Personnel includes: J.J. Cale (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, organ, synthesizer, bass, drums); Tommy Tedesco, Mac Gayden, Harold Bradley (guitar); Shelly Kurland, Carl Gorodetezy, Roy Christensen (strings); Ed Colis (harmonica); Dennis Goode, Bill Humble, Bob Phillips, Norm Ray (horns); David Briggs, Jerry Whitehurst, Bob Wilson (piano); Barry Beckett, Beegie Cruzer (electric piano); Christine Lakeland (organ); Tommy Cogbill, Tim Drummond, Joel Green, David Hood (bass); Chck Browning, Kenny Buttrey, Buddy Harmon, Russ Kunkel (drums); Farrell Morris, Jimmy Karstein (percussion); Diane Davidson, Christine Lakeland, Joann Sweeney (background vocals).

Producers: Audie Ashworth, J.J. Cale.

Compilation producer: Bill Levenson.

Recorded between 1970 & 1980. Includes liner notes by Joseph F. Laredo.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

This is part of Universal Records "20th Century Masters The Millenium Collection" series.

If you were to compare the J. Geils Band's 1970 self-titled debut to their final album with singer Peter Wolf, 1981's FREEZE FRAME, you could easily be fooled into thinking they were two completely different bands. Although they'd later become best known for chart-storming pop-rock, the J. Geils Band started out as a straight-ahead blues-rock band, much like their mentors the Rolling Stones and their peers ZZ Top and Aerosmith.

J. Geils's debut has a fun, loose, and very rootsy feel, not far from how the band sounded on the concert stage early on. The choice of covers speaks volumes about the group's influences, as treatments of John Lee Hooker's "It Serves You Right to Suffer" and Albert Collins's "Sno-Cone" are served up with downhome, bluesy fervor. But there are some fine original compositions too, like the Stax/Booker T. sounds of "Ice Breaker (For the Big 'M')," and the FM radio-ready "Hard Drivin' Man." This is a thoroughly entertaining snapshot of the J. Geils Band's beginnings.