Well, We’ll Be John Brown

Even in the MP3 age, there are CDs worth searching out—and that require the search. “O.O.P., We Did It Again” is dedicated to great albums that are criminally out of print, and that aren’t necessarily likely to become available anytime soon.

The album: This Is… Huey “Piano” Smith (1998), one of a handful of superb early-rock compilations brought to us by the fondly remembered, albeit short-lived, reissue label Music Club.

Classic material: Huey “Piano” Smith wasn’t a singer, but a session player and bandleader with just about the strongest reputation on his instrument in New Orleans–which is saying a lot, given the number of piano prodigies from that city. The Clowns were a vocal group led by a drag queen named Bobby Marchan. Together they created a small but potent body of work, and Music Club chose 18 tracks for this reissue; it also delivered smart best-ofs on the Everly Brothers, Lee Dorsey, Freddy Fender, Los Van Van, Augustus Pablo, King Tubby, and Del Shannon, as well as a number of excellent African collections.

Highlights: “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” is, of course, one of the all-time classic New Orleans rock and roll records: a number of the tracks here, such as “Little Chickie Wah Wah,” basically rewrite it. “Don’t You Just Know It” is famous to younger folks for its appearance in Snatch. But the one that owns my heart is “Little Liza Jane,” one of the hardest-rocking songs ever recorded.

Why it’s out of print: Music Club went under during the early part of this decade, depriving it of its rightful place as Rhino’s true heir: an indie reissue specialist cleaning up with clean, well-chosen collections on important, largely second-rank artists (by which I mean not-Elvis-or-Beatles, not bad). It isn’t likely anyone will revive it. The songs on this comp, plus six more, are also available on Westside’s Having a Good Time With Huey “Piano” Smith & His Clowns: The Very Best of, Volume 1, released a year before the Music Club collection and still in print, albeit as a pricey import.

Chances it will return to print: Very unlikely, but again, you can find all the material elsewhere. Still, the used bins are worth the hunt: if you like music that’s more than a little loose, you can hardly do better than this collection.

Cost for a used copy: Amazon Marketplace has a number of copies, beginning at $20.