Clay Hammond & Z.Z. Hill - Southern Soul Brothers

An introduction to the earliest sides of two guys who have shown up on compilations here.

"Hammond has 16 of the 26 tracks on this split-artist compilation, which also includes ten songs recorded by Z.Z. Hill for the same label (Kent) during the same era (the mid-to-late 1960s). Hammond's 16 cuts include both sides of all four of his 1966-69 Kent singles, as well as four from the same period that did not surface until a 1988 LP, and four more from the same time that were previously unissued until this CD. He was a minor but a worthy Southern soul-style vocalist who sounded much like a gentler Sam Cooke, writing all of his material on this disc. On his Kent sides (he had previously recorded for other labels), he adeptly crossed soul with shades of blues and gospel, although the arrangements were not as lugubrious and brassy as much soul actually produced in the South was. Occasionally he used pop-style production to good effect, as on the 1966 single "You Brought It All on Yourself," with its swinging, slightly jazz horn lines. Interestingly, his 1968 B-side "Do Right Woman" is not the famous Chips Moman/Dan Penn song, but a different song (albeit with some similarities to the more famous one), recorded at Moman's studio, no less. The eight songs that were not released in the 1960s are good by outtakes standard. "Togetherness" has something of the ballad feel of Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," while "My Sweet Baby Is Coming Home," with only an electric guitar as backup, anticipates the sound of fellow Cooke acolyte Ted Hawkins. The ten songs that follow from Hill, incidentally, are average period soul that also have some stronger blues elements than many recordings from the genre, combining a few of Hill's 1966-69 singles with four previously unissued numbers. " AMG

Hunh, I liked the review until he dismissed Z.Z. that way, this is WAY above average period soul, Hill's sound in this era has a lot of Otis Redding in it. I think he sounds fantastic!

Bobby Marchan - Get Down With It (expanded)

0n the extended conversation around Little Richard and his New Orleans posse; the guy I've left out is Bobby Marchan. Bobby was one of the three lead singers for Huey P. Smith's Clowns as well as a star at the Bourbon Street & Dew Drop drag revues. The first cover here is the base that this collection is made from but I have flushed it out to 32 tracks with some excellent stuff that was left out and a later single rip.

Until I put this thing together I confess I was at best lukewarm on Bobby, but this collection (actually there is a good bit more) has made me a believer; this dude could flat out sing! 

"Bobby Marchan (born Oscar James Gibson) (April 30, 1930 in Youngstown Ohio – December 5, 1999) was a well-respected American rhythm and blues bandleader, MC, singer-performer, recording artist, and female impersonator, who initially began performing in New Orleans nightclubs, specifically the Dew Drop Inn and the Club Tijuana in the mid 1950s.

Marchan also toured with the band of Huey "Piano" Smith, sometimes performing as lead singer / bandleader and substituting vocally for Huey Smith (who reputedly often would stay in New Orleans to write and record while his namesake band "Huey Smith and the Clowns" played clubs and toured on the road). The touring band included James Booker on piano. (Huey did not like leaving New Orleans and his local connections, he also had a penchant for double booking dates so there were often two versions of the band playing at the same time)

One of Marchan's vocal performances with Huey Smith and the Clowns can be heard on the New Orleans R&B recording, "Don't You Just Know It", which was released in 1958. Marchan also had a solo #1 hit on the national R&B charts in 1960 with the tune "There is Something on your Mind," a cover of a song performed by Big Jay McNeely.

Marchan recorded for a handful of small soul labels such as Fire Records, Volt, Dial, Cameo, and Gamble as well as Ace Records, which had released the Clowns' records. Marchan regularly performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

In the 1990s his company Manicure Productions was involved in hip hop music booking and promotion including Take Fo' Records bounce music artist DJ Jubilee. He was involved with the formation of Cash Money Records.

Marchan died from liver cancer on December 5, 1999"   

The more I listen, the more I am moved to say that rarely in singing history has anyone had better control of his falsetto than Bobby!  

Allen Toussaint - From a Whisper to a Scream 1970

We have lost another giant.

 From a Whisper to a Scream. 

