Search - Curtis Mayfield, Impressions :: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

Why Not Two Volumes?

07/31/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When this 20th Century Masters series started hitting the market seven or eight years ago, they soon had literally hundreds of volumes, all with 11 or 12 tracks, covering individual artists/groups, multi-artist "theme" volumes (R&B, Country, Pop, etc.) and a number dealing with specific years. For some of the artists they issued two volumes (e.g., one for The Supremes and the other for Diana Ross).



But not in this case, despite the fact that, as a group, The Impressions had 50 R&B hits from 1958 to 1987, many of which crossed over to the Billboard Pop Hot 100 or Hot 100 "Bubble Under charts, while Curtis Mayfield had 32 solo R&B hits from 1970 to 1997, again with a number of them making the Hot 100 or "Bubble Under" listings. Certainly plenty of material with which to fill out two puny 11- or 12-track volumes.



Having said that, you do get three of the four # 1 R&B hits they had as a group (It's All Right - also # 4 Hoit 100 in late 1963, We're A Winner - also # 14 Hot 100 early in 1968, and Choice Of Colors - also # 21 Hot 100 in summer 1969. The one missing # 1 is Finally Got Myself Together (I'm A Changed Man), which also made it to # 17 Hot 100 in late spring 1974. By this time Mayfield had gone solo and after being replaced, first by Leroy Hutson, by 1974 the new leads were Reggie Torian and Ralph Johnson (the latter later joining Mystique.



Not a bad little volume, with good sound reproduction and two pages of liner notes by Joseph F. Laredo, along with three more nice shots of the group (inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame in 1991), and a re-listing of the contents showing original release dates/label numbers (but no chart details). But there are now many more comprehensive compilations available for both The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield."