"Loleatta/Cry To Me" by LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY – US Albums from September 1973 and July 1975 on GRC/Aware Records featuring the Songs of Sam Dees, Floyd Smith, Chuck Jackson, Marvin Yancy, Johnny Moore & more (October 2020 UK Ace/Kent Soul Compilation – 2LPs onto 1CD with Four Bonus Tracks from 1971 and 1973 – Duncan Cowell Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 100s Of Others Is Available in my

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

HIGHER GROUND 
70ts Soul, RnB and Funk
Exception CD Remasters  

Just Click Below To Purchase for £6.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs 

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...Be True To Me..."

<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B08HGRZS4K&asins=B08HGRZS4K&linkId=087d435b77babd1277288ce55fdeb21d&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

You have to love Ace Records - Pandemic all around and still they damn the torpedoes and release a CD like this - asking us addicted inebriated flabby goggle-eyed Netflix types to down the TV remote and 'listen to this, sucker'. 

Chicago-born Soul Singer Loleatta Holloway is featured here by two rare US albums both issued on the General Recording Corporation label (GRC) imprint 'Aware Records' in the autumn of 1973 and the summer of 1975.  

The first sold little and the second despite a minor hit single suffered the fate of the parent record company going into a fraud nosedive just after the vinyl LP hit the shops – leaving the artists and sales of their work in the outside privy. So with both having always been a hard-to-find proposition for UK lovers of Chicago Soul and the Hotlanta Sound – this is a tasty CD reissue indeed. And as you can see from the track list provided below, Kent Soul have also upped the generous playing time to an almost full 80-minutes by tagging on four other cuts as Bonuses - three from Kent CD compilations of old and the other, a rare American 7" single side.

This is pleading lady's soul (chats before the soaring voice sails in) where their men have done them wrong or some bee-ach is trying to steal their man over by the gossips in the grocery store or they realise that Mama was right when she said girl, when it comes to lurve, don't be a part-time lover OR a full-time fool. To the tearful details...

UK released Friday, 30 October 2020 - "Loleatta/Cry To Me" by LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 493 (Barcode 029667100229) offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD with Four Bonus Tracks and plays out as follows (79:46 minutes):

1. The Man I Love [Side 1]
2. We Did It
3. Our Love
4. Can I Change My Mind 
5. Part Time Lover, Full Time Full 
6. So Can I [Side 2]
7. Only A Fool 
8. Love Woke Me Up 
9. Mother Of Shame 
10. Remember Me 
Tracks 1 to 10 are the album "Loleatta" - released September 1973 in the USA on GRC/Aware Records AA 2003 - Arranged and Produced by FLOYD SMITH. 

11. Cry To Me [Side 1]
12. I Know Where You're Coming From 
13. The Show Must Go On 
14. The World Don't Owe You Nothing 
15. Just Be True To Me
16. Something About The Way I Feel [Side 2]
17. I'll Be Gone 
18. I Can't Help Myself
19. Casanova 
20. H.E.L.P. M.E. M.Y. L.O.R.D. 
Tracks 11 to 20 are the album "Cry To Me" - released July 1975 in the USA on GRC/Aware AA 2008 - Produced and Arranged by FLOYD SMITH  

BONUS TRACKS:
21. Merrily 
22. What Are You Gonna Do About Tomorrow
Tracks 21 and 22 previously unissued 1973 Aware Records recordings first released March 1996 on the UK CD compilation "The Hotlanta Soul Of Loleatta Holloway" on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 135

23. For Sentimental Reasons (US February 1971 45-single, Apache 2004, A-side)

24. This Man's Arms (previously unissued 1971 Aware Records recording first released November 2011 on the UK CD compilation "Masterpieces Of Modern Soul Volume 3" on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 364

The 16-page booklet provides fantastic liner notes from KEVIN L GOINS (written August 2020 in New York) that has contacted people around the recordings - both Loleatta and her husband/producer Floyd Smith now sadly passed away. The two LPs are pictured, artwork, labels, promo photos and cashbox entries and some very cool photos of the swish Loleatta and her fab ball of hair. 

Audio transfers are courtesy of Ace's long-standing engineer - DUNCAN COWELL and they are gorgeous. Right from the cover of the Gershwin classic "The Man I Love" that opens platter No. 1 through until the outtake bonus tracks - it all reeks of classy Chicago and Hotlanta sexy Soul - some even featuring heavy-on-the-strings arrangements like "Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)" that were more about getting the song right rather than keeping an eye on the budget. To the music...

The driving force behind both albums was the combo of husband Floyd Smith and the song writing contributions of such friends and luminaries as Sam Dees, Chuck Jackson, Marvin Yancy, Johnny Moore and many more. Dees provided "So Can I" for the first album and a huge five more for the second - the single "Cry To Me" (January 1975 on Aware AW-047 with his "So Can I" from the first LP on the flip), "I Know Where You're Coming From", "The Show Must Go On", "The World Don't Owe You Nothing" (a co-write with Frederick Knight of "I've Been Lonely So Long" fame), "The Show Must Go On" and another single "H.E.L.P. M.E. L.O.R.D." that actually hit the streets a full year prior to the second LP in May 1974 on Aware AW-039 with "The World Don't Owe You Nothing" on the B-side. 

She also picked some sexy cover versions - Curtis Mayfield's "Just Be True To Me", Ashford & Simpson's "Love Woke Me Up" (a Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet for Motown in 1968), "Remember Me" from the pens of Van McCoy and Clyde Otis as well as the classic Tyrone Davis Dakar song "Can I Change My Mind". William Johnson co-authored "Only A Fool" while Loleatta offered up a lone composition on the two LPs in the shape of the lovely "I'll Be Gone". And on it goes to three of hers in the Bonuses (Tracks 21, 22 and 24) – rejected at the time of issue in favour of other more established writers.

This is a lovely CD – as infectious as her smile and as colourful as that flowery dress she's wearing on Page 3 of the booklet with liner notes that ooze their affection for her and her legacy. Another winner in a long line of them for reissue-champs Kent Soul. Recommended...