Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright CD

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright buy CD music For all the multi-cultural hippie freedom Sly and the Family Stone stood for in their pre-RIOT glory days, frontman Sly Stone was smart and talented enough to know that it was through catchy pop singles that his band's message would gain its widest dissemination. All 11 of Sly and the Family Stone's Top 40 hits are here (some of which, like "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" were never on LPs back in the day), along with nearly every track from both of the band's career high point albums, 1969's STAND and 1971's THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON. Six cuts from 1973's FRESH represent that excellent, underrated album (and the sophisticated down-tempo funk Sly was pioneering in the early '70s). Overall, Sly and the Family Stone's signature sound, a mixture of infectious energy, ebullient melodic hooks, and heavy funk beats, was one of the most distinctive of its era, and went on to directly influence everyone from Miles Davis to Prince. Moreover, the music on ESSENTIAL is celebratory, superbly crafted, and deeply enduring. It provides a vibrant retrospective of one of the most important artists of the '60s and '70s. 2cds-W/ 36 Tracks Photographers: Fred Lombardi; David Redfern. Personnel: Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Freddie Stone (vocals, guitar); Jerry Martini (saxophone); Cynthia Robinson (trumpet); Rose Stone (keyboards); Greg Errico, Andy Newmark (drums). Recording information: 1967-1975.

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright songs All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24-bit technology. The Very Best of the Originals includes their hits from the late '60s through the mid-'70s, along with some LP cuts, B-sides, and unreleased tracks. The first six songs were produced or co-produced by Marvin Gaye in 1969 and 1970 (including the hits "Baby I'm for Real" and "The Bells"). These have been sometimes cited as forerunners to his What's Going On album, but it would be wrong to view them as a What's Going On supplement. They're in much more of a lush, group vocal, sweet soul style, although some traces of ideas Gaye would play with in the early '70s are present, particularly in the way the background voices weave around each other. The one previously unreleased Gaye production, "Just to Keep You Satisfied," would be reworked, with the same backing track and backing vocals but with a different lead vocal and lyrics, on Gaye's Let's Get It On album. The rest of the tracks are largely in a competent sweet soul mold, also including "Suspicion," a previously unreleased Holland-Dozier-Holland number from 1966 with a more up-tempo sound; "Game Called Love," a 1974 cut composed and produced by Stevie Wonder; and "Down to Love Town," a 1976 disco smash. ~ Richie Unterberger Personnel: Marvin Gaye (vocals); Hank Dixon (tenor); Walter Gaines (baritone). Audio Remasterer: Jeff Willens. Liner Note Author: Adam White. Recording information: 1968-1970. Arrangers: Gene Page; H.B. Barnum; Marvin Gaye; Paul Riser; Tom Baird; David Van De Pitte. Personnel includes: Marvin Gaye (background vocals). Producers include: Marvin Gaye, Ivy Joe Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier.

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright album for sale It's the summer of 1969, and the whole world is joyfully singing, "Grazing in the grass is a gas, baby, can you dig it!" The Friends of Distinction's debut single was a made-for-radio pop masterpiece that captured the ebullience of that last summer of the '60s in its three minutes of harmonic exuberance. While the group never quite reached those heights again, the Friends did produce a small body of work in their brief lifetime that has held up well. The foursome's two other major hit singles, "Love or Let Me Be Lonely" and "Going in Circles" have joined "Grazing in the Grass" in the permanent rotations of most "fun and oldies" formats. Other highlights of this 20-song compilation include "Grazing"'s flipside, "I Really Hope You Do," the group's reading of the Four Tops' hit "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)," David Gates' "It Don't Matter to Me," and the beautifully baritoned "Love Can Make It Easier." ~ Jim Newsom Recorded between 1968 and 1973. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Liner Note Author: Jackie Rhinehart.

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright CD music Recorded between 1969 and 1976. Includes liner notes by Don Snowden. In the late '60s, New Orleans' The Meters became one of the main purveyors of the gritty, urban funk that would come to dominate 1970's black music. After working together as a session band, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr., drummer Zigaboo Modeliste and keyboardist Art Neville began to release soulful, instrumental party records in the marketable mould of Booker T. and the MG's. But The Meters' catchy, wicked licks, fiery rhythmic interplay and general hard-hitting pulse gave birth to an utterly new, influential sound. Though the band would go on to refine their sound on Reprise discs such as REJUVENATION and CABBAGE ALLEY, their earliest releases are no less compelling. THE VERY BEST OF compiles some of the band's most irresistible jams from 1968 to 1976, a period which saw the creation of such classics as "Cissy Strut," "Look-Ka Py Py," both included here. The primitive production only enhances the rhythm section's in-the-pocket punch, and Art Neville's swirling organ. This is a funk blueprint--tight, rhythmic, straight-up good time music in the finest New Orleans tradition. Personnel: Leo Nocentelli (guitar); Cyril Neville (congas). Audio Remasterers: Ken Perry; Bill Inglot. Liner Note Author: Don Snowden. Photographer: Michael Ochs Archives. The Meters: Leo Nocentelli (guitar); Art Neville (keyboards); George Porter, Jr. (bass); Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste (drums). Producers include: Allen Toussaint.

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright buy CD music Digitally remastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Phil De Lancie (Fantasy Studios, Berkeley). In the 1960s, Stax Records was best known for raw southern soul that rejected the type of sleekness and pop sensibilities favored by the northern soulsters at Motown. But by the early '70s, Memphis soul was losing its popularity, and Stax's A&R department started to emphasize northern and so-called "uptown" soul in order to stay competitive. One of Stax/Volt's biggest sellers was the Dramatics, a Detroit group that, like the Temptations at Motown and the O'Jays in the Gamble & Huff camp, effectively combined gritty soul belting with a sleek production style. Thanks to major hits ranging from the delightfully funky "Whacha See Is Whacha Get" to slow jams and ballads like "Hey You! Get Off My Mountain," "Toast to the Fool" and the melancholy "In the Rain," the Dramatics were on quite a roll in the early-to-mid-'70s. All of those gems are included on the hour-long CD, The Best of the Dramatics, which offers a fine overview of the quintet's Stax/Volt years. Many Dramatics albums are worth owning, but if a listener were allowed to own only one Dramatics CD, this would be it. ~ Alex Henderson Includes original liner notes by Jack Sbarbori. Compilation producer: Roger Clayton. Liner Note Author: Jack Sbarbori. Producers: Tony Hester, Jimmy Roach, Don Davis. Engineers include: Jim Vitti, Dean Mounts, Don Davis.

Express Yourself: The Best of Charles Wright songs Track Listing of songs: Tighten Up; I Can't Stop Dancing; Do the Choo Choo; Love Will Rain on You; ; I Love My Baby; Girl You're Too Young; My Balloon's Going Up; World Without Music, A; Don't Let the Music Slip Away; Wrap It Up; Dancing to Your Music; Ain't Nothing for a Man in Love; I Could Dance All Night; Soul City Walk, The; Let's Groove; Everybody Have a Good Time; Glad You Could Make It; I've Been Missing You; Strategy;