Stax of Soul (aka, Soul Emotion in a previous release) brings together some Oldies but Goodies and some head-scratching choices. Most of us remember Inez Foxx’s “Mockingbird” and Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” But do you remember the Detroit Emeralds’ “Feel the Need in Me” or First Choice’s “Love and Happiness”?
I love Silver Convention’s “Fly Robin Fly” and The Three Degrees’ “When Will I See You Again.” But the compilers of this music CD have Al Jarreau sing “Ain’t No Sunshine” instead of Bill Withers’ iconic rendition. Ike and Tina Turner’s “Living For the City” sounds fine–but it’s no “Proud Mary.”
Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: B
TRACKLIST:
| 1 | Al Wilson– | Show And Tell |
| 2 | Climax (6)– | Precious And Few |
| 3 | The Whispers– | Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong |
| 4 | Inez Foxx– | Mockingbird |
| 5 | Al Jarreau– | Ain’t No Sunshine |
| 6 | Detroit Emeralds– | Feel The Need In Me |
| 7 | The Philly Groove Orchestra– | Didn’t I Blow Your Mind |
| 8 | Ike & Tina Turner– | Living For The City |
| 9 | First Choice– | Love And Happiness |
| 10 | Ohio Players– | Summertime |
| 11 | Sister Sledge– | We Are Family |
| 12 | Rose Royce– | Wishing On A Star |
| 13 | Silver Convention– | Fly Robin Fly |
| 14 | The Three Degrees– | When Will I See You Again |
| 15 | Ben E. King– | Supernatural Thing |
| 16 | The Fantastics– | Something Old Something New |
| 17 | Freda Payne– | Band Of Gold |
| 18 | Marvin Gaye– | What’s Going On |
| 19 | James Brown– | Get Up Offa That Thing |
| 20 | Commodores– | Rise Up |
I know about a third of these. My favorite track would be the Marvin Gaye. I like the song Love and Happiness but only know it by Al Green. Also like Ain’t No Sunshine but only know it by Bill Withers. I’m sick of We Are .Family.
Steve, “We Are Family” gets played a lot at various events. It’s become an anthem for some organizations.
At first, I thought the title indicated a Stax Records anthology, but continuing to scan, it clearly isn’t. The Withers track was presumably pricier (and whoever leases it now, since its label is long defunct, is a question) than a Jarreau cover…I can see Jarreau’s voice lacking a certain pain useful for that song.
Todd, I like Al Jarreau–I own several of his music CDs–but Bill Withers owns that song.
“Show and Tell” and “Band of Gold” are my two favorites on this album—which I suspect is like a lot of compilation albums: what can we get the rights to cheap and how can we make them work together thematically?
Deb, you’re right about the mechanics of assembling these compilation CDs. What’s available? How much does the song cost? What can we afford?
Only know a few. I never listened to soul music much. But my Dad listened to it all the time.
Patti, we have WBLK here that plays soul music exclusively. But this music CD has some songs I rarely hear.
I agree with Steve on “We Are Family” – so tired of it.
Silver Convention was a German group that had two huge hits – “Fly Robin Fly” and “Get Up and Boogie.” Each only had six words in the lyrics – Fly-Robin–Up-to-The-Sky. And Get-Up-and-Boogie-That’s-Right. On a car trip through Europe in the mid-’70s we heard them repeatedly on the radio. “Fly, Robin, Fly” was a #1 song, “Get Up and Boogie” was only kept out of #1 by Wings’s “Silly Love Songs.”
Also, it was always Inez and Charlie Foxx on “Mockingbird.” What happened to her brother?
I’d take “What’s Going On” and “Band of Gold” too, as well as “Fly, Robin, Fly” and “Mockingbird” and “Precious and Few.”
The “Stax” in the title reminds me of a two CD collection you should cover soon – The STAX 50th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION. Booker T. & the MGs, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, The Mar-Keys, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, etc.
Jeff, I’m glad you brought THE STAX 50th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION up. Yes, I have it and plan to post about it. But the “Stax” in “Stax of Soul” doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Stax Records. I think what the compilers meant was “Stacks of Soul.”
Ah, I didn’t get far enough along before my Stax Records comment…they wanted you, the purchaser, to think of Stax, certainly. IIRC, Fantasy bought their catalog not too long before Fantasy sold itself to Concord.
Todd, so many of the small record companies got swallowed up by bigger ones.
I agree with Deb wholeheartedly!
The Silver Convention eg was a totally artificial/synthetic project using many singers changing all the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Convention
I didn’t listen to that disco music at all!
I am still Much more tired of “Fly, Robin, Fly” than I suspect I’ll ever be of “We Are Family”…and I haven’t heard the Silver Convention in possibly decades at this point.
Todd, “Fly, Robin, Fly” hit Heavy Rotation way back when. Very popular hit song!
I remember. Didn’t care for extreme uninflected repetition in the ’70s nor now.