The album predates the Sea-Saint era, it was recorded in Los Angeles but with a cast of New Orleans players including Mac Rebennack, John Boudreaux, Clyde Kerr and Earl Turbinton. Released on the English Kent label the album wasn't given wide distribution in the states and quickly disappeared from print. The record featured Toussaint versions of Working in a Coal Mine and Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky both of which were previously released by Lee Dorsey. 

Allen Toussaint - From a Whisper to a Scream

Kent 1970

1) From a Whisper to a Scream
2) Chokin' Kind
3) Sweet Touch of Love
4) What is Success
6) Everything I Do Gonna be Funky
7) Either
8) Louie
9) Cast Your Fate to the Wind
10) Number Nine
11) Pickles

Joe Tex - Skinny Legs and All

It just wouldn't be fair to leave Joe hangin' and not show you the great leap forward after the material in the previous compilation of his earliest sides. From a Musicology standpoint I think that all of that stuff is essential despite the obvious fact that much of it is entirely derivative. The truth is that if I were charged with deciding what was needed for an essential collection, I suspect I would have fewer than 10 from those sides.

On the other hand I would be tortured in choosing to eliminate even 5 songs from this 24 track compilation. This is Joe's "sweet spot" material and it is impressive in EVERY way. The songs are light years better, the arrangement even tighter with great production and JT's voice is at it's big emotional delivery peak.

As you listen to these sides imagine yourself, bone-tired from a hard-ass day at work, you're in some steamy Circuit bar/restaurant gettin' your 'Groove' on with your hard earned pay, got some fine woman in your sights.... Got it? (if you ain't never been poor then most likely not, but just try to imagine it for me) The last one was for the J.T. Freaks; this one here is for Everybody! Slide this into your rotation next to Sam Cooke and tell me it doesn't work for you. (Assuming, of course that Sam is on your Essential Playlist).

Take Me To The River

 This is for those who enjoy compilations - if you've been hanging out here you have the majority of this material already - that said it is REALLY well well selected and makes for a very enjoyable listen.

Clarence Carter - The Early Fame Singles 1966-70

Now you may ask yourself 'why is he re-posting this?' - Well for two reasons: A) This one is in FLAC with cover scans (finally got around to it) and B) It is a prelude because my friends Volume 2 has finally been released! Oooo Yeah!

"Born in Montgomery, Alabama on January 14, 1936, Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and Alabama State College in Montgomery, graduating in August 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in music. His professional music career began with friend Calvin Scott, signing to the Fairlane Records label to release "I Wanna Dance But I Don't Know How" the following year. After the 1962 release of "I Don't Know (School Girl)," Carter and Scott left Fairlane Records for Duke Records, renaming themselves the CL Boys for their label debut, Hey. In all, the duo cut four Duke singles, none of them generating more than a shrug at radio.

In 1965, they traveled to Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to record "Step by Step" and its flip side, "Rooster Knees and Rice." Atlantic Records took notice and released "Step by Step" on its Atco Records subsidiary, but it flopped. Carter continued as a solo act, signing to the Fame Records label for 1967's Tell Daddy. Several more solid singles followed, until Carter released "Slip Away," which hit number 6 on the Pop Charts. "Too Weak to Fight" hit number 13. Several more soul singles followed, like "Snatching It Back," "Making Love (At the Dark End of the Street)", "The Feeling Is Right," "Doing Our Thing" and "Patches." "Patches" (first recorded by Chairmen of the Board) was a UK number 2 and a U.S. number 4 in 1970, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1971. This disc sold over one million copies, and received a gold disc awarded by the R.I.A.A. in September 1970, just two months after its release. Following "Slip Away" and "Too Weak to Fight", it was Carter's third million-seller.

With the advent of disco in the mid 1970s, Carter's career suffered, before he found a new audience with songs such as "Strokin'" and "Dr. C.C." in the 1980s and 1990s, which appealed (and still appeal) to a primarily African-American working-class audience that was also interested in contemporary blues and soul artists such as Denise LaSalle, Bobby Rush, Marvin Sease and Sir Charles Jones. "Strokin'" was given great acclaim when it was used in the Eddie Murphy film The Nutty Professor. Carter's strong soul sound also found an audience within the then-nascent hip-hop community. Most notably, the horn break from Carter's song "Back Door Santa", is sampled in the Run-D.M.C. Christmas song "Christmas in Hollis"

Al King & Arthur K. Adams - Together

  Cliff found this Ace cd which pairs Al King, a West Coast blues guy whom he had been investigating, with Arthur K. Adams, a West Coast blues guy whom I had developed an interest in. Both these guys, like a Ray Agee or Jessie Belvin, are illustrative of the development of West Coast soul out of the uptown blues pioneered by T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson and Charles Brown.

