Considering that LA is renowned as the city of the car, there are a surprising number of songs about standing on the city's street corners, giving each other the once-over and sometimes even saying hello. In the first track here, 'A Little Further Down The Road Apiece', Freddie Slack takes off his jacket, sits down at the piano and unrolls a bedrock boogie beat as Ella Mae Morse and song-writer Don Ray greet each other and then set off together, looking for the heart of a Saturday night, in search of good music and some down-home cooking. And that's been a prominent theme for records made in LA ever since, cruising down Sunset in Hollywood, Central Avenue in Watts or Whittier Boulevard in East LA, or just standing on the sidewalk trying to catch the eyes of passers-by.

Where most of America's recording centres have had periodic lulls in their output and creativity, for the past sixty years the musicians, singers and songwriters of Southern California have never seemed to pause for a moment, but just got busier and more resourceful. In most cities, the music industry tends to cluster into one or two concentrated areas, but the clubs, recording studios and record labels of the Los Angeles conurbation are spread so far apart, the sprawl defies a simple narrative. In the sleeve note, we take an imaginary trip by car to pick out the landmarks or mourn the passing of famous buildings long since torn down. The distinctive headquarters of Capitol Records, shaped like a stack of 78-rpm discs, still towers over its neighbours on Hollywood and Vine, but you can no longer find Gold Star Studios, where Leiber and Stoller, Phil Spector and Sonny Bono produced so many of their hits. Buildings may come and go, but the music last forever, and on 39 immortal tracks, spread across two CDs, you'll hear sixty years of California scheming.

Charlie Gillett