Take me to The River

5 CD's exclusive collection by Duth rock band George Baker Selection released in 2008 on EMI Music Netherlands BV, includes 100 tracks. George Baker Selection was rock band of Hoorn, Netherlands. In 1967, George Baker (Johannes Bouwens) was living in Wormerveer and joined the band Soul Invention, a soul band which played covers of songs by Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. They changed their name to "George Baker Selection", Bouwens naming himself for a character from a detective novel. The band consisted of Jan Hop, Jacobus Greuter, George The, and Jan Visser. Their first album, Little Green Bag (1970), produced an immediate worldwide hit: their debut single, "Little Green Bag" reached No. 16 on the Cash Box magazine chart and No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in the United States.

With its third album, Big Fun, Shalamar unveiled its best-known and most successful lineup. Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniels were still on board, but Gerald Brown had been replaced by the charismatic Howard Hewett. Both creatively and commercially, this album would take Shalamar to new heights and establish the trio as one of the best soul-pop units of 1979-1983. The single that made Hewett famous and really sent Shalamar into orbit was "Second Time Around," but the classic Hewett/Watley/Daniels lineup also excels on everything from the insistent "Right in the Socket" to the playfully funky "Take Me to the River" (not the 1974 Al Green classic) and the smooth, Philadelphia soul-type ballad "Let's Find the Time for Love." Definitely one of Shalamar's essential releases.

Recorded At "Harmonie" (Bonn/Germany) During The Rockpalast Crossroads Festival, on 23.03.2004.