Walking to New Orleans

This box set replaces the 1991 box set, "They Call Me The Fat Man," and in some ways, it's superior, in others, it isn't. The packaging is certainly poorer: a sturdy, neat box with jewel cases is replaced by a digipak wallet, and the nice photo on the front is now a cartoonish, tracing of the same photo with a cartoonish logo (this would've been more appropriate on a Happy Meal). What makes this set better is the sound and track selection. All but 18 tracks from the 1991 box set are duplicated, and the 18 'replacements' are a little better overall, emphasizing rhythm & blues over pop. Furthermore, the sound is much better and completely remastered. The 1991 box set was very poor. Despite using good sources, poor remixing and processing (in some cases, it seems like they were going for a fake stereo effect where they were unable to do any remixing) sabotaged a lot of tracks. That's not the case for this box set.

There is a cheaper alternative in the recent 20-track best of, which is more suitable for casual fans and those on a stricter budget. For committed fans, the 8 CD Bear Family box set is the best (and better sound despite the age of the set), being both complete and expensive. There's also a few Ace CD's from the UK that collect all the singles up to the late 50's (therefore missing the latter day hits), also in better sound but without the sped-up sound that was applied after the mixing stage (the original records had this sped-up sound, but Fats doesn't seem to favor it). Depending on how much music you want and how much money you've got, any of these are great introductions to a living legend.