American Graffiti in Bloomington, MN

The
soundtrack
to the
George Lucas
film about teenage life in a small California town in the early '60s was probably the best thing about the movie, featuring several dozen outstanding early
rock & roll
hits. There's nothing terribly obscure here -- in fact, most of these were big smashes -- but it's a good survey of
rock
's early days, ranging from superstars like
Buddy Holly
,
Chuck Berry
Fats Domino
, and
the Beach Boys
to great one-shots like
the Monotones
the Tempos
Buster Brown
. Drawbacks:
Wolfman Jack
talks over the intros of a few songs, and there are a couple tracks by early-'70s
Sha Na Na
-type revivalists
Flash Cadillac
. ~ Richie Unterberger