2, #6, #9. Also, 3 songs are just musical, leaving only 7 songs in total. If it wasn't for his voice, the name band would be meaningless. HE has a great voice but doesnt fully utilizes it in this cd. Maybe in another cd it does greatly but not in this one. Also, there noting great special about the music. It just doesn't jump at you like it doest with NIN. Never the less, his cds are still quite interesting and i will give the band another try with another cd. Maybe pigmata or American Monster.
2332
4298741
I recently got this collection as a gift ( a relative ordered it for me; originally, I mistakenly said that I bought it), and I must admit I'm a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong --- I appreciate that I got it, and there are a lot of good tracks here (even a few great ones), but there are too many live tracks for my taste. I would have preferred to more "studio" tracks. I have to admit that I'm not really big on live material in general. The live performances here aren't bad, but I usually find "studio" recordings to be far better than live ones. Of the "studio" tracks here, I especially enjoy the alternate mix of "Sub-Rosa Subway," the single mix of "We're Off You Know," the instrumental mix of "Routine Day" (that one's downright beautiful, to my ears), and the "Suna Sunaru" mix (as the liner notes call it) of "Silly Boys." The CD closes with an "unadvertized" version of "Hope" (which, as someone kindly pointed out, is not the version that was on the 2-CD Sun Set collection, as I originally thought it might have been). This CD was worth getting, but because of the live tracks, I have to give it just three stars. If it had featured more "studio" material --- of the same or better quality --- and fewer or no live tracks, I probably would have given it four if not five stars.
4351011
Well, I guess first off, I'll explain my 2 star rating. When I played the first disc, and as the first song started, you hear the sound of someone placing the needle on the record being recorded, then again as the song was ending. I started paying attention and the popping sound is there between each and every song on disc 1. Also Media Player lists the title of the disc as "Elvis - The Early Recordings". Honestly, it sounds as though Bob Jr. got into Bob Sr.'s old record collection and made a CD for you.

Discs 2 and 3 seem to sound cleaner, however I have to be honest, I didn't really play them through as I was a quite disappointed in disc 1's sound quality. Also, at least the little I played of disc 2 and 3, it was showing in Media Player as "The Rock and Roll Years", like it's not really a set that was thoughtfully put together.

One of the kickers for me was, song 11 on disc 3 is listed as "Old Sleep" and not "Old Shep". I did play a little of it real quick to make sure we weren't getting a super, super rare Elvis recording called "Old Sleep" :P  Media Player also shows the song as "Old Sleep" while it's playing, so they did actually take the time to type the error into the disc info.

The cover art is exactly what you see on the item page here on Amazon. Really not much to it. The plastic CD holder is probably the charmer of this set. It appears as though it would hold about 10 CD's, maybe more, but the 3 CD's leave about an inch of the center post to fit more CD's.

All songs are previously released. Nothing special here. (unless you count "Old Sleep" :P). All songs are 1954 to 1958. And the last note on the packaging is, there are a total of 49 songs. I guess I was figuring being the 80th Birthday Celebration, there might just be, oh I don't know, 80 songs. Just a thought. But the thing most difficult for me to accept is the poor attempt of a company using a vinyl record to create the 1st disc. Just unacceptable.

I'll list the songs and discs for anyone who may want to know, or may still want this set because they have a collection something like mine, just about anything released on Elvis, very few times have I not gotten it at some point.

Disc 1
01 - That's All Right  02 - Blue Suede Shoes  03 - Good Rockin' Tonight  04 - Heartbreak Hotel  05 - Blue Moon Of Kentucky  06 - Hound Dog
07 - I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine  08 - Tutti Frutti  09 - Mystery Train  10 - Love Me Tender  11 - Baby Let's Play House  12 - Paralyzed
13 - I Forgot To Remember To Forget  14 - Teddy Bear  15 - Milkcow Blues Boogie  16 - Jailhouse Rock  17 - I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
18 - One-Sided Love Affair  19 - You're A Heartbreaker

Disc 2
01 - I Love You Because  02 - Blue Moon  03 - Just Because  04 - I'll Never Let You Go Little Darlin'  05 - Tryin' To Get To You  06 - I Got A Woman
07 - Money Honey  08 - I'm Counting On You  09 - I Was The One  10 - My Baby Left Me  11 - So Glad You're Mine  12 - I'm Gonna Sit Right Down
And Cry Over You  13 - Lawdy Miss Clawdy  14 - Shake Rattle And Roll  15 - I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Disc 3
01 - Don't Be Cruel  02 - Anyway You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)  03 - We're Gonna Move  04 - Poor Boy  05 - Let Me  06 - Love Me
07 - How Do You Think I Feel  08 - How's The World Treating You  09 - When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again  10 - Long Tall Sally
11 - Old Sleep a.k.a. Old Shep  12 - Anyplace Is Paradise  13 - Ready Teddy  14 - First In Line  15 - Rip It Up

