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"The Classic And Rare" (1990)
When EMI's second "Best Of..." compilation from the mid-eighties was released it boasted just the one track unique to it. However it stood up satisfactorily as an compliment to "Rarities" on See For Miles until the latter label dug up some more buried treasure from the vaults and mixed them with the best of previously - released material not already on "Rarities". Out of a bumper twenty-two tracks ten were A-sides. This also marked the first dedicated release of Kidd recordings to include true stereo mixes, including "Hungry For Love". That track already had the honour of being the first Kidd track released in that format, on a compilation of (mainly EMI) hits titled "Saville's Time Travels - 20 Golden Hits of 1964". One of a string of like titled albums from each year of which some of the proceeds went to the rebuilding of the Stoke Mandeville Spinal Unit. On that album, only two tracks were in stereo - and one of those was the Kidd's!
Of the other rarities five of the more interesting tracks are recordings from the two days in April 1964 when enough material was put down for an album. As a bonus for this release, the tracks - "Let's Talk About Us" (version 2), "Send Me Some Lovin", "The Fool" (version 1), Please Don't Touch (version 2) and Big Blon' Baby (version 2) - are presented here in stereo, albeit in a 'binaural' fashion characteristic of the Beatles' early releases i.e. band on the left and vocals on the right. "Hungry For Love" is in the same twin-channel style. The other real gem to surface is a strong cover of "Some Other Guy". Recorded on 31 Jan 1963 it would have made the perfect follow-up to "A shot of Rhythm 'n' Blues. It's just a shame the record company didn't see it the same way. Johnny & Co. had been mixing with various up and coming Liverpool bands and Kidd knew a good song when he saw it. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite top ten material but it could just have kept the momentum going until "I'll Never Get Over You" which may have been a bigger smash than it was. Who knows?
Both sides of the Pirates' "solo" single "My Babe" / "Castin' My Spell" make a welcome reappearance as well as the cream of Kidd's A & B - sides. Kidd's penultimate single "It's Got To Be You" appears for the first time in glorious full-bloodied stereo, the track having originated on a four-track machine. Thanks to the archive raid, three tracks - "Please Don't Touch", "Big Blon' Baby" and "Let's Talk About Us" - have both the original cut and a 1964 re-make appear, enabling the listener to evaluate the rapid change in UK Rock & Beat styles. Comprehensive sleevenotes were supplied by Geoff Barker, then of Two Counties Radio in Bournemouth. Barker had written the sleevenotes for the first EMI "Best Of..." compilation in 1978. Each track also had details of recording or release dates, and personnel who appeared on each one, a superb addition to any Kidd archive. Although soon it would be overshadowed by 1992's "Complete" double CD collection, the latter is now deleted while "The Classic And Rare" is still available on CD, having been issued in 1993.