Daily News from New York, New York • 305

nn uvu Otis Redding, Sceptor Records lead pack of reissues By DAVID HINCKLEY Daily News Staff Wnter The fall will still be the big season this year in the thriving reissue business. But that business has become so big, between mostly reissue companies like Rhino and major labels which do 30 to 50 of their business in "catalogue" items, that a lot of nice items trickle out year-round. A sampling of recent issues starts off with an unassuming gem from Otis Redding: OTIS REDDING "Remember Me" (Stax) "Love Man" (Rhino) Stung by bootleggers, legitimate record companies a few years ago began scraping to- Sceptor artists, and Dionne Warwick picked up when the Shirelles trailed off. Her early work, like "Anyone Who Had a Heart," deserves a fresh listen; it remains underappreciated. King Curtis can be heard along with the Joe Jeffrey Group Pledge of and Ronnie Milsap did his first sessions for Sceptor.

Like many labels that started with black artists, Sceptor eventually tried the white (pop) market, creating the immortal "Louie Louie" and B.J. Thomas' early work of a New York This set provides a long-overdue memorial. RISQUE RHYTHM (Rhino) Sixteen reasons why all those preachers weren't completely wrong in the '50s when they said this new music dealt with forbidden pleasures. Artists range from Wynonie Harris, king of boisterous double entendre, to Dinah-Washington, whose "Big Long Sliding Thing" is an ode to a trombone. The collection, one of Rhino's best, mixes big hits like "Sixty Minute Man" and "Work With Me Annie" with lesser-known gems like the Toppers' "I Love to Play Your Piano Baby Let Me Bang Your Box." Myra George purrs Lucky Millinder's "Silent George," and the Swallows rock through the original "It Ain't the Meat" which was remade in the '70s by Maria Muldaur.

Historians will note the Bees' "Toy Bell," a Dave Bartholomew song that some years later, as "My Ding A Ling," became Chuck Berry's only No. 1 hit CRICKETS "Dreams and Wishes" (Relic) On love ballads, few rhythm and blues vocal groups ever matched the sheer romance of Grover (Dean) Barlow and the Crickets. Five New Yorkers, they were a "bridge" group be tween the old pop style and the new style, defining it and helping set its standards. Because the Crickets' career was relatively brief, their whole output fits neatly onto one CD, and if there's a weak moment here, I haven't found it yet The Crickets did a few uptempo cuts and but their forte was ballads: the title track, "For You I Have Eyes," "You're Mine" and one of the bleakest, most heartbreaking songs ever, "I'm Going to Live My Life Alone." All tied together with smooth harmonies and beautiful melodies. SAM COOKE WITH THE SOUL STIRRERS (Specialty) One of the best yet in Specialty's ambitious reissue Cooke's gospel recordings absolutely deserve the accessibility that this "greatest hits" package gives them, because no one should have to take it on faith that "Touch the Hem of His Garment," "Jesus Wash Away My Troubles," "Must Jesus Bear This Cross Alone" and "Mean Old World" are superb recordings.

There haven't been many more distinctive voices in any branch of popular music than Cooke's, and the Soul Stirrers have the skill and confidence to match him. As a kind of odd bonus, the disc includes Cooke's first pop recordings when he called himself Dale Cooke because he was afraid his gospel audience wouldn't let him mix the secular with the sacred. He was right But he left breathtaking memories. CANNED HEAT BLUES (Bluebird) One of the best RCA pre-war compilations yet: 21 country blues tunes from the '20s by Ishman Bracey, Furry Lewis and Tommy Johnson. The MEMORABLE, INDEED: The late Otis Redding's "Remember Me" sound is primitive, but that's part of the point, and when Johnson sings the title track, the intensity level rises to "scary." These are the recordings Robert Johnson (no relation) heard before he took up music as a career.

But while Johnson and Bracey are first-rate guitarists with a great feel for the blues, Furry Lewis may be most immediately accessible to today's ears. Lewis, who was active into the '60s, had a nimble-fingered ragtime style he shows off smartly on "I Will Turn Your Money Green." And anyone who thinks black folks only started having trouble with the law lately should hear Lewis' "Judge Harsh Blues." COVERED: Bob Dylan "Seven Days," etc. The Country Gentlemen's "Walkin' Down the Line" would have been nice, but what's here is plenty. DAVE TARRAS "Yiddish-American Klezmer Music. fYaoo Clarinetist Tarras is to early recorded klezmer music sort of what Bessie Smith is to early blues.

He recorded it with a breath-taking array of groups, from the Abe Schwartz Orchestra to the Bagelman Sisters, and he helped give all of it the easy swing that makes klezmer infectious from the first note. Equally notable, much of what Tarras was playing in the '20s and '40s has an amazingly clear connection to the klezmer music of today. There's an undertone of sorrow to many of the songs, hardly surprising given the times in which they were recorded, but there's also a great sense of hope and joy. gether "miscellaneous" collections for famous artists: out-takes, unfinished tunes, studio chatter, etc. Most are marginal productions, of interest primarily to hard-core fans, collectors and completists.

This new Otis Redding set on Stax, happily, is nothing of the sort "Remember Me" mixes fascinating alternate takes of hits like "Try a Little Tenderness," "Respect" and "Dock of the Bay" with Otis' rendition of songs made famous by others: "There Goes My Baby," "Cupid," "Send Me Some Loving." There isn't a track that doesn't say something new. In comparison, but only in comparison, "Love Man" is lesser work: a reissue of a 1969 LP with remakes like "Higher and Higher" and "A Lover's Question." THE SCEPTOR RECORDS STORY (Capricorn) Three CDs and 65 tracks that make a persuasive case for including the Sceptor labels of the late '50s and early '60s among the great rock 'n' roll independents. The Shirelles were Sceptor's stars and their hits are all included here, as are early rock 'n' roll standards liko hi irk "Anv Dav Check It Out BOB DYLAN "I Shall Be Unreleased" (Rhino) Rhino digs up recordings by various artists of songs Bob Dylan wrote and sang, but left unreleased (though many of the Dylan versions are now legally available on "The Bootleg Rod Stewart whose remakes have given him a whole new career in recent years, starts off with "Only a Hobo," and the Dream Syndicate finishes up with "Blind Willie McTell" one of Dylan's few legendary songs from the '80s, though ironically it's a bit overrated. Other recordings here go back to the '60s and '70s, including Doug Sahm's wonderful "Wallflower" (with Dylan in the backup band) and Johnny Cash's "Wanted Man" (a different take than on Cash's live album, and not quite as good). -Joan.

ucourse does, 3 CL 01 READY TO ROCK Big names in the pantheon of rock guitar Rick Derringer and Alvin Lee among them will be feted in a special concert July 15, when "Rock-a-Bye Babies" takes the stage at the Beacon Theater. It's a benefit for the Columbia- Presbyterian Babies Hospital: in addition to Lee's and Derringer's bands, the concert will also feature Bloodline, a group made up of the sons of veteran rockers. For tickets -All: penditforiierrai'tw Now." But the Gl3 Tj Si -G5 deeper than -nar nrarn JJjw; hcWDrd.i-'Ron Woo plays axeoQ(M7nMm2 MsaiwuH Brown and Tommy Hunr-were --xxk A-oaa i i liinnmir- '-irn'iTilMI.