Al King was born Alvin K. Smith in Monroe, Louisiana in 1926. Like many WWII vets he was cut loose in 1947 in the Southern California area. He first began working in the Los Angeles R&B scene, first with John Dolphin and later with Johnny Otis, but he eventually migrated north to Oakland where he hooked up with guitarist Johnny Heartsman and producer Bob Geddins.

These recordings find King back in L.A. singing in front of Maxwell Davis' band and recording for the Biharis at a time roughly concurrent with Albert King's run at Stax. I don't think there is much doubt that the first track, 'My Name Is Misery', shows some influences from Albert's 'Born Under A Bad Sign'.

You couldn't tell from this cover here, but while King is in his early 40's at the time of these tracks, Arthur K. Adams is nearly 20 years his junior. Adams was born in Medon, Tennessee in 1943, but by 1959 he was touring as a backup singer for Gene Allison who abandoned the teenager in Dallas, Tx. Adams worked his way up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth scene, gaining a good reputation both as a singer and guitarist; he was a mere 21 when he moved to Los Angeles in 1964. Within a couple years Adams found his way to Kent/Modern and the Biharis where his first project was as a rhythm filler on B.B. King's 'The Jungle'. That cover picture with the fellah in the hammock and the red guitar?...not B.B. at all, it's Adams!

While at Modern Adams was used to fill out some of their unfinished B.B. King tracks as well as contributing some killer guitar to sessions by Larry Davis and the above Al King tracks. Adams eventually became a first call session guy in the L.A. studios, contributing to hits by the Jackson Five, Quincy Jones and countless others. He also worked extensively in T.V. and movies (he is the guitarist behind Bonnie & Clyde) and as a frequent contributor to the Jazz Crusaders.

B.B. King - The Jungle

The RPM and Kent recordings of B.B. King have been comprehensively anthologised on Ace, particularly in the last couple of years with the expanded reissues of B.B.’s Crown albums of the 1950s and early 1960s. However, there are still several B.B. projects on the Ace agenda, and we kick off 2008 with the man’s first entry in the Hip Pocket series – a ‘straight from the original master tape’ reissue of the man’s 1967 Kent album, “The Jungle”.

Of course, B.B. had left the Bihari brothers’ recording empire more than five years before an overdubbed version of the late 50s demo of The Jungle took him to #17 R&B / #94 Pop in the early summer of ’67. Its success merited the release of a full album, assembled from sessions that B.B. had cut mostly towards the end of his Kent tenure, and so it was that “The Jungle” also became the title of his first long player on Kent Records, eventually finding its way onto the various budget labels that were the Biharis’ main financial bread and butter during the late 60s and early 70s.

As well as giving collectors a chance to enjoy the original sleeve, featuring a red-suited Arthur Adams – in profile – masquerading as the Blues Boy, it also gives us a change to hear a original Kent album exactly as it was first released, with alternate stereo mixes and overdubs – some of which are different to those on overdubbed versions released elsewhere – on otherwise familiar tracks. These alternate mixes have never been available on CD before now, making it a must-buy for the B.B. completist

Etta James - The Complete Modern and Kent Recordings

Time to tackle the other "Fillmore Girl", the great Etta James. Born January 25, 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a 14 year old mother, Etta was subsequently fostered in often abusive homes for most of her early life; she was moved to The Fillmore with her mother at 12 years old. Like her older cousin Sugar Pie DeSanto, she spent her formative teen years in that cultural hotbed.

In Los Angeles she received some Gospel training from James Earle Hines of St. Paul Baptist Church in South Central. As a precocious young girl in San Francisco, she formed a girl doo wop group called The Creolettes (all the girls were mixed). The group got discovered by Johnny Otis who renamed the group The Peaches, and the then 16 year old lead (not 14 as often cited) became Etta James (a wise choice, Jamesetta Hawkins doesn't exactly roll off the tongue) and signed them to the Bihari's Modern Records.

