New Jersey-born blues-rocker Walter Trout spent decades as an ace sideman, playing guitar behind the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, and Joe Tex. In 1981, he was also tapped to replace the late Bob Hite in Canned Heat, remaining with the venerable group through the middle of the decade. While filling in one night for an ailing John Mayall, Trout (also a Bluesbreaker for some five years) was spotted by a Danish concert promoter who agreed to finance a solo tour. Assembling his own backing band, he released his debut LP in 1990, Life in the Jungle, trailed a year later by Prisoner of a Dream. Albums including 1992's Live (No More Fish Jokes), 1994's Tellin' Stories, and 1997's Positively Beale Street followed.

This album might as well be called "The Best of Meat Loaf, 1984-1987," since it surveys his stint at Arista Records, including material from his studio albums Bad Attitude and Blind Before I Stop, and the concert collection known as Live at Wembley in the U.K. and simply as Live elsewhere. It features his two British Top 40 hits of the period, "Modern Girl" and "Rock 'N' Roll Mercenaries," but eschews the minor hits "Nowhere Fast" and "Piece of the Action" in favor of including live remakes of earlier Meat Loaf hits "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" and "Bat out of Hell," along with some non-chart singles, "Surf's Up," "Getting Away with Murder," "Blind Before I Stop," and another live remake, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."