When it was first released as a two-LP set in 1972, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965–1968 offered one of the most imaginative and satisfying oldies collections ever. Cogently summing up what may constitute pop’s strangest era, the package included such rarely anthologized fleeting gems as the Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard,” the Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction,” the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” and Sagittarius’s “My World Fell Down.”

Now the collection has been greatly expanded to four CDs (total playing time: nearly three and a half hours) and it’s even better than the vinyl version. The first disc includes the 1972 release with the songs in their original sequence; the other CDs offer many more classic hits, mostly from one-hit wonders, such as the Swingin’ Medallions‘ garage-rock classic, “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” Syndicate of Sound’s “Little Girl,” Sam the Sham’s “Wooly Bully,” the Electric Prunes’ “Get Me to the World on Time,” and the Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About a Mover.” Plus, you’ll find fascinating non-hits like the Barbarians’ “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl,” the Chocolate Watchband’s “Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love In),” and the Bees’ “Voices Green and Purple.”

Indispensable.