Otis used the group to record his answer to Hank Ballard's hit 'Work With Me Annie', originally titled 'Roll With Me Henry', it was sanitized to 'Dance With Me Henry' then 'The Wallflower' shortly after release. The young singer apparently had enough input into the final product that she was given a co-writer's credit. The song climbed to #1 on the R&B charts and 'Good Rockin' Daddy' was a solid follow up. White singer Georgia Gibbs, in classic Pat Boone fashion, quickly covered the song and stole the potential crossover hit. Still, Etta was put on Little Richard's tour during the period that he was going nuclear and it was likely there that she first acquired the heroin habit that dogged the rest of her life.

The Biharis were clearly impressed by their singer because they recorded far more sides on her than are normally mentioned in most sources. The release dates actually cross over into the Chess era but they were recorded earlier in L.A. Of the 42 tracks here, 6 or so are dreadful, but the rest are fine West Coast R&B with bands assembled from members of Otis' band or from the Maxwell Davis Orchestra. There are even five songs recorded in New Orleans with Dave Bartholomew and the gang from J & M Studios (Side one, 12, 13, 14 Side two 3, 14). Despite their dogged persistence, the Bihari's never strike gold again with Etta, her next success came in 1960 after signing with Chess and moving to Chicago.

At least one longtime friend claimed that at 16 James was dating label mate B.B. King and that it was for her that King rewrote the lyrics to an earlier song to become the mega-hit 'Sweet Sixteen'. It was also during this time that she first met and sang with Harvey Fuqua, who would later be her steady beau and label mate at Chess.

Jimmy Hugnes - Why Not Tonight?: The Fame Recordings, Vol. 2

 At the beginning of Muscle Shoals, one of the other important guys besides Arthur Alexander was Jimmy Hughes.His song 'Steal Away' was the studio's first hit and set the model for what was to come.

Hughes, a cousin of Percy Sledge, was born and raised in Leighton, Alabama, close to Muscle Shoals. He began singing in a gospel quartet, The Singing Clouds, while at high school. In 1962, he auditioned for record producer Rick Hall at his FAME Studios. Hall was impressed, and recorded Hughes on a song, "I'm Qualified", that Hall had co-written with Quin Ivy. The record was leased to the Guyden label in Philadelphia, but was not a hit. Hughes returned to his day job at a rubber factory, and began singing secular R&B songs in local clubs.

Early in 1964, he returned to Hall with a powerful ballad he had written, "Steal Away", partly based on the gospel song "Steal Away to Jesus", and recorded the song in one take, backed by the studio rhythm section of Terry Thompson, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam and Jerry Carrigan. Hall and his friend Dan Penn then promoted the record around radio stations in the South, and it rose to # 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The record has been cited as "a prototype not only for subsequent great soul singers such as Johnnie Taylor and Al Green, but also would help define the signature Muscle Shoals sound." On the basis of Hughes' record, Hall signed a national distribution deal with Vee-Jay Records for his FAME label. Hughes' follow-up record, "Try Me", reached # 65 on the Hot 100, and he recorded an album, Steal Away, released on the Vee-Jay label, which included the first songwriting collaborations between Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. He also toured with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Womack and others.

Hughes' next few singles were unsuccessful, as Vee-Jay Records diverted their attention to The Beatles and The Four Seasons, and then folded. However, in 1966, after the success of Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman", Hall negotiated a new deal for his label to be distributed by Atlantic Records. Hughes returned to the charts with "Neighbor, Neighbor" (# 65 pop, # 4 R&B), "I Worship the Ground You Walk On" (# 25 R&B), and "Why Not Tonight" (# 90 pop, # 5 R&B), before moving to the Atlantic label itself with "It Ain't What You Got" (# 43 R&B, 1968).

Early in 1968, Hughes moved to Stax Records, where his recordings were issued on the subsidiary Volt label. His first record for the label, "I Like Everything About You", reached # 21 on the R&B chart, but later records were less successful. At the time, Stax was undergoing a major reorganisation with new management and new artists. Although his records, including a 1969 album Something Special, were produced by label boss Al Bell, Hughes later stated that he felt like the "low man on the totem pole" at the label, and became frustrated by what he saw as a lack of promotion. He also tired of touring and being away from his family, and in 1970 gave up recording and performing. He retrained, and got a government job making parts for nuclear power plants in the Tennessee River Valley, in later years only singing as a member of the congregation of his local church in Leighton.