Hope this helps others, if you don't mind the popping and obvious sounds of vinyl to digital transferring on disc 1, that I know of, then it is a collection of Elvis' 50's recordings. Honestly, if you don't have some of these songs, but would like to have them, you can do much better than what you'll get on this set, mostly because of the shoddy recording quality.
4175789
I really like a lot of the stuff they have got on NOW 8, but some of the songs are just junk. I own this CD and I hate to say this but, I keep on listening to the same few songs over and over again...because a lot of the other songs that I like on this CD have been so overplayed on the radio that I've gotten sick and tired of them! But here are the list of tracks and what I think of them:
1.) "Bootylicious"--Destiny's Child. A pretty average DC song. Very overplayed and the vocals are not so great on this song. But all in all, excellent first track. 4/5
2.) "Pop"--N Sync. Awful song! Yes, Pop music SHOULD be respected...but N Sync doesn't deserve any respect themselves! Terrible vocals, annoying beats--when will N Sync go away?! 0/5
3.) "I'm Real"--Jennifer Lopez. This is a really good song, but I have to say that I enjoyed the 'Murder Remix' with Ja Rule more. Why couldn't they have put that remix on this CD instead? 4.5/5
4.) "Stutter"--Joe Featuring Mystikal. This is a great song, though very old, it is still really cool and a very underrated R&B song. 5/5
5.) "Someone To Call My Lover"--Janet Jackson. I really enjoyed "All For You" a lot more, but this is still almost as good. Great beat, lyrics, and vocals by Janet. 4.5/5
6.) "AM To PM"--Christina Milian. An awesome song to dance to at clubs or parties! Christina has got pretty good vocals, and the lyrics and beat are awesome. 5/5
7.) "A Little Bit"--Jessica Simpson. This is a pretty good song (it's grown a lot on me) but I still think "Irresistible" was a much better song. 4/5
8.) "Crush"--Mandy Moore. A nice sweet song by Mandy Moore. I happen to like "In My Pocket" and her new song, "Cry", more than this one, but it's still okay. A little too slow, but okay. 3/5
9.) "Rock The Boat"--Aaliyah. Aaliyah will never be forgotten! She was a wonderful artist with so much talent! This song is truly amazing. 5/5
10.) "U Got It Bad"--Usher. When I first got this CD, this song hadn't really gotten any radio play so it was still a fresh new song and I listened to it constantly because it's so good. But now that it's overplayed, I don't listen to it so much anymore. 4/5
11.) "More Than That"--Backstreet Boys. Beautiful ballad! I don't understand why so many people hate the BSB. Gorgeous vocals, lyrics, and beat. Best song on this entire CD!! 5/5++++
12.) "Clint Eastwood"--Gorillaz. What the hell is this? I hate this song. I like Rock music, but this song is just horrible. 1/5
13.) "Start The Commotion"--Wiseguys. A very cool dance song. I like this song a lot. 4/5
14.) "Me, Myself, & I"--JIVEjones. Another weird song that I don't like at all. Skip this track...there's no point to it! 1/5
15.) "I'm A Believer"--Smash Mouth. A remake to the old Monkee's song and the theme to the hit summer movie, SHREK. This song is wicked cool and I love it! 5/5
16.) "Fat Lip"--Sum 41. A pretty good hard metal Rock song. I like it a lot. 5/5
17.) "The Rock Show"--Blink-182. This song is awesome! I love Blink-182 and this is their best song yet! 5/5
18.) "Bad Day"--Fuel. Boring song...skip it. 2/5
19.) "Be Like That"--3 Doors Down. Average Rock song and overplayed, but still pretty good. 3/5
20.) "Walk On"--U2. Not even a hit! I don't like U2 all that much so to me, this wasn't a good song. 1/5
This CD has Pop, Rock, R&B, and Punk music. Something for everybody, for those who love popular music, that is. But I've already seen the list for NOW 9 and I've got to say that it looks better than this CD. NOW 9 will feature music from Pink, Shakira, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Aerosmith, City High, Destiny's Child, Ja Rule, Gineuwine, and more! The NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC! series keeps getting better and better with each and every CD. This CD is highly recommended and I also recommend that you purchase NOW 9 when it hits stores in March!
2660156
I've found the 2011 CD to be a bit of a disappointment. I own 2 previously available CD releases of this album. The first CD is the original 1988 CD issue, which contains the original mono mix, plus bonus tracks of Santa Dog. The 2nd, has the stereo remix, no bonus tracks. This new 2011 CD contains the mono mix, but no bonus tracks.

