Deep Purple Singles A's & B's (1993){warner Wpcr 2115}

The Moonglows were among the most important R&B groups of the 1950s, despite the fact that they only had a handful of hits among fewer than 50 recorded songs, in a history that lasted just six years, in sharp contrast to such acts as the Orioles and the Drifters, who were together across decades and recorded huge bodies of work. Chicago-born Harvey Fuqua was part of a musical family virtually from birth, as the nephew of Ink Spots guitarist Charlie Fuqua, and before he was in his teens was aiming for a career of his own in music.

An engaging crooner, TV personality, and entrepreneur, Andy Williams was one of the most bankable and popular singers of his era. With his laid-back delivery, supple voice, and amiable charm, Williams rode a wave of success that took him from a childhood vocal act with his brothers to worldwide fame as a solo artist, eventually finding latter-day success as a theater impresario in Branson, Missouri.

Although he had very few major hits Wilbert Harrison is still remembered and revered today for perhaps just two recordings. His 1959 version of Leiber and Stoller's "K.C. Loving", retitled "Kansas City" by Wilbert and his 1962 recording of his own song "Let's Stick Together". Here for the first time in one package Jasmine present all the A and B sides of every single he released between 1953 and 1962, and as the 40 tracks on this collection show, he was anything but a two hit wonder. With many rare blues and R&B recordings this has to be the definitive Wilbert Harrison collection.

Little Walter Jacobs was blues harmonica player, singer, songwriter and occasional guitarist who revolutionised the way that the harmonica was played and recorded, bringing a new dimension to the blues during the 1950s. He was one of the first artists to amplify his harmonica by holding it to a microphone and maybe the first artist on any instrument deliberately to use electronic distortion as part of his range of sounds.

This collection includes the A and B side of every single by these two blues giants, through to 1962 with Buddy Guy's hit "Stone Crazy" and the very different sound and feeling of Magic Sam's "All Your Love", this is excellent stuff. The blues in Chicago and indeed the blues on Chess Records, Chicago's top blues label, had by the late 1950s been dominated by just a handful of artists but by 1957 that would change as a new generation of blues men were getting a foothold on the scene. This superb CD concentrates on two of these young bloods, Buddy Guy and Magic Sam. These cuts set a new course for the blues at a time when the music was losing its core audience. Buddy Guy is today the elder statesman of the blues around the world and if it not for Magic Sam's tragic death at the very young age of 32 he would no doubt carry the same status.

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry has always been a favourite of New Orleans R&B collectors and unlike many of the artists who emanated from that city's vibrant and unique music scene, Clarence managed to break out of Louisiana and score a significant number of pop crossover hits. Contains the hits "Ain't Got No Home", "(I Don't Know Why I Love You) But I Do", "You Always Hurt The One You Love". Today at the age of 79, Clarence lives comfortably in New Orleans performing on occasion, usually at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival secure in the knowledge the body of work featured on this CD is amongst the greatest to come out of New Orleans.

Following in the wake of Fats Domino, Lloyd Price helped define the distinctive New Orleans R&B sound when he recorded his landmark 1952 No. 1 R&B hit “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” at his very first session for Specialty, with Domino on piano, and had a string of R&B Top 10 hits before being drafted in 1954. On his return, he had been usurped by Little Richard and Larry Williams, and eventually set up his own label KRC before signing to ABC-Paramount, re-inventing himself as a rock ‘n’ roll chart topper with his 1958 pop and R&B No. 1 “Stagger Lee”, following it up with the pop/R&B crossover classics “Personality” and “I'm Gonna Get Married”, and racking up a dozen more hits through into the early ‘60s.

Love Is Strange and much, much more! A total of 55 tracks from the most distinctive and unique act in Fifties R&B. Mickey Baker was the master guitar player and Sylvia was the sexiest singer in R&B at the time. Their interplay on record was sometimes playful, sometimes barbed, and beneath it all was some of the finest musicianship ever heard on R&B records. This set includes all their Rainbow, Groove, Vik, and RCA recordings from 1950 to 1962.

Jimmie Rodgers, not to be confused with the pioneering hillbilly country artist of the early '30s, was a hugely successful artist in the pop charts during the late '50s and early '60s, his work transcending the barriers between pop, country, folk and R&B to give him a succession of major hits on both sides of the Atlantic. He was one of the many successful artists to emerge from the influential Arthur Godfrey Talent Show on radio, and was one of the first artists signed to Maurice Levy's Roulette label in 1957. Working with ace producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, he scored a No. 1 with his debut single Honeycomb and followed it up with Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, Oh-Oh, I'm Falling In Love Again and Secretly, benefitting from a supply of fine songs by the top team of Al Hoffman and Dick Manning. This collection comprises the A and B side of all his releases through to 1962, when he enjoyed his last Top 30 success with a UK No. 5 with English Country Garden. It's an enjoyable journey through the most important years of the career of an artist who successfully sat alongside the high-profile exponents of rock 'n' roll appealing to the middle ground of pop in the years before the British invasion.