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Rating:
TO THE ROOTS OF SOUL
Owning at least one Sam & Dave record should be "mandatory" for every R’n’B enthusiast and more generally for everyone who loves music with African-American roots. Released by Showcase, this Greatest Hits (a type of record I personally detest) is certainly not ideal, but since it's not easy to find their original albums from the magical period 1966-1968, let's say the three under the Stax label and the subsequent one for Atlantic, one can be content with finding at least a dozen important titles here.
Starting with those signed by Hayes (meaning Isaac Hayes: the one from Shaft) and Porter. They are credited with the most famous songs among those of Sam & Dave, which are "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I’m Coming", which need no introduction. And then there's "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby", which was their only successful ballad (after all, it was the rhythm and not the intensity of the interpretation that was their strong point); followed by "Said I Wouldn't Tell Nobody"; "Soul Sister Brown Sugar"; "You Don’t Know Like I Know"; "You Got Me Hummin’" and "I Thank You" which, along with "Don't Know What You Mean To Me" (this written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper, i.e., the authors - to name one - of "Knock On Wood") closes their golden streak on the sales charts.
I would say that this golden streak of songs alone justifies the expense for this record. But there's more. There are also some good pieces taken from Sam Cooke's repertoire: "Cupid"; "You Send Me"; "Another Saturday Night"; "Bring It On Home" and "Wonderful World". And then there are some fillers (so to speak) from various origins and authors, like "Summertime" or "Dock Of The Bay" "Gimme Some Lovin’", nice but not particularly meaningful from a performance standpoint.
So, overall good material which, however, suffers from a flaw in editing or production. On one hand, the record gives us zero information not only about the songwriters (you have to look them up on the LP label) but also about the origin or the recording date of the individual pieces. And then - and above all - the songs all sound a little "muffled" as if they were recorded with amateur equipment and are invariably rushed at the end with a hurried fade-out. It's a pity, but apparently Showcase Records was more interested in "cramming" as many songs as possible into the LP - there are 20 of them - than in giving each one the necessary breathing space. Therefore, I believe that a judgment on the record itself cannot go beyond four stars.
Anyway, be that as it may, this record still manages to give us an idea of the musical legacy of Sam & Dave, that "popularization" of the call-and-response gospel technique, supported by a robust brass line, which from then on would become the "music of the soul" and the soundtrack of black pride. Sorry if that's not enough.
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