Soulsville Sings Hitsville Part 2
May 18th, 2008 byThe middle third of Soulsville Sings Hitsville properly introduces the magic and mystery that permeates the Stax catalog.
Barbara Lewis magically sounds just like vintage Smokey Robinson on her version of the Miracles’ “Oh, Be My Love, especially in her lilting and cooing, supple, high choruses. (Lewis is most likely better known for her work with Jerry Wexler on Atlantic Records, including “Baby, I’m Yours.”)
Steve Cropper produced “Chained” (Marvin Gaye) on Mavis Staples, who bustles and snaps with the soulful sound of Aretha ripping it up down in Muscle Shoals. This previously unreleased alternate from sessions for Mavis’ debut solo album features Cropper on guitar with the MGs rhythm machine (Duck Dunn and Al Jackson Jr.) and Marvell Thomas (Rufus’ son, Carla’s brother) on keyboards. Cropper also rocks the almost textbook Booker T. & the MGs instrumental “I Hear a Symphony” (The Supremes).
Like the MGs, Isaac Hayes cuts a textbook arrangement that uses all his trademarks - soft horns and strings cushion deeply multitracked vocals that coo and sigh, while supple rhythms glide beneath Ike’s profoundly soulful vocal - on “Never Can Say Goodbye” (The Jackson 5ive). Recorded for Black Moses, Hayes projects none of the promise of the original, sung hopefully by bouncing young Michael; this sounds more like a sentence of life without parole. Hayes has allowed as much in retrospect: “I was going through some emotional turmoil. You can tell by the tunes on the album. I was going through the break-up of my marriage.”
When Stax signed Billy Eckstine, the jazz crooner was assigned to Hayes’ subsidiary label Enterprise. The courtly, elocutionary Eckstine proved just about the perfect subject for the lush production style favored by Hayes, who produced all four of the singer’s Enterprise albums. Eckstine recorded “My Cherie Amour” (Stevie Wonder) at Stax studios for the first of these, Stormy. Eckstine recorded a few albums, mainly pop standards, for the Motown label too.
