German company Bear Family Records releases excellent and curious compilations, especially of music coming from the first half of last century (1945 – 1965), not only devoted to memorable and great artists who marked an era but also monographs of a specific topic.

This time they present thirty songs that have money as a common denominator or, better said, the lack of money, something that we have all experienced at one time or another in our lives. The performers or the songs’ composers included in this album, use the lyrics to show their economical shortage or their efforts to earn some money that lets them make a living from music, sometimes described in an ironical way, sometimes with an accurate sense of humor and sometimes with sadness and desperation.

Most of the songs belong to the 50’s, but some come from the early 60’s and a few of them from the late 40’s. All are framed in styles like rockabilly, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, country and blues, featuring such different names like Johnny Ace, Slim Harpo, Carl Perkins, Billy Boy Arnold, The Silhouettes, Jimmy Whiterspoon & Jay McShann’s Orchestra, Frankie Avalon, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, The Blue Diamonds together with so less known names… until completing thirty varied artists.

Song titles are suggestive and say everything, like for example “No Money”, “Need Money”, “Poor Boy Blues”, “Money Blues”, “Broke & Hungry”, “Nothing But Money”, “Money Talks”, “Got Money On My Mind”, “My Money’s Gone”…

The album also includes a complete booklet with a documented biography of each of the thirty artists, which provides a broad vision of those years’ musical richness.

For all those who want to go deep into how music has made an approach to some recurring topics like lack of money but, at the same time, discover those musical styles that contributed to creating last century popular music, this recording becomes a real treasure.