Bob “The Bear” Hite is said to have begun collecting 78s as a mere cub, long before founding hippie blues band Canned Heat. He died in 1981, but his rare grooves live on.

Compiled by a Belgium-based DJ known as Dr. Boogie, selections here date from 1941 to 1958. A half-dozen or so are instrumentals, occasionally dancing a sleazy stroll that smells green MG's onions on the way. There's also some luxurious midnight rib-joint proto-soul (Clarence Brown), some proto-hard-rock-guitared jump blues (Otis Rush), some tough-woman wang-dang-doodle about a guy who does the twist (Etta James), a sax-charging and Latin-tinged zoot suit riot by an apparently unknown performer (Mad Mel Sebastian's “Pachuco Hop”) and Earl King singing in a register high enough to rival Hite's own. Plus, at the end, six tracks by Elmore James — which might seem like overkill, but his “Country Boogie” and “Baby What's Wrong,” especially, really kick.

The 78 that kicks hardest, though, comes from someone you'd never expect: spitcurled shlockabilly opportunist Bill Haley. Huge Gene Krupa-style drums introduce a totally clock-rocking if highly ethnocentric tale of a “little fella named Zulu Joe” inventing the boogie on his tom-toms in Africa, while elephants and kangaroos (the latter… read more »