Cassius Clay had yet to win the heavyweight championship or, indeed, to change his name when this 1963 recording was made. Incredibly young sounding, he's at his best here when making swipe after verbal swipe at Sonny Liston, both in verse and in (scripted?) answers to audience questions. One silly sketch ("'I Have Written a Drama,' He Said Playfully") isn't up to the solo spots, but even that hardly disrupts the record's giddy tone. This reissue of a once-rare LP, augmented by several other hard-to-find sides, is a must for Muhammad Ali fans, American Studies scholars, and anyone else who seeks further illumination of the Greatest's self-mocking but total confidence.

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