There are 2 good things about the new CD reissue. One is that it puts the mono mix back in print. Second is that the EQ has been tweaked a bit. I found the 1988 CD was a bit dull, and made my own CD-R from it where I tweaked the high end up a bit with EQ. With this CD, it has been tweaked to just about the same EQ that I had tweaked my CD-R to.

Now the bad. Obviously, the lack of bonus tracks. Santa Dog remains out of print. I don't understand why The Residents have abandoned bonus tracks, especially of material that continues to stay out of print. Also, this CD suffers from compression. It's not brick wall limited, but comparing the .wav files with the .wav files of the 1988 CD shows that this new issue definitely has less dynamic range. For example, in N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues), there is an explosion sound. Looking at the .wav files, you clearly see where the explosion happens, it gets much louder from the music up to that point. In this new CD, you can't even see where the explosion begins, only by listening do you hear the explosion. Which certainly makes the explosion have much less of an impact as it was originally intended to have.

What I have noticed in my .wav file comparisons, though, is that the audio of both of these CDs sync up exactly. The only exception is some tracks have more of a gap between them than others. What this says to me is that this CD uses the same digital source as the 1988 CD. Otherwise, they wouldn't line up so perfectly, there would be phasing sounds heard when trying to line them up. With the advances in digital technology since the 80s, it's a bit disappointing that they have decided to use an inferior digital source for this album, rather than going back to the master tape. To me, this says that the 2011 vinyl release is most likely sourced from digital as well. Which makes me ask, what's the point? I really don't get the point of digitally sourced vinyl. If you're going to use a digital source, you may as well stay in the digital realm.

So, the bottom line here is, the CD uses the same digital source as the 1988 CD, and has degraded that audio with unnecessary compression making for a less dynamic version of the album. This CD is only useful as an easy way to get the long out of print mono mix. I recommend seeking out the 1988 CD, and turning up the high end on your EQ a bit when listening to that. Not only will you get a better dynamic range, but you'll also get the Santa Dog bonus tracks.
889405
I got this Cd because I liked the two Cds "Fun Trick Noisemaker" and "tone soul evolution" and that I had heard the songs on it were the best so far. When I listened to the Cd I was disappointed, the songs that were there were indeed very good, but there were too few and the Cd was too brief. The Apples attempt to sound like Olivia Tremor Control with the artistic sounds didn't work for such a short  EP, and the fact that they all sounded the same. But the songs that are there are very good, heavily influenced by the Kinks and the Beatles. A good Cd but shouldnt be priced over $5.
949766
This is VERY confusing. The listing at the top of the page says this is a "SINGLE." The song listing has 11 cuts, which clearly undercuts this being a single, so it should be an ALBUM. However, the "disc count" says "20", which means that somehow every TWO full CDs split one song between them. Obviously, at least 2 of these descriptors are stone cold wrong. I have no idea. It would be nice for someone that knows to clear it up. I will do that, by ordering what I hope is a conventional album, and then confirming if the songs listed are all there. If this really is a single, I will return it. And if somehow I hit the jackpot and there are 19 more CDs worth of music, I will do somersaults and upgrade the ranking to a 5 star one. Edit: As of 10-21-16, Amazon has still not sent me the CD, citing unknown delivery issues. I have not forgotten, but still don't have the CD to verify the issues listed above.
4333543
With a two CD set, there should be no radio edits. In fact, the CD doesn't say so on the back cover. It's only after you start playing the CDs, or load them into I-tunes, that you find out. What a rip off!
  There is simply no excuse for not including the full version of the songs listed. None!
This mars what could have been a fantastic collection over two CDs.
214537
Song info is wrong on 3/4's of the tracks.  At least it's not the info for a completely different collection which happens too often. Wrong
idenentifiers make collections very hard to work with.
910138
I am not feeling the talking crap!  I want to hear him sing songs, not talk.  Granted the conversations are nice and gives you a intro to the next song.  I just do not like all the talking on a cd/Mp3 project.  Just a warning there are just as many stories as songs, so if you do not mind all the talking, than you will be ok with this cd.  I rather just have a shorter cd, without all the talking.  So i can only give it 3 stars.