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Moments To Remember

zulu1 | Brooklyn, New York United States | 07/18/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I wonder what that guy above was listening to. Certainly he doesn't think that the lead singer of The Moments is female.I have mixed feelings about this release. Right from the start it's a dissappointment. With short demos of songs to come playing in the backround one of the group members is hawking the CD as if his rent wouldn't get paid if you didn't buy it. Then it practically blended right into the first song "Not On The Outside" which has been digitally remastered and thrown all off balance. The saving grace for it is the extra minute or so added at the end. A real surprise was hearing "I Do" because I didn't know that it was The Moments who did it. "Sexy Mama's" 8 plus minutes of smooth funk is a good surprise that was offset by the halved version of "I Don't Wanna Go." That was a big dissappointment. Out of the 40 songs on this release half of them aren't even worth putting on the B side of a 45. If they made C sides then maybe. The Moments (who later went on to become Ray, Goodman & Brown) were known for their silky smooth tenors with wide range and rich harmonies. You get that on "Not On The Outside", "Look At Me I'm In Love", "With You" "Love On A Two Way Street" "What's Your Name" and a few others. But they weren't known for their upbeat sounds. "Girls", "Sweet sweet Lady" and "Nine Times" are definitely worth a listen with a backhand tribute to the duet with Sylvia on "Sho Nuff" but with few exceptions the rest of the upbeat tunes sound like renditions of a wannabe disco group doing auditions to open for The Ritchie Family at Studio 54. My rating of 3 stars is really a compromise. I really liked 15 of the songs. 15 out of 40 is 37.5% but 3 stars out of 5 is 60%. Only the fond memories of dancing to "Love On A Two Way Street" at my 8th year birthday party allowed me to give it 3 stars instead of just 2. To put it bluntly unless you're a true Moments affectionado you're gonna have to accept a whole lotta bad with a little bit of good if you intend on buying this."

Comprehensive Review...

David Wayne | Santee, CA United States | 05/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This excellent collection is sub-titled, "Every Hit and More." It contains all of the group's hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic. The great songs you remember so well are well-represented: "Not On The Outside" "Sunday" "Lovely Way She Loves" "Love On A Two-Way Street" "Look At Me" "Sexy Mama"! Also there are lesser-known hits that didn't make the group's first two-record retrospective, which was issued after All-Platinum (parent label of Stang Records) made its ill-advised acquisition of Chess Records. Among these hard-to-find classics are "My Thing" "Sho Nuff Boogie" "Jack In The Box" "Dolly My Love" and "Sweet Sweet Lady". A Big plus is the inclusion of the four singles from the Moments With You lp, all of which were written by Carole Bayer Sager. There are plenty of obscure numbers on disc 2 for fans of lost soul, but there are a few key omissions: B-sides like "I Won't Do Anything" and "I've Gotta Keep On Loving You" and album cuts like "Got To Get To Know You" and "I Feel So Good Again". Overall, this is well worth the effort to find and purchase, especially if you are a big fan of The Moments (or Ray, Goodman & Brown). We will probably not see a more thorough documentation of the group's years on Stang."