When "Polk Salad Annie" blared from transistor radio speakers in the summer of 1969, the first thought was of Creedence Clearwater Revival, for Tony Joe White's swamp rock bore more than a passing resemblance to the sound John Fogerty whipped up on Bayou Country and Green River. But White was the real thing – he really was from the bayou country of Louisiana, while Fogerty's bayou country was conjured up in Berkeley, CA. Plus, White had a mellow baritone voice that sounded like it had been dredged up from the bottom of the Delta. Besides "Annie," side one of this album includes several other White originals. The best of these are "Willie and Laura Mae Jones," a song about race relations with an arrangement similar to "Ballad of Billie Joe," and "Soul Francisco," a short piece of funky fluff that had been a big hit in Europe in 1968. "Aspen, Colorado" presages the later "Rainy Night in Georgia," a White composition popularized by Brook Benton. The second side consists of covers of contemporary hits, with the funky "Who's Making Love" and "Scratch My Back" faring better than the slow stuff.

Solid and steady hitmakers for Motown in the late 1960s, the Four Tops, led by the deep, soulful voice of Levi Stubbs and blessed with A-line songs from the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team, were one of the finest singing groups the label ever produced. Singles like "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Bernadette," "I Can't Help Myself," and the wise-beyond-its-era "It's the Same Old Song" were radio staples in their time, and actually still continue to be staples on 21st century oldies stations. That's staying power, and it's no accident. The songs, at least the singles, were good and the Tops' sound was a hair rougher and edgier than a lot of Motown's issues at the time.

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: Motown 70's, Vol. 2 collects a dozen more of Motown's most distinctive tracks from the '70s, including the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Gladys Knight & the Pips' "If I Were Your Woman," and the Spinners' "It's a Shame." Songs by the Supremes, the Commodores, and Rare Earth round out this collection, which may be too obvious for Motown diehards; however, it's still a solid choice for someone who wants the label's biggest hits in one convenient package.

Though they have been around for nearly 40 years, the Four Tops were never stronger than during the '60s and early '70s. With a dozen Top 20 and five Top Ten hits, the Tops were just as their name implies. As part of their Millennium Collection, Motown has selected 11 of these hits for consideration as one of the pre-eminent groups of the era. From the trademark stylings of Holland-Dozier-Holland to a tune by Smokey Robinson (who himself once considered the Tops to be "the baddest group around"), this best-of set is pretty much what it says to be.

Starbuck was a rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974 by keyboardist/vocalist/record producer Bruce Blackman and marimba player Bo Wagner. Both Blackman and Wagner, along with guitarist Johnny Walker, had previous success with Mississippi-based "sunshine pop" group Eternity's Children, scoring a Billboard Hot 100 hit with "Mrs. Bluebird" in the summer of 1968. Starbuck's debut single, "Moonlight Feels Right", reached the #3 position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in 1976. Although the band never re-created the success of their debut, several of their songs did chart in the Billboard Top 100 and their 1977 release "Everybody Be Dancin'" reached #38.

This disc is an integral part of a series Telarc is doing – taking albums that were big sellers by prominent artists and having an innovative group of solid blues players do their interpretations of a variety of the songs from the original album. They have done this with the Beatles' White Album (calling it The Blues White Album) and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde with good success, which will probably continue with this new interpretation of the Stones' 1972 vintage album. Telarc put together a dynamite "house" band, including Brian Stoltz (ex-Neville Brothers) on guitar and former Double Trouble rhythm section members Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton, and then pulled in many more celebrated artists to handle the leads. the Stones, who started out as a blues and R&B band, always maintained those roots; thus, many of the songs keep their original shape. This is a solid retooling of this classic Stones LP. Telarc has taken the original double disc and picked the songs the artists felt remained truest to their respective traditions and packaged it as a ten-song disc, complete with a cover notes that make it look the same.

Most of B.B. King's studio albums of the '80s and '90s tend to de-emphasize his guitar playing and consist largely of forgettable originals and obvious attempts at pop hits. However this CD (which was cut in the studios) is on a higher level and is quite rewarding. Most of the tunes were co-written by pianist Joe Sample and Will Jennings, and the majority are quite catchy and memorable. Certainly it is easy to sing along with the refrains of "I'm Moving On," "Back in L.A." and "Roll, Roll, Roll." On this date King usually overdubbed his guitar to play along with his vocals (somehow the interplay does not sound spontaneous) but it does not detract from the final results. The intelligent and philosophical lyrics fit King's style very well and his voice is very much in prime form. Well worth acquiring.

