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SOUL, FUNK and JAZZ FUSION
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
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"...You Know How To Make Me Feel So Good..."
A very clever CD reissue by Britain’s Edsel Records – the hugely popular "Wake Up Everybody" album from those Seventies Soul champs - Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes. Expanded with one
bonus remix - here are the dope pusher and teach the children details…
UK released April 2010 – "Wake Up Everybody" by HAROLD MELVIN
and THE BLUE NOTES on Edsel EDSM0002 (Barcode 740155000233) is an Expanded
Edition CD Reissue and Remaster (One Bonus Track) featuring vocalists Sharon Paige and Teddy Pendergrass that plays out as follows
(50:21 minutes):
1. Wake Up Everybody [Side 1]
2. Keep On Lovin’ You
3. You Know How To Make Me Feel So Good
4. Don’t Leave Me This Way [Side 2]
5. Tell The World How I Feel About ‘Cha Baby
6. To Be Free To Be Who You Are
7. I’m Searching For A Love
Tracks 1 to 7 are the album "Wake Up Everybody" released
November 1975 on Philadelphia International Records PZ 33808 in the USA and
January 1976 on Philadelphia International Records PIR 69193 in the UK. It was
their 4th and final studio LP for the famous soul label - and easily their most
successful and fondly remembered, reaching the coveted Number 1 spot on the US
R'n'B charts that Christmas.
BONUS TRACK:
8. Don't Leave Me This Way (The Tom Moulton Mix) - an 11:02 minutes
extended version remixed in 1977
The 20-page booklet provides you with band snaps, lyrics, pictures of
the LP label and 7” singles taken off of it as well as superb liner notes by
noted soul expert TONY ROUNCE. The CD has been mastered by TALL ORDER of the UK
and the sound quality is fantastic – clear and hiss free – it really allows the
lush Gamble/Huff MFSB production values to shine.
Philly's ace song-writing team - John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor
Carstarphen provided tracks 1, 2, 5 and 6 - while label founders Kenneth Gamble
and Leon Huff stumped up writing credits for tracks 3, 4 and 7 and produced the
record with their usual lush MFSB arrangements.
The lovely SHARON PAIGE provided duet vocals on "You Know How To
Make Me Feel So Good" and "I'm Searching For Love", but it was
(Theodore) TEDDY PENDERGRASS who shone with lead vocals on all tracks -
especially the huge title track "Wake Up Everybody" (which effectively
launched Pendergrass as a solo star).
But for me one of the unheard gems on this album is Track 2 on Side 1,
"Keep On Lovin' You" - as brill a Seventies soul tune as you can get
(lyrics above). It's so good to hear it with such top sound quality.
Niggles - both "Tell The World How I Feel About 'Cha Baby" and
"Wake Up Everybody" were released as 7" singles with rare edit
versions which AREN'T included as bonus tracks here - and I would have
preferred those than the rather tiresome extension of the overly familiar
"Don't Leave Me This Way". Other than that - this is a superb Philly
album - and pitched at a marketplace price that's less than a fiver - it's an
absolute steal…
PS: other titles in the series are/will be...
1. Dance Your Troubles Away - ARCHIE BELL and THE DRELLS (1975) [due
Summer 2010, Edsel EDSM0006]
2. Philadelphia Freedom - M.F.S.B. (1975) [due Summer 2010, Edsel
EDSM0005]
3. When Love Is New - BILLY PAUL (1975) [April 2010, Edsel EDSM0003]
4. Family Reunion...Plus - THE O'JAYS (1975) [April 2010, Edsel EDSM0001]
5. The Three Degrees Live [aka Live In London] (1975) - THE THREE
DEGREES (due Summer 2010, Edsel EDSM0004)
