Sweet Sound of Success

Contains 28 tracks.
Liner Note Author: Rob Hughes .
Photographers: Chuck Jackson; Ady Croasdell; Maxine Brown; Peter Gibbon; Steve Bryant.
This Kent Records reissue of many of Sceptor's and Wand Records' minor soul numbers from the '60s makes a nice companion to Capricorn Records' more ambitious, three-disc collection of the New York-based label's big soul and pop hits. Even without many of the chart toppers from the Shirelles, Dionne Warwick, and -- less disturbingly -- B.J. Thomas, there is a large store of solid soul gems here by the Esquires, Brooks O'Dell, the Diplomats, and Chuck Jackson. Jackson's classic performances on "Hand It Over" and "Look Over Your Shoulder" provide some of the collection's high points, but more askew tunes like Lenny Miles' bubblegum and soul number "Invisible" and Timmy Shaw's R&B-surf workout "If I Catch You" provide obscurities not generally found on hit collections. The songs here, in fact, fall somewhere between the slick productions of Motown and the rougher yet more intriguing output from smaller soul labels like Groovesville and Calla; the gap is bridged explicitly by the appropriation of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancin' in the Streets" on Freddie Hughes' earthy and loose "He's No Good." Add some more quality well-known (Big Maybelle) and not so well-known (Roscoe Robinson) contributions, and you've got a solid collection of soul material in this Kent compilation. ~ Stephen Cook