Holiday picks: Santa is a punk rocker, but he digs Ray Charles, too

Rhino, the Tiffany of reissue labels, has long been known for its creative packaging, but it outdoes itself with the eight-disc Ray Charles collection "Pure Genius — The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)."

The amazing box set, with a suggested retail price of $150, comes in what looks like a small suitcase, complete with handle. It's a re-creation of a portable record-player of the 1950s. Open it, and there's a plastic reproduction of a 45-rpm turntable and tone arm. Underneath is a hard-cover book. And under that are the eight discs (seven CDs, one DVD), arranged neatly in individual slots, so each is easily retrievable.

It's the most mind-boggling rock 'n' roll gift of the year, and not just because of the packaging. The music itself lives up to the title — pure genius. There isn't one disappointing moment in the nearly nine hours of recordings, including an hour of previously unreleased material..

Rhino is even more well-known for the quality of its recordings. Not only is the sound near perfect, but the way the music is distributed among the discs is brilliant. Instead of arranging the cuts in chronological order, or by theme or style, they're well-mixed, so each disc is full of variety and surprises. Randomly pick any one, and you get a well-rounded 70 minutes or so of Ray Charles. The discs show not only the originality and energy of the young Charles, but also that he always surrounded himself with the finest musicians.

The hard-cover book is full of information and pictures, with text featuring Charles' biographer David Ritz and noted critic Nat Hentoff. The DVD includes a black-and-white documentary of Charles' rousing performance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival.

Another new Rhino release, "One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found," a four-CD boxed set with a $65 list price, is not so balanced. The packaging is superb — a black-and-white hat box with black-rope handle, a booklet that looks like a diary and CD holders shaped like compacts — but the main thrust of the collection, obscure or overlooked girl-group recordings, just doesn't work. For the most part, the 120 cuts deserve their obscurity. There's a reason they were never hits — they're just not that good. Even though the collection includes some notable girl groups, including the Supremes, the Ronettes and the Shirelles, it's strictly for girl-group aficionados, not the general fan. A box set of girl-group classics would be welcome, because there never has been one. How about it, Rhino?

Every fan of the band will treasure "Weird Tales of the Ramones," another great piece of work from Rhino (four CDs, $65). In addition to 85 Ramones songs and 18 videos, the package includes stunning visuals from 25 top comic artists, such as Mary Fleener, Jim Woodring and Xaime Hernandez, who capture the Ramones in comic-book style (there's even a 3D comic, glasses included). This is the cleverest, most fun box set of the year.

Other notable box sets:

"The Band: A Musical History" (Sony, 5 CDs, 1 DVD; $90). Interest in Bob Dylan is at a high point due to his autobiography, "Chronicles Volume One," and "No Direction Home," Martin Scorsese's PBS documentary/DVD. And The Band, which he toured and recorded with, is spotlighted, too, by this comprehensive collection, which includes 30 previously unreleased cuts and a 108-page hardcover book.

"The Legend: Johnny Cash" (Sony, 3 CDs; $50). A deluge of Cash recordings began flowing even before he died, so now virtually everything he ever recorded is available. This is a cherry-picked collection of some 100 of his best, along with seven cuts heard here for the first time. A deluxe edition, at $250, includes a DVD and a hardcover book.

"Rod Stewart: The Great American Songbook" (J Records, 4 CDs, 1 DVD; $60). The first four volumes of Stewart's highly successful series of CDs of pop classics and show tunes, along with a DVD with more music and videos, and an informative booklet.

"Born to Run: 30th Anniversary," Bruce Springsteen (Sony, 1 CD, 2 DVDs; $40). A remastering of the album that made Springsteen a superstar, along with live footage from the period and a making-of-the-album documentary.

Rock books

Impressive volumes arrive every year at this time and, once again, the usual suspects are represented: Dylan, Beatles, Grateful Dead.

The most curious but compelling is "The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966" (Simon & Schuster, $45). A companion piece to the Scorsese documentary, "No Direction Home," it contains reproductions of documents, posters, hand-written lyrics, report cards, press clippings, etc. It may sound corny, but the reproductions are so well-done that each piece is worth examining.

What makes this most valuable, however, is the informative text by Robert Santelli, director of programs at Experience Music Project, who interviewed Dylan extensively. Once you've handled the reproductions and checked out all the photos, you'll find that the text stands alone as a short, comprehensive history of the man, his music and his impact.

"The Beatles Anthology," published five years ago and written by the Beatles, seemed to be the last word on the subject. But "The Beatles" by Bob Spitz (Little, Brown; $29.95) comes up with new information, mostly unpleasant personal and business details (he blames Paul, not Yoko, for the breakup), and some rare photos. What's most important is Spitz's view of what the Beatles achieved and their impact.

"The Beatles: 365 Days" by Simon Wells (Abrams; $29.95) might make a better gift because it's so browsable. There are hundreds of pictures — some familiar, most of them not — and little text.

The 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death has inspired a number of books, including "Remembering John Lennon 25 Years Later" (Life Books; $17.95), a picture book with material originally published in Life Magazine; "John Lennon: The New York Years" text and images by Bob Gruen (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $29.95), focusing on the years 1971 through '80, including Lennon's murder and aftermath; and "John" by Cynthia Lennon (Crown; $25.95), in which his first wife dishes the dirt about his drug use, their divorce and — juiciest of all — nasty anecdotes about Yoko.

Every year, a huge Grateful Dead gift book arrives with a thud. This year, it's the 480-page "The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics" (Free Press; $35). The title says it all.

The most revealing music-related gift book of the year is "Woody Guthrie Artworks" (Rizzoli; $45), 345 pages of drawings, watercolors and doodles by the great folksinger. Who knew he was such a gifted visual artist? And, just as Dylan was greatly influenced by Guthrie's music, it looks as if he was visually inspired by him as well.

Perhaps the most impressive is the enormous 320-page "The American Songbook: The Singers, The Songwriters and the Songs" by Ken Bloom (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; $34.95), a comprehensive overview of 100 years of American popular music, with illustrations on every page. Learn about Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter and other greats.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312, pmacdonald@seattletimes.com