Body + Soul: Love Serenade CD

With its 18 tracks of smoothed-out classic R&B jams from the 1970s and `80s, the PLATINUM EDITION of BODY & SOUL: LOVE SERENADE is the perfect soundtrack to a night of champagne, satin sheets, and romance. The set starts hot with the inimitably sweet croon of Smokey Robinson ("Being With You") and continues with Gladys Knight ("If I Was Your Woman"), the Commodores ("Three Times a Lady"), Boyz II Men ("I'll Make Love to You"), and others. A case study in "mood music," BODY & SOUL is enough to romance the pants off even the most casual R&B fan.

This two-disc collection presents the best of romantic, sensual R&B from the '70s on, providing the perfect backdrop for affairs of the heart. Marvin Gaye's sultry "Sexual Healing" kicks things off, and things move into poppier territory with Champaign's "How 'Bout Us" and the Peabo Bryson/Roberta Flack duet "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love." Philly soul is well represented, from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now" to the Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl." The sadder side of love is tackled on Earth, Wind and Fire's classic "After the Love Has Gone" and the Johnny Mathis/Deniece Williams ballad "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late." The overwhelming mood on BODY & SOUL, however, is one of seduction--a soft, subtle musical enticement that's unassuming but powerful.

Recording information: 1972-1991.

Photographers: Freddie Jackson; Jim Britt; Joanne Savio; David Corio.

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