Search - Jackie Wilson, Count Basie :: Jackie Wilson & Count Basie

JACKIE & BASIE BALL

Lee Boyall | Kettering, ENGLAND | 12/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The original LP 'Manufacturers Of Soul' has 11 tracks but this CD leaves 1 track from its production. I suggest you search for the Edsel 2for1 CD - Shake A Hand + Manufacturers Of Soul where you will find this extra track. This is the only sore point about this CD. Even though it is a budget price, the sound quality is A1. The songs are performed by the great Basie and his band and Jackie adds his own style to well-known hits. Jackie has gone down as saying how he enjoyed working with Basie - and it shows. Jackie adds zest to vocals on Stevie Wonder tracks where Stevie just can't compete. Wanna have a ball? Well buy this CD if you don't mind not having the missing track 'Even When You Cry.'"

Cheap but Highly Effective CD

Jeffrey Witter | Porterville, CA United States | 08/02/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I recently picked up this CD for about $6.98 knowing a little of what was on it. Knowing that you can never really go wrong with Jackie Wilson, I was still surprised of how much this CD cooks. Jackie's versions of 'Uptight (everything's alright)' 'I was Made to Love Her' 'Funky Broadway' and 'In The Midnight Hour', and 'Chain Gang' are all arranged by Count Basie's Big band. Think of the Black Elvis on stage in Vegas with really good material to work with. I am still grooving to this one."

Skimpy - But Fills The Bill For Hit Collectors

Lee Boyall | 04/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back when this album first came out on vinyl in early 1968, Jackie Wilson - aka Mr. Excitement - was riding the crest of another span of high popularity on the charts at his longtime label, Brunswick (by the start of 1967 he had already chalked up 41 Top/Hot 100 singles, 29 of which had also scored on the R&B charts). In 1967 he came up with 5 more, including the # 1 R&B/# 6 Hot 100 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher with the backing of the Gerald Sims orchestra.



Nor was the legendary pianist, William (Count) Basie exactly a stranger to hit single status, having registered 36 from 1937 to 1963 for a number of labels, including Decca, Vocalion, Columbia/Okeh, Victor/RCA Victor, G-Clef/Clef and Roulette.



So, in 1968, Brunswick decided it would be a good idea to pair the two in an 11-track album titled Manufacturers Of Soul, covering everyone from Jerry Butler & The Impressions to Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder to Wilson Pickett, The Temptations to Aretha Franklin, and King Curtis The Kingpins). And from that album sprang two hit singles, the first a cover of Jerry Butler & The Impressions' 1958 hit, For Your Precious Love, which reached #26 R&B/# 49 Hot 100 in March 1969 on Brunswick 55365 b/w a cover of Stevie Wonders' 1966 mega-hit, Uptight (Everything's Alright).



In April, they then released their cover of the Sam Cooke 1960 smash, Chain Gang, and saw this peak at #37 R&B/# 84 Hot 100 in early May on Brunswick 55373 b/w Wilson Pickett's 1967 hit Funky Broadway.



All four sides are in this CD release of that album, making it an ideal purchase for collectors of hit singles like myself, with only Even When You Cry dropped. The sound quality is excellent, but unfortunately they provide absolutely nothing in the way of background notes and discography. In fact, they don't even make mention of the original LP!

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