Screen Play

The idea is simple enough-you take an iconic artist and package two CDs of their best and/or most collectable work together with a DVD. BB KING ANTHOLOGY 1962-1998 establishes the template-34 audio tracks ranging from “The Thrill Is Gone” to “When Love Comes To Town”, with a film of King performing at the Blues Summit concert with Buddy Guy and Albert Collins. JAMES BROWN 50TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is even more of a feast, with 50 audio tracks including all the hits, plus a DVD of Channel 4’s excellent recent documentary The James Brown Story.

Anyone who was a teenager during the punk/new age explosion of the late ’70s will now be in their 40s-hence THE SOUND OF THE JAM , with 49 CD tracks and 11 videos on DVD, and THE BEST OF SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES , comprising a best-of CD, a second remix CD and 14 videos appearing on DVD for the first time. Of similar vintage is THE POLICE: EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE with a greatest hits disc, a live CD and a DVD miscellany, including an Old Grey Whistle Test appearance.

ROBERT PALMER AT HIS VERY BEST features 33 CD tracks, including material from his early, Little Feat-assisted albums plus a DVD of those videos.ROGER WATERS: THE WALL LIVE IN BERLIN teams the 1990 double CD recording, featuring the likes of Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, with a DVD of the event, which, despite the imbecility of the work itself, is dramatically rendered. Finally, the most contemporary release in the series is THE VERY BEST OF SHERYL CROW , which includes a greatest hits collection, an in-concert CD and 14 fluffy videos.