Nellie Lutcher - Real Gone: The Singles Collection 1947-56 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Soul Stirrers were one of the most important and influential of the gospel quartets, their career spanning many decades, and their style helping to shape secular doowop and soul music in the post-war decades. This collection focuses on a key decade or more in their career, during which the great soul singer Sam Cooke was a member of the group, not only learning his own trade as a vocalist, but also making a highly distinctive contribution to the group's sound. He was succeeded in the group after he went solo in 1957, by another future major soul start Johnnie Taylor, who contributes to the later titles on the collection. This great value 54-track 2-CD set includes the A and B sides of all the Specialty singles released during the period plus the A and B sides of their releases on Sam Cooke's own SAR tag through 1960 and into 1961 accommodating as many as we could within the 2-CD . It charts a progression from pure gospel through to a style which has much in common with '60s soul, reflecting the impact which the two great vocalists had on their creative approach, and it's a hugely entertaining collection, complete with a substantial booklet with full discographical and chart information.

Nellie Melba - Comp Gramaphone Rec-Vol. 1 [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/17/2002

LaVern Baker was a one of the top female R&B singers of the '50s and early '60s, racking up a string of R&B and pop hits during her time with the Atlantic tag - indeed she was every bit as much a pop and rock 'n' roll artists as a pure R&B singer. This great value 71-track 3-CD collection comprises every A and B side she released from her recording debut in 1949 through to her last Top 50 entry in 1962. It includes her first recordings with Eddie InchSugarmanInch Penigar's Orchestra, her early '50s releases as Little Miss Sharecropper, and then with Maurice King & His Wolverines as Bea Baker, and with Todd Rhodes Orchestra billed for the first time as LaVern Baker, before joining Atlantic in 1953, and then includes all her releases for Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun through the next decade. It naturally includes her big hits with InchTweedle-DeeInch InchBop-Ting-A-LingInch, InchPlay It FairInch, InchJim DandyInch, InchJim Dandy Got MarriedInch, InchI Cried A TearInch and many others - a total of 26 chart records during that period. She was a fine R&B stylist, with a broad enough appeal for many of her records to cross over to the pop charts and make an impact in the burgeoning arena of rock 'n' roll, appearing in Alan Freed's InchRock, Rock, RockInch and InchMr. Rock & RollInch movies. This collection is an entertaining and thorough overview of her core career.