A budget three-CD set,
Soul Hits of the 80's
collects some of that awkward decade's
soul
moments from the
Columbia
/
Sony
catalog. Note the author's use of "moments" and the title's use of "hits," because they are, in fact, talking about the same songs. Not everything here was a hit, with some of the songs just squeaking into the
Billboard
Top 100; however, regardless of chart position, they do represent the era very well. There's a broad range of work here, from
jazz
crossovers like
Stanley Jordan
with
"Heaven Sent You"
and
Grover Washington
"Summer Nights"
to straight
pop
Deniece Williams
"Let's Hear It for the Boy"
and the classic and true hit
"Easy Lover"
by
Philip Bailey
Phil Collins
. Other actual chart-toppers here include
"Juicy Fruit"
Mtume
,
Herbie Hancock
with the seismic hit
"Rockit,"
and one-hit wonder
Johnny Kemp
"Just Got Paid."
Luther Vandross
Teena Marie
Bill Withers
Babyface
, and
Regina Belle
are a few of the others whose tracks pepper this 40-song (!) collection. It's not definitive, but does a fine job of representing just how broad
music's reach had become in the '80s. ~ Wade Kergan