Lowell Fulson - The Complete Kent Recordings vols 3 & 4

As promised!

Volume Three

Volume Four

Lowell Fulson - Kent Recordings 1 & 2

The more knowledgeable of followers here will likely be scratching their heads about now and wondering why I would start Lowell with THESE recordings. Well the truth is - mostly by mistake - but since I have these uploaded and they are totally killer, lets just say I am using this material to whet your taste for the earlier Chess material. Also I'll let you all know now that I don't have the JSP set that covers 1946 to 1953 so that would make a killer contribution. (Hint, Hint)

I approached this four disc set with full intentions of paring it down; the only problem is that I REALLY like Lowell Fulson and there just wasn't anything I could bring myself to exclude! These first two volumes give you 51 tracks that are the Meat of his Kent output. Volumes 3 & 4 have the collectors stuff but they will follow shortly as they are too good to leave out.

" Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921 – March 7, 1999) was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, Fulson was the most important figure in West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s.

According to some sources, Fulson was born on a Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma. Fulson stated that he was of Cherokee ancestry through his father, but he also claimed Choctaw ancestry. At the age of eighteen, he moved to Ada, Oklahoma, and joined Alger "Texas" Alexander for a few months in 1940, but later moved to California, forming a band which soon included a young Ray Charles and tenor saxophone player, Stanley Turrentine. He recorded for Swing Time Records in the 1940s, Chess Records (on the Checker label) in the 1950s, Kent Records in the 1960s, and Rounder Records (Bullseye) in the 1970s.

Fulson was drafted in 1943, but left the United States Navy in 1945. His most memorable and influential recordings included: "Three O'Clock Blues" (now a blues standard); the Memphis Slim-penned "Everyday I Have the Blues"; "Lonesome Christmas"; "Reconsider Baby" recorded in 1960 by Elvis Presley and in 1994 by Eric Clapton for his From the Cradle album as well as by Joe Bonamassa); and "Tramp" (co-written with Jimmy McCracklin and later covered by Otis Redding with Carla Thomas, ZZ Top (on 2003's Mescalero), Alex Chilton, and Tav Falco.

"Reconsider Baby" came from a long term contract agreed with Chess Records in 1954. It was recorded in Dallas under Stan Lewis' supervision with a saxophone section that included David "Fathead" Newman on tenor and Leroy Cooper on baritone.

Jackie Brenston played in Fulson's band between 1952 and 1954. (remember Jackie from Ike Turner?)

Fulson stayed with the Checker label into 1962, when he moved to the Los Angeles-based Kent Records. 1965's "Black Nights" became his first hit in a decade, and "Tramp," did even better, restoring the guitarist to R&B stardom.

In 1993 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California a show entitled "California Blues - Swingtime Tribute" opened with Fulson plus Johnny Otis, Charles Brown, Jay McShann, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy McCracklin and Earl Brown. Fulson's last recording was a duet of "Every Day I Have the Blues" with Jimmy Rogers on the latter's 1999 Atlantic Records release, "The Jimmy Rogers All-Stars: Blues, Blues, Blues."

A resident of Los Angeles, Fulson died in Long Beach, California, in March 1999, at the age of 77. His companion Tina Mayfield stated that the causes of death were complications from kidney disease, diabetes, and congestive heart failure. He was the father of four and grandfather of thirteen

The FAME Studios Story 1961 - 1973: Home Of The Muscle Schoals Sound

This 3 disc comp is nothing short of excellent.  The story of FAME is told through the music - from the pop side all the way to the gut bucket r&b side.

A wide range of artists worked with this legendary outfit, but one thing ties them all together... success!!

I'm sure you guys already have alot of these tracks but they made a huge effort to include some rarities;  undoubtedly for the collector types.

Enjoy!!!

