What's Inside the Box?

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Patsy Cline
The Patsy Cline Collection
Intention: To be "the first (compilation) to survey entire career chronologically" of the country queen, who died in a 1963 plane crash.
Achievement: Cline's countrypolitan music — a slicker, less ornery but tough-hearted brand of C&W — paved the way for the spunky post-'60s likes of Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. But after plowing through all four overstuffed CDs, you too may (to paraphrase one of Cline's songs) fall to pieces.
Packaging Plus: Beautiful booklet with reproduction of the front-page story in the Nashville Banner about her death.
Fans, Behold: Early recordings reveal Cline to be a lot friskier than you may remember from such smooth later hits as ''Crazy.''
Newcomers, Beware: Stick with discs 2 and 3 for most of the hits, or try an earlier, leaner compilation, The Patsy Cline Story. B-

Crosby, Still, & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Intention: Remember when they were young and skinny and could hit all the high notes?
Achievement: The current image of CSN — chubby, aging hippies with frayed voices and lazy work habits — can't negate the allure of those harmonies and songs, and the box does a good job of pruning not just the best group work but also noteworthy tracks from erratic solo and duet albums. Given how up-front they've been about their problems, it also makes for a four-CD shrink session.
Packaging Plus: Booklet with family-tree chart.
Packaging Minus: Abundance of photos of young, skinny CSN doesn't quite tell the whole story.
Fans, Behold: Unreleased CSNY reunion tracks from the '70s; interesting alternate takes of standards like ''Helplessly Hoping''; original eight-minute version of ''Almost Cut My Hair.''
Newcomers, Beware: High list price; stick with discs 1 and 2 or just buy the group's first two albums, Crosby, Stills & Nash and CSNY's Deja Vu.
Boxed-Set Hell: Too many Graham Nash songs. B+

Fats Domino
''They Call Me the Fat Man...''/ The Legendary Imperial Recordings
Intention: To demonstrate that the chunky piano player was responsible for more than just ''Blueberry Hill'' and ''Ain't That a Shame'' — a lot more, in fact.
Achievement: Good to be reminded that Domino gave us such oft-covered anthems as ''I'm Walkin''' and ''I Hear You Knocking.'' But you don't need 100 songs to know that.
Packaging Bonus: Sumptuous booklet with detailed session listings and chapter-by-chapter life story.
Fans, Behold: Barrelhouse R&B recordings on disc 1 — featuring tenor sax of Herbert Hardesty — prove Domino was no wimp.
Newcomers, Beware: Stick with EMI's single-CD compilation, My Blue Heaven.
Most Unintentionally Amusing Comment in Booklet: ''Fats Domino didn't record many throwaway songs. Just about all his tunes are mini-classics.'' Uh-huh.
Boxed-Set Hell: By disc 2, he's already rewriting ''Ain't That a Shame,'' and there are still one and a half more CDs to go. B-

Lynryd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Intention: To bolster the posthumous reputation of rowdy, bullheaded '70s Southern rockers, three of whose members perished in a 1977 plane crash.
Achievement: Relatively concise length (for a box). And the proud, fierce rock & roll of tracks like ''Saturday Night Special'' and ''Sweet Home Alabama'' does make you think back fondly on Southern rock.
Packaging Plus: Booklet contains reprint of original band-in-flames cover of album Street Survivors, which was pulled by MCA after the crash.
Packaging Minus: Booklet essay has footnotes.
Fans, Behold: Unreleased early recordings and live tracks; demo version of ''Free Bird.''
Newcomers, Beware: Gold and Platinum hits package has all the basics.
Boxed-Set Hell: Two versions (totaling 13 minutes) of the great but overplayed ''Free Bird.'' A

The Monkees
Listen to the Band Intention: To promote, in the words of the liner notes, the ''musical legitimacy'' of the prefabricated '60s singles group by focusing not just on hits but also on obscure album tracks.
Achievement: Remixed versions of ''Daydream Believer,'' ''Last Train to Clarksville,'' ''Pleasant Valley Sunday,'' et al. prove a band can be manufactured and still produce timeless pop. But the box tries too hard to invest the Monkees with unnecessary significance.
Packaging Bonus: Enclosed fab poster!
Packaging Minus: Garish, pseudo-psychedelic cover!
Newcomers, Beware: Arista's 11-track Greatest Hits beckons you.
Most Unintentionally Amusing Comment in Booklet: Peter Tork: "'Can You Dig It' is about the Tao."
Boxed-Set Hell: Micky Dolenz's antiwar ''Zor and Zam'' and other later attempts on the group's part to show they were deep-thinking sages. B-

Phil Spector
Back to Mono (1958-1969)
Intention: To collect all of Spector's greatest singles for the first time in one place and, simultaneously, remind us how he led the pop parade during the '60s.
Achievement: Spector's low profile over the last two decades guarantees that most people under 30 won't understand, but for those who grew up with AM radio in the early to mid-'60s, Spector's Wall of Sound will outlast the Great Wall of China.
Packaging Plus: All the hits (sung by the Ronettes, the Crystals, Darlene Love, the Righteous Brothers, and others), plus — complete! — Spector's only album, A Christmas Gift for You.
Newcomers, Beware: This is your only option, since all previous Spector anthologies are out of print, but the price is high. A-

Howlin' Wolf
The Chess Box
Intention: If you think Robert Cray qualifies as blues, wait'll you hear the sand-gravel voice and songs of the Delta bluesman who gave us ''Spoonful,'' ''Little Red Rooster,'' and much more.
Achievement: An essential blues compilation — Wolf's demented-gremlin vocals still make his closest peer, Muddy Waters, sound like a teddy bear.
Packaging Plus: Appropriately scholarly, yet critical, liner notes.
Fans, Behold: Crude, early recordings never before released in the U.S.
Newcomers, Beware: A one-CD Chess anthology, His Greatest Sides, Vol. 1, gives an overview. B+

Yes
Yesyears
Intention: To convince us that progressive '70s rock wasn't all that bad.
Achievement: Some of these tracks — ''Roundabout,'' ''Going for the One,'' and a few later cuts like "Owner of a Lonely Heart" — are still state-of-the-art art-rock, but the genre remains an acquired taste.
Packaging Plus: Four-color booklet with family-tree history of the band.
Packaging Minus: Given song lengths averaging 10 minutes, cost per track is an unusually high $1.52 (compared with about 77 cents per song for other boxes).
Newcomers, Beware: Opt for albums like Fragile or Close to the Edge.
Most Unintentionally Amusing Comment in Booklet: Drummer Alan White: "I call Yes the egg — a kind of embryo that people keep falling out of and falling back into through periods of time. It's an egg that you're part of."
Boxed-Set Hell: Chris Squire's sludgy solo-bass version of ''Amazing Grace.'' C+