100 Track Classic Soul Compilation....If You Were The DJ

[visuals]

Originally Posted by eddie

Hey, Visuals! The track I meant was "All in my lover's eye" which was from the Real Deal Lp from 1982 on T-Neck. This is the only album on not on your list from the T-Neck years. "All in my lover's eye" is currently on CD on Beautiful Ballads among others compilations. Yes, they did have a song called Lover's Eve that I had on Livin' it up but haven't played in awhile. I totally forgot about it. That was one of the first Japanese Cd imports that I bought and now there's currently a pressing on CD domestically. Why did you not like SHOWDOWN?

Eddie...I now remember the album "Real Deal" but have never owned it because as I said earlier I got lost on lots of Isley stuff and stopped buying them. I do have (or had) the "Beautiful Ballads" compilation on cassette but haven't heard it in years....Probably 10 yrs or more so I am having trouble remembering the cut. I also owned the cassette of "Showdown". This was always the Isley album that I rarely listened to. None of the faster tracks really impressed me and the one ballad that I liked was "Groove With You". Songs like "Take Me To The Next Phase" and "Cooling Me Out" sounded flat to me. In my opinion It was at best a listenable album that I was just not urgently concerned with owning on cd.

I can remember back in the early/mid 90's when I was working on replacing my old vinyl/cassettes with the much better sounding hi-fi cd's. At this time I didn't know anything about an internet (or that it even existed); so going to an on-line vendor and simply picking out what I wanted was out of the question and a thing of the future (literally).
A funny thing with the Isley CD reissues was that during that time, upon numerous occasions I would run across the 5 mid/late 70's T-Neck cd's which were ( 3+3, Fight The Power, Harvest For The World, Go For Your Guns and though not absolutely certain,"Showdown"). I was so busy building my cd archives with selections from all over the map that I let one of my favorites "Harvest For The World" go out of print. That taught me to never take for granted a cd's availablility*. All throughout the rest of the 90's my Isley section went with a rather disturbing gap missing the "Harvest & Live It Up" cd's. It wasn't until the very same week as the terrorist attacks that I was out in the music stores digging that I came, I saw, and I copped on sight. Over the next couple years I saw that 30.00 import of "Live It Up" but held out. Finally it was reissued in 04' domestically on Legacy And Soul.

Quiet Elegance is the correctly spelled name of that Hi group. They did a cover of Al Green's "Tired of being alone" and "Have you been making out OK" among many original songs.

Now this sounds interesting. "Have You Been Making Out OK" is one of my favorite Al tracks from my favorite Al album. I will be looking into them.

Its good you mention the Sweet Inspirations because today I just recieved their self-entitled album reissued exclusively on Collectors Choice.

These ladies are very soulful in my opinion. I have the "Estelle,Myrna & Sylvia" Stax reissue cd and the 2-for-1 "Sweets For My Sweet/Sweet Sweet Soul" Spy reissue from their Atlantic yrs. The Memphis Horns/Memphis Symphony/Muscle Shoals production is first rate as always. Like them almost as much as the "Emotions" which is a much deserved compliment. Good purchase choice on your part.

Originally Posted by Super D

How bout adding some duets! Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell!
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway!
Also, one of my fav's ...L.J. Reynolds from the Dramatics produced his first solo self-titled album 'L.J Reynolds' on Capital Records. That album contained the classic hit, 'Key to the World'. That song should be a 'must' for a top play classic soul list.

Hey Super....I love Marvin & Tammi's stuff. "You're All I Need To Get By","If This World Were Mine" and countless others. Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway also had great tunes not only as ballads but I liked a few of the faster spins as well.
As much as I like The Dramatics, I am totally unaware of the L.J Reynolds album you mention. Seem's like I may have heard the "Key To The World" piece you speak of in the past but I don't own it.

[eddie]

In retrospect, I don't think the Sweet Inspirations were in quite in the class of the Emotions, Candi Staton, or Staple Singers. They did cover songs from many artists like Dionne Warwick, Otis Redding, Staple Singers, and Miss Staton. The other artists always did them better with a defined signature. The Sweet Inspirations early Atlantic stuff focused more on harmony as opposed to strong leads. When you focus on harmony, more of the phrasings have to be planned or contrived. Thus the spontaneous solos are missing. Its funny the Staples Singers on Stax and Emotions during all phases never suffered this problem.

If its any concilation to you, Harvest for the World was inprint domestically but only on cassette throughout the 1990's. I tried to order and I've looked at Amazon and allmusic and they fail to mention any early pressings. Maybe you saw the import rewrapped or a very, very early cd like from 1986. Columbia has been very choosey and stingy with their catalog. I bought all of the Japanese reissues at about $20 which was decent for a well mastered CD.

"Key to the world" was from the album of the same name from 1981. He did rerecord it in 1990 on the revived Volt (subsiduary of Stax) label on an Lp Love is about to start. Most of his solo 80's stuff is pretty rare on any format. The original version is on the compilation Smooth Grooves: Steppin' out.

[visuals]

In retrospect, I don't think the Sweet Inspirations were in quite in the class of the Emotions, Candi Staton, or Staple Singers.

I concur with you on this statement but am really not at liberty to classify them alongside Candi Staton, The Staple Singers nor Dionne Warwick. My collection is rather sparse of these artists as I only have Candi's "Best Of" on Warner Archives collection, Staple Singers "Be Altitude" & "Greatest Hits" on Stax/Fantasy if I'm not mistaken and I was never a fan of Dionne Warwick so I have nothing by her. The only reason I mentioned them (Sweet Inspirations) along with the Emotions is because both were early Stax trios.

If its any concilation to you, Harvest for the World was inprint domestically but only on cassette throughout the 1990's. I tried to order and I've looked at Amazon and allmusic and they fail to mention any early pressings. Maybe you saw the import rewrapped or a very, very early cd like from 1986. Columbia has been very choosey and stingy with their catalog. I bought all of the Japanese reissues at about $20 which was decent for a well mastered CD.

Of course, I could be wrong being as it's been so many years but I am almost certain that I saw it quite a few times on a dump table at one of the local mom & pop record stores. Seems like I saw a couple pressings of this but I don't think it was in one of those long cardboard box covers that those older cd's used to come in. It does however seem like it may have been re-wrapped like you said because a lot of the stores sell used and new discs that were opened but repackaged in plain saran wrap-type plastic and reduced for a quick sale. I definately slept on it. "Showdown was the one that I am not sure was issued on disc at any time....domestic nor import. 20.00 was also a great price to pay for those imports but the ones I always saw were at least 30 bucks or better.8-)