Music Review: The rescue of Eggs Over Easy from obscurity

Eggs Over Easy, "Good 'n' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story" (Yep Roc Records)

No good band ever possessed a worse name, and Eggs Over Easy also had lousy luck.

The 1970s group combined a loose vibe with tight harmonies thanks to three talented members who all sang and wrote pioneering pub rock that was radio-ready. Stations didn't play it, though. Eggs' list of fans - Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Loudon Wainwright III - was impressive but short, and 15 minutes of fame never came.

Until now, at least. The two-CD, 36-song set "Good 'n' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story" is a valiant attempt to rescue the American group from obscurity. The collection is filled with concise, hooky, witty tunes - three-minute Eggs - that make it clear the band deserves to be remembered. Included is EOE's entire catalog, starting with their 1972 debut "Good 'n' Cheap," which sank without a trace despite such gems as "Henry Morgan," ''Face Down in the Meadow" and "Night Flight."

The rest of the material is even rarer. The label printed less than a thousand copies of the second and final Eggs album in 1980, "Fear of Frying." The second disc features previously unreleased 1971 London sessions with producer Chas Chandler, who managed Jimi Hendrix.

There are hints throughout of Moby Grape, the Band and the Lovin' Spoonful as antecedents, and of music to come by Lowe, Squeeze, Huey Lewis and, alas, Spinal Tap - another doomed-to-fail ensemble.