Let's Al Green

Sexy: Romantic Love Songs features many of the sexiest and romantic love songs of Pop and Soul performed by Salvatore Adamo, Procol Harum, Demis Roussos, Kansas, James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Platters, Tom Jones, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Al Green, Al Jarreau and many others.

Sexy Romantic Love Songs features more of the sexiest and romantic love songs of Pop Rock performed by Percy Sledge, Platters, Tom Jones, The Chi Lites, Al Green, Barry White, Jane Birkin, Procol Harum, Jean Francois Michael and many more.

On Memphis, Boz Scaggs pays tribute to the city's magnificent soul tradition, Al Green, and producer Willie Mitchell and his Royal Recordings studio, whose location and personnel were used to cut it in three days. Produced by drummer Steve Jordan, the core band includes the singer and Ray Parker, Jr. on guitars, and bassist Willie Weeks, augmented by the Royal Horns & Strings, a small backing chorus, sidemen, and guests. Green's influence is celebrated in the opener, Scaggs' "Gone Baby Gone." Its wafting B-3, Rhodes, fluid electric guitars, and a tight backbeat underscore his baritone croon to excellent effect. If there were doubts about the quality of his voice at this juncture, they're immediately dispelled when his sweet falsetto emerges. In his cover of Green's "So Good to Be Here," Scaggs references him but digs deeper into his own trick bag with more rounded, earthier highlights.

Originally released in 1973 on Encounter Records, Profile's Sands of Time was produced by Bernard Purdie (a living, walking definition of soul-jazz drumming), and the album bears his signature sound. With Don Sands on organ, Dave Barron on guitar, Seldon Powell on tenor sax, Garnett Brown on trombone, Jimmy Owens on trumpet, Paul Martinez on bass, and Purdie and Butchman Bateman sharing the drum kit, with help from percussionist Norman Pride, the album catches an easy, gently funky shuffle tone from the opening track, Barron's "99 Baseball," and then never lets go. Instrumental versions of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," Isaac Hayes' "Shaft," and Jimmy Webb's (via Isaac Hayes) "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" all fall into a delightful rainy-day groove, making Sands of Time somewhat of a lost classic.

Son of Louisiana bluesman Raful Neal, young Kenny had some big shoes to fill, but he's been more than up to the task. He plays bass, guitar, trumpet, piano and guitar, and worked in Toronto with the Downchild Blues Band as well as with his siblings in the Neal Brothers Band before returning to Louisiana in 1987 to cut his debut, Bio on the Bayou. Since then Neal has continued to blend his swampy roots with soul and R&B to put his own contemporary spin on the blues. Let Life Flow finds the 50-year-old bluesman in fine voice delivering four originals and seven covers. Neal accents "Louisiana Stew" with a long, jaunty, country flavored harp solo, while on "Fly Away" he drops a bit of sage spiritual advice into the mix. His Memphis-style guitar fills accent the tune, but it's his gospel drenched vocals that standout.