Certain studios and labels occupy almost mythical stature in American musical history and FAME Studios, home of the Muscle Shoals sound, is among the elite. During the '60s and into the early '70s, the rotating crew at FAME Studios cranked out single after single, building a legacy that rivals such '60s stalwarts as Motown, Stax/Volt, and Chess, yet despite being the point of origin for such timeless 45s as Wilson Pickett's "Land of 1000 Dances," Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On," Joe Tex's "Hold What You've Got," Etta James' "Tell Mama," Clarence Carter's "Patches," James & Bobby Purify's "I'm Your Puppet," and Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," the label and studio aren't as well known as their peers. Ace's peerless three-disc box The FAME Studios Story: 1961-1973 should go a long way in firming up the label and studio's reputation in the eyes of the mass public. Anchored on those big hits, the compilation tells the story of FAME in exhaustive yet exciting detail, digging up a wealth of rarities (ranging from an unedited acoustic version of "You Left the Water Running" by Otis Redding and a version of "Another Man's Woman, Another Woman's Man" whose singer is unknown to a bunch of singles that rarely pop up on reissues), but this is hardly something for crate-diggers. This is a big, bold set filled with surprises for even seasoned record collectors and much of that has to do with context. Expertly compiled by Alec Palao, Tony Rounce, and Dean Rudland, The FAME Studios Story doesn't shy away from the moments when the Muscle Shoals sound seeped into the mainstream: very early in the set, teen idol Tommy Roe pops up with "Everybody" and toward the end the Osmonds come in with their Jackson 5 knockoff "One Bad Apple" and the revelation is how the FAME musicians gave these teenybopper stars some real swing and funk. That turns out to be the key to the FAME sound -- while Stax/Volt always had grit on the soles of their shoes, FAME was a little lighter, able to ease into slicker crossover material, something that served them well whenever they cranked out some bubblegum or backed Bobbie Gentry or, especially, when they cut effervescent pop-soul/Northern soul singles by Spooner & the Spoons ("Wish You Didn't Have to Go") and David & the Giants ("Ten Miles High"). Which isn't to say FAME didn't get down and dirty (of course they did -- witness Wicked Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude," complete with guitar from Duane Allman), but they were versatile, adapting to the needs of either the performer or the song. And that very versatility may be part of the reason why FAME isn't as immediately recognizable a name as Motown or Stax -- the Muscle Shoals crew could cop both of those sounds, after all -- but it's also the reason why this set is such a wildly entertaining listen, in addition to being a historically necessary document housed in a very handsome hardcover book.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine/AMG

Clarence Carter - I Found What I Wanted Unissued and Rare Fame Masters (2012)

Clarence Carter - I Found What I Wanted Unissued and Rare Fame Masters (2012)

For those of you who think I will be coming back with the second half of Carter's Fame singles any time soon: Ummm...News Flash, they have not been issued yet. I DO, however, have a little lagniappe post of four rare tracks that may or may not be on that set when it is eventually issued but I suspect this modern EP is Kent's way of priming folks for Volume Two.

I don't guess I need to say much here; it's CC and you almost certainly do not have it. I can't say that any of the four is an overlooked hit but none of them suck either. I've come to believe you are supposed to read the title to mean some tracks are unreleased and some are just rare since track 3 was clearly sourced from a 45 and I'd guess that track four was the b side.

Ike And Tina Turner - Am I A Fool In Love

This album was released by Kent in 1984, reissued to CD, so it's easy to understand why Tina's name and image are getting so much real estate.  As many of you recall, the 80's held much fortune for those long and strong legs of Tina's, so Kent quite wisely cashed in.

Am I A Fool In Love, as an album, is without a doubt my favorite from the duo of Ike and Tina.  All the songs are original, written by Ike, and A Fool In Love was their first big hit which helped to expose Tina to the world.  As most people know, it was a fluke which put Tina on the mic, and she never looked back.

Unlike some of thier more obnoxious hits, this album is wall to wall, 100%, unadalterated real deal music.  There's no end to the enjoyment of these tunes and in my opinion, this is a game changer for those with pre-formed ideas about Tina Turner and most certainly Ike.  So fan or not, check this one out and prepare to groove and boogie with one of the best the genre had to offer.

This was ripped from my Kent CD using EAC, and dithered to 16/44.1 FLAC using Trader's Little Helper.  Wonderful fidelity...enjoy!!!