That tattooed rockabilly gal in the poodle skirt at the hair salon, who you've had a wicked crush on, is going to conceal her laughter until you leave when you bring her a copy of
Stray Cats Ball. The reason she won't laugh right in your face is that's there are original
Polecats and
Rockats tracks here, and she just might wonder what the
Polecats/
Stray Cats supergroup --
13 Cats -- sounded like (pretty tame judging from the tracks here). The acoustic
Stray Cats tracks are a sonic mess, barely listenable but young and hungry performance-wise. The version of "Good Rockin' Tonight" comes from the other
Polecats/
Stray Cats supergroup,
the Swing Cats, a name that's dropped in favor of the individual player's names.
Lemmy's gruff and sloppy vocals on "Good Rockin' Tonight" are the only other moment worth checking out, since the remixes are even more misguided and silly than you'd think. ("Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" with jungle noises! Come on!) This is the second -- sometimes third or fourth -- time the Cleopatra label has released these recordings, but the first time on their new Rock-A-Billy imprint. Grab your Brill Cream, Lucky Strikes, and run.