Stars Have That Boxed-In Sensation

Better find some space on your record shelves. Lots of space.

Elton John, Barbra Streisand, the Who, Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck and Bob Marley are among the pop stars whose careers will soon be saluted in multi-disc boxed sets.

In addition, multi-record career retrospectives are in the works for the Allman Brothers, the Bee Gees, Van Morrison, Simon & Garfunkel, the Byrds, the Moody Blues, Rush, Kiss, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Howlin’ Wolf.

The boxed-set boom owes a lot to the success in recent years of boxes by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton, all of which have gone gold (sales of more than 250,000).

One of the main reasons for the surge is the arrival of the compact disc. Now fans with CD players have added incentive to acquire definitive collections by their favorite artists in the new format.

Gregg Geller, who compiled Elvis Presley’s six-record “Elvis--A Golden Celebration” set in 1984, pointed to another factor: the maturation of rock ‘n’ roll.

“There is sufficient history to our current pop music at this point that there are a good many artists that lend themselves to this treatment,” said Geller, who is assembling a five-CD/cassette retrospective of CBS Records’ greatest country hits and a box saluting guitarist Jeff Beck.

“Jazz artists have always done it,” said Andy McKaie, an MCA Records executive who compiled widely admired boxes by Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon. “Now that rock and pop have been entrenched as long as they have been, why shouldn’t they enjoy the same type of respectful overview?”

McKaie, who is planning a seven-record/five-CD Elton John box and a six-record/three-CD Muddy Waters retrospective, said that boxes have an inherent fan appeal.

“Many people don’t want to buy everything by an artist, but they want more than a greatest-hits album,” he said. “They use the box as the centerpiece of their collection.”

Bill Levenson, PolyGram Records’ director of catalogue development, said he isn’t concerned that a glut of boxed sets might exhaust the market.

“I think you can do the giants of the business and it doesn’t matter if you have 10 or 50 of them out,” he said. “Each has its own audience. I just hope that they continue to be done for the right reasons and not just to capitalize on what seems to be a trend.”

Levenson, who won a Grammy for compiling Clapton’s “Crossroads” box and has assembled a similar box for the Allman Brothers, added: “I’m sure boxes are going to come out that will be shoddily packaged, but they’ll all find their own level. The good ones will surface and the bad ones will just be sold casually and then go away.”

The Allman box, “Dreams,” will be issued in June, but most of the others will be released to coincide with the lucrative Christmas sales season. The Bee Gees, Marley and Muddy Waters boxes and the CBS country collection are set for this Christmas, but a final decision hasn’t been made on several of the superstar boxes--including Streisand and Elton John. Some of those probably won’t come out until Christmas 1990, when compilations by Winwood, Beck and the Who are also slated.

NEWS NOTES: The Madonna/Pepsi-Cola union isn’t pop’s only corporate sponsorship deal to hit the rocks. Belinda Carlisle has filed a cross complaint in Superior Court against L.A. Gear, a top fashion athletic footware and apparel company, charging it with--among other things--”deceptively altering a photograph of Carlisle.” The filing claims that the Mar Vista-based company airbrushed a picture of an L.A. Gear watch onto her wrist for a print ad. The complaint asks for damages of $6.7 million. A spokeswoman for L.A. Gear declined comment, saying that executives there hadn’t seen the complaint. . . . The Grateful Dead and Tracy Chapman are part of an benefit concert for AIDS research, set for May 27 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Also on the bill: Robin Williams, Los Lobos, Huey Lewis & the News and the retooled Jefferson Airplane. . . . Stevie Nicks’ fourth album, “The Other Side of the Mirror,” is due May 23. Nicks duets with Bruce Hornsby on one cut, “Two Kinds of Love.” Rupert Hine (Tina Turner, Howard Jones) produced the album, which also features guest work by Kenny G, and Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers. Nicks is slated to tour this summer. . . . Paula Abdul, the second choreographer to land a No. 1 pop hit (following Toni Basil), is set to choreograph the film version of “Evita,” which stars Meryl Streep. (Robert Stigwood is producing and Oliver Stone is directing.). . . . E.U. is contributing music to Spike Lee’s next film, “Do the Right Thing,” due this summer. The group was featured in Lee’s comedy “School Daze,” singing their Grammy-nominated hit “Da Butt.” Lee also directed their subsequent “Buck Wild” video.

PLAY BALL: Two great American pastimes--baseball and rock ‘n’ roll--will come together May 20 at the annual T.J. Martell Rock ‘n’ Charity softball games at USC’s Dedeaux Field. The highlight of the four games will be one that pits the Rockers (captained by Vince Neil of Motley Crue) against the Rollers (captained by comedian Sam Kinison). The teams will be drawn from members of Whitesnake, Van Halen, Dire Straits, REO Speedwagon, Jethro Tull and the L.A. Kings hockey team. Other games will feature deejays from local radio stations KLSX, KLOS, KNAC and KEDG and the cast of “Married . . . With Children.” Tickets are $7 for the four games and are available at most outlets. The New York-based Martell Foundation is a music industry charity that benefits cancer, leukemia and AIDS research.

AND FINALLY: Many weekly TV series are spicing their sound tracks with pop hits, but few are as adventurous in their selections as Fox Broadcasting’s “21 Jump Street.” Tonight’s episode of the teen hit--which airs locally at 7 p.m. on KTTV--features three songs by local faves X: “Hungry Wolf,” “Blue Spark” and “Come Back to Me.” And it’s not a one-shot stunt. The May 14 installment will feature three songs by rapper Tone Loc. Other episodes this season have featured songs by the Stones, Concrete Blonde, Robert Cray, R.E.M. and Steve Winwood. . . . Aretha Franklin and Elton John are slated to film a video this week for their fast-rising Top 40 duet, “Through the Storm.” But the big question is whether the Queen of Soul and the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, will be able to film a video of their duet, “Gimme Your Love.” Working out the logistics won’t be easy because Brown is still in prison in South Carolina and the Detroit-based Franklin refuses to fly or take the train. The only solution may be a weekend pass for Brown. Let’s hope Southern wardens have soul.