Search - Brook Benton :: Endlessly

Not so fast..!!

Dejan Kovacevic | New York, New York United States | 01/13/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"If you are new to Brook Benton: BEWARE!



In theory, it looked so good when I found this compilation of - and here I would agree with the other reviewer - so very underappreciated Brook Benton, but then I would say SOUL, not rock, singer.



Anyway, I was thrilled with the 3CD collection, it had all the songs I heard, and loved, before, and than some - plus it's bargain priced...



Too good to be true, right? Unfortunately, that is the case: it is Brook Benton alright, and these are those songs that made him famous - OK, famous for us in the knowing - but majority of recordings are not THE original recordings that I learned to love, but probably some later renditions cheaply assembled with a traveling band and licensed to an obscure "oldies" company from Portugal which is not an unheard practice, especially in Asian and European markets. The strange thing is, there are some originals mixed in, like all the duets with Dinah Washington, and what makes it strange is that both those duets and Brooks most famous songs were recorded for the same record label, Mercury, albeit solo Brook's better versions are not included here. The recordings are not as smooth and the sound is little too thin, as if these were the song demos or as if played partly on newer equipment, synthesizers and the like, which were not in operation during 50's/60's when the originals were recorded. In any case, definitely different versions from the famous ones.



So I'm still searching for that "ultimate" compilation. One, "Forty Greatest Hits", a double disc, was released in 1989, but is out of print now and very expensive on collectors circuit, while Mercury decided to endlessly churn out single greatest hits compilations, with revolving list or songs so that all the single discs heavily overlap, with a few songs not included on this one or the other one...



So either choose one of the Mercury single compilations or stick to whole original albums, like i did, of which few are available. You will not be disappointed with those.



As for me, I'm keeping this one as a curiosity. But I wouldn't recommend it."