Encore!
suffers from the absence of the kind of signature performance (e.g.,
"Any Day Now"
or
"I Keep Forgetting"
) that galvanizes
Chuck Jackson
's other early-'60s dates for
Wand
-- the opener,
"Tell Him I'm Not Home,"
a stinging tale of romantic rejection, was the record's biggest hit and its brightest moment, complete with a powerful backing vocal courtesy of
Doris Troy
. But like so many LPs in the pre-
Beatles
era, there's a surplus of filler that renders
unnecessary for all but
completists -- his attempts to overcompensate for the lackluster material result in several absurdly dramatic performances likely to grate on the ears of most listeners. [
was later reissued on CD via the British label
Kent
as part of a two-fer alongside its follow-up,
Mr. Everything
.] ~ Jason Ankeny