You Mostest Girl

If Bobby Lee Trammell is to be believed, he was a rock & roll wildman beyond compare, outpacing even Jerry Lee Lewis in the field of crazed hooliganism. His recordings don't provide much evidence of it, although the energetic "Shirley Lee" is a rockabilly classic. So, too, is "You Mostest Girl," which rewrites Buddy Holly's "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care." Trammell never had any great success at selling records, though, which is reflected in the hodgepodge of labels for which he recorded. You Mostest Girl, a 25-track anthology, collects sides Trammell originally cut for Fabor, Radio, Sims, Capitol, and Sun (the reconstituted Sun Records of the '70s, that is, not Sam Phillips' baby). No particular style or musical identity emerges over the course of the program -- Trammell sounds like Buddy Holly on helium on "Uh Oh," and then an odd pair of fake live recordings reminiscent of Johnny Rivers hails Trammell as "the very first American Beatle." Later he affects an exaggerated Ray Stevens-style voice on "Come on and Love Me." In the mid-'60s Trammell turned toward horn-driven country-soul and, in the '70s, straight country, remaking "You Mostest Girl" as a country song. The sense of stylistic anarchy is only exacerbated by inexplicable sequencing that drops all of the '70s country recordings between the late-'50s and early-'60s rockers. Ian Wallis' liner notes offer an unflattering portrayal of Trammell as a self-destructive, egocentric performer who comes to a humiliating end. As a result, collectors who prize Trammell's early rockabilly classics may come away from You Mostest Girl feeling a little disenchanted.