Joe Meek, schlockmeister general or visionary renegade? Maverick over-producer or genious geek icon of early pop culture? All are true, negative & positive mesh here because the simple fact is that Joe had the power to make the blandest of talents (John Leyton & Heinz, for instance) sound great. Purists beware, this man preceded Jeff (ELO) Lynne by more than a decade yet succeeded in creating sounds at least ten years ahead of their time. The Tornado's Telstar is, in this reviewer's opinion, the greatest pop instrumental ever made, even Margaret Thatcher likes it. Joe was the first producer to effectively use sound effects on recordings, and his tragic early death has ensured that the enigma surrounding the introductary noises on Telstar will remain so at least until his second coming, This c.d. combines the biggest successes with comparatively rare material, stand-out tracks for me being all four Tornados tracks (a shame that the excellent Dragonfly was not included), the Heinz tracks Just Like Eddie & Country Boy, & Houston Welles' Only the Heartaches, a reworking of Streets of Laredo with yodels worthy of Slim Whitman & Frank Ifield. Mozart it ain't, but for anyone who loves good old-fashioned unpretentious pop, it is just about the best anthology of late fifties/early sixties music available.