Earlier O'Jays make it to CD
Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 04/24/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Though they were active musically from the early 60s into the 80s, the O'Jays are most identified as the artists who gave us polished r'n'b examplified by "Love Train", "Use Ta Be My Girl" and many other hits as part of the Gamble and Huff hit machine, Philadelphia International Records throughout the 70s. These recordings have been reissued ad nauseam but much of the O'Jays' earlier works has been largely ignored up to now. Here, Bob Irwin's Sundazed Music, the small but powerhouse indy reissue label, brings to market a collection of the O'Jays late 60s output done for Bell Records. This collection gathers up their three charted singles along with b-sides, album cuts, non-charting single releases and a few previously unissued cuts providing a substantial overview of their Bell-era output. Their Bell releases include the top-10 r'n'b charting "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow", their most identifiable tune from this era in their career. Listening to these earlier tunes, the groundwork can be seen for the phenomenal work they would later do under the auspices of Gamble and Huff. While some of these tunes have appeared on other O'Jays CDs, this is the first truly high-quality reissue of this material, and thankfully, the horrific audience noise overdubbing that was added to a Bell lp of their output at the time and has continued to pollute these sides on other CDs, does not appear here. This is a first-rate production with excellent sound quality and a liner notes booklet with a Bell-era musical history courtesy of Bill Dahl. All of the included tracks appear in stereo with the exception of the last four. For O'Jays fans, this fills a long-standing gap in the CD appearance of their earlier recordings and makes an outstanding complement to their Phila. Intl. CD coverage. Now, if only someone would complete the repertoire with their Imperial recordings..."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1