The first selection by DJ Nomad from Berlin is Barbara Hernandez' 'All Nite Tonight', written and produced by Leston Paul from Trinidad. Nomad's edit drives the song's dance floor ambition even further beyond the top. As a DJ Nomad does not necessarily put a label on his style, but always expresses love for Polyrythms, Soulful harmonies and the African drums and Percussion.

It's often been said that if an R&B act didn't have a lot of dancefloor appeal in the late '70s, it could forget about being commercially successful. That isn't necessarily true; Frankie Beverly's Maze, just to give one example, was never a dancefloor favorite – and yet, all of its late-'70s albums went gold. Nonetheless, having disco appeal certainly didn't hurt. When Brainstorm's second album, Journey to the Light, failed to sell, some people reasoned that it was due to a shortage of up-tempo material. So with its third and final album, Funky Entertainment, the Detroit band decided to go for maximum disco appeal and make up-tempo songs a top priority.

"Keeping Time" is the second studio album by American actor, singer and songwriter Paul Jabara. The album which was released on Casablanca Records in 1978 includes Jabara's song "Trapped in a Stairway" from the movie Thank God It's Friday, his own version of the Grammy Award winning "Last Dance" (originally recorded by Donna Summer) as well as the duets "Something's Missing" (with Summer) and "Take Good Care of My Baby / What's a Girl to Do" (with Pattie Brooks). The lead single from the album was "Dancin' (Lift Your Spirits Higher)". Betty Lederer from Billboard, elected "Pleasure Island" as the best cut of the album, the magazine also choose the album as the best Disco album of the week, giving it a favorable review. The album peaked at #27 in the National Disco Action Top 40.

The three albums (3-CD set) that Gil Scott-Heron recorded for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label are among the most important in black music history. They showed a multi-talented artist coming to full fruition with his first efforts on wax. The Revolution Begins contains every piece of music he released for the label from 1970-1971. In recent years Gil has become a lauded as one of the all-time greats. This music is the reason why. It includes classic performances, including both the spoken word and band versions of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Lady Day and John Coltrane, Pieces Of A Man, Whitey On The Moon and Free Will.

The fourth album from Nick Waterhouse. He's calling it 'Nick Waterhouse.' And whether intentional or not, it is perhaps his most reflective and reflexive album, employing all of the mature production techniques learned throughout his professional career while retaining a viscous edge that allows it to land with colossal impact - more raw, heavy and overtly confrontational than anything he's made before.

Digitally remastered edition. BBE Music continues it's long and fertile partnership with vibraphone legend and godfather of neo-soul, Roy Ayers, with the first ever reissue of his 1983 album Silver Vibrations. Originally released in the UK only on Uno Melodic Records, Silver Vibrations shares some of it's musical DNA with Lots Of Love, Ayers' US album from the same year. However, Silver Vibrations contains four unique cuts all of it's own, plus extended takes of three songs, including the definitive version of iconic song 'Chicago'.

This is a fine CD of Blues Brothers material, featuring the original Blues Brothers Band and frontman Larry Thurston, performing at Montreux Jazz Festival on July 12, 1989. From the late '80s through the early 90's, the Blues Brothers Band was a popular touring act throughout Europe, with Mr. Thurston doing a fine job on lead vocals. None of the other 90's Blues Brothers frontmen (Dan Ackroyd, John Goodman, Jim Belushi) appear on this CD or in this Line-Up. Not exactly "essential", but a good performance of the tour band during this period of the band's history.

“Masterpiece” was originally released in 1985 and was their first for a new label (Warner Brothers) and featuring the original three man line up of Ronald, O’Kelly & Rudolph Isley, after the two younger siblings & Brother-In-Law had formed Isley, Jasper, Isley. The album was a new direction for The Isley Brothers, with only one track written by the band ‘May I’, and more cover versions feature including Phil Collins’ ‘If Leaving Me Is Easy’ and Charlie Rich’s ‘The Most Beautiful Girl’.