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"...You Gave Your Affection..."
Ace Records of the UK have been doing Rick Hall's FAME STUDIOS stuff for years now and regularly produce quality CD compilations like this – many with a Chess Records tie in. Acknowledged winners like the 3CD Book Set "Take Me To The River: A Southern Soul Story 1961-1977", Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham's wickedly good "Sweet Inspiration" and Mitty Collier's Chess Records singles on "Shades Of". I've reviewed and enjoyed them all. November 2015 also produced "Back To The River: More Southern Soul Stories 1961-1978" - another 3CD looker and Audio delight centered around Fame Studios.
This time Ace's 2015 "Reaching Out…" single disc compilation goes after the weepy jugular and wins. Sixties Soul, Rhythm and Blues and Northern Soul and Mod tearjerkers Here are the tears and tiaras...
UK released Friday, 27 August 2015 (September 2015 in the USA) – "Reaching Out: Chess Records At Fame Studios" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 436 (Barcode 029667243629) plays out as follows (65:21 minutes):
1. It's All Wrong, But It's Alright – LAURA LEE (recorded 1968, finally released on the 1972 US LP "Love More Than Pride" on Chess CH 50031)
2. So Much Love – MAURICE & MAC (1967 US 7" single on Checker 1179, A)
3. Good To Me – IRMA THOMAS (1968 US 7" single on Chess 2036, A)
4. The Same Rope – ETTA JAMES (from the 1968 US Mono LP "Tell Mama" on Cadet LP-802)
5. Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary – LAURA LEE (1967 US 7" single on Chess 2030, A)
6. Reaching Out – BOBBY MOORE & The Rhythm Aces (1967 US 7" single on Checker 1180, B-side of "Chained To Your Heart")
7. The Sidewinder – CHARLES CHALMERS (on the 1967 Mono US LP "Sax & The Single Girl" on Chess LP 1518)
8. Security – ETTA JAMES (1968 US 7" single on Chess 5594, A)
9. Run To Me – MAURICE & MAC (2015 Previously Unreleased, Recorded 1968)
10. Too Soon To Know – MITTY COLLIER (2015 Previously Unreleased, Recorded April 1968)
11. Good Day Sunshine – CHARLES CHALMERS (Beatles cover on the 1967 Mono US LP "Sax & The Single Girl" on Chess LP 1518)
12. Don't Lose Your Good Thing – ETTA JAMES (from the 1968 US Mono LP "Tell Mama" on Cadet LP-802)
13. Two In The Morning – CHARLES CHALMERS (on the 1967 Mono US LP "Sax & The Single Girl" on Chess LP 1518)
14. Hang It Up – LAURA LEE (1968 US 7" single on Chess 2062, A)
15. Lean On Me - MAURICE & MAC (1968 US 7" single 1206, A)
16. Let's Do it Over – IRMA THOMAS (first appeared on the 1990 US CD compilation "Something Good: The Muscle Shoals Sessions" on Chess CHD 93004)
17. I Wanna Be Your Man – BOBBY MOORE & The Rhythm Aces (1967 US 7" single on Checker 1193, A)
18. Sure As Sin – LAURA LEE (first appeared on the 1984 Japanese 2LP set "Up Tight Good Woman" on Chess/P-Vine Special PLP-6017/6018)
19. Party Time – LEE WEBBER (1968 US 7" single on Chess 2056, A)
20. Take Me (Just As I Am) – CHARLES CHALMERS (1967 US 7" single on Chess 2019, B-side of "A Whiter Shade Of Pale")
21. You're Living A Lie – MITTY COLLIER (2015, Previously Unreleased, recorded April 1968)
22. It's How You Make It Good – LAURA LEE (1968 US 7" single on Chess 2062, A)
23. A Woman Will Do Wrong – IRMA THOMAS (1967 US 7" single on Chess 2017, A)
24. Come Back Baby – BOBBY MOORE & The Rhythm Aces (from the US Mono LP "Searching For My Love" on Checker LP 3000)
NOTES: All tracks are MONO except tracks 10, 14, 21 and 22 which are STEREO
Tracks 9, 10 and 21 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
The 16-page booklet is the usual feast of label repros and thoroughly indepth TONY ROUNCE liner notes – the remasters once again done by Audio Engineer DUNCAN COWELL – a man with hundreds of reissue credits to his name including most of the Blue Horizon catalogue (which I've reviewed). Most tracks are Mono 7" single mixes so pack quite a punch when those lingering organ notes fill your speakers as one of the gals tears her lungs out over some feckless no-mark boyfriend.
The three Previously Unreleased Recordings are superb – a dancer called "Run To Me" by Maurice & Mac being amongst them - but the real prize is a tortured ballad called "Too Soon To Know" where Mitty Collier puts in a barnstorming vocal. The Soul/Funk take on The Beatles "Revolver" classic "Good Day Sunshine" has Lee Webber doing a fantastic Otis Redding impression. Heartache comes at you in a trio of hurting ladies – a focused Mono take of "Don't Lose Your Good Thing" by Etta James – "Hang It Up" by a suffering Laura Lee and a plea for a precious marital reconciliation from Irma Thomas on "Let's Do It Over".
The men have a go at whinging too – "I Wanna Be Your Man" has Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces pleading in an almost Mexican way while the couple Maurice & Mac try to accommodate each other's failings in "Reaching Out" and "Lean On Me" (highlights on this comp). Lee Webber does his best Wilson "Wicked" Pickett impression on Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham's "Party Time" – lifting the pace to a dancer – a welcome interlude from all the previous tears and tantrums.
Songwriters Penn and Oldham Those turn up again – penning Charles Chalmers' Saxophone version of "Take Me (Just As I Am)" – a cheesy instrumental/spoken word cover that pushes its luck being on here (rare or not). Far better is the third and last Previously Unreleased cut – and what a find it is. You get a powerhouse rendition of "You're Living A Lie" by Mitty Collier (recorded April 1968) singing a brassy pleader like her larynx depends on it (great stuff). A funky dancefloor winner grooves it way out of the speakers in the shape of "It's How You Make It Good" with Irma Thomas giving it some on a ballsy 1968 Chess single (and it's in Stereo).
The pain ends on two belters – the weeping "A Woman Will Do No Wrong" where Irma Thomas sings from bitter experience about her heart making her follow her man – while the chipper "Come Back Baby" by Bobby Moore wraps it up in a hopeful way. Clever choice too to have the Laura Lee track "Sure As Sin" thrown in here - a song on a rare 1984 Japanese double-album on P-Vine that is a beast to find.
Various Artists' Compilations like this have a tendency to get lost in the flood - disappear into a sea of Sixties Soul and especially Southern Soul sets that inhabit every Internet sale site everywhere - no matter how brilliant they may be.
But "Reaching Out: Chess Records At Fame Studios" is one I urge you to track down - a very tasty torch-bearer and another winner from those canny lads over at Ace Records UK...
For more of the same goodies - see also my reviews for
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