As a branch of the then-young
Island
label,
Sue Records
put out over 100 singles in the U.K. between 1963 and 1968, most of them American
soul
tracks licensed for the British market, with some
blues
and early
rock & roll
/
R&B
thrown in as well. This is a compilation of 30 tracks that appeared on
Sue
45s, and like the
release schedule, it's weighted heavily toward '60s
, with a bit of
and
too, a few of the tracks dating from before
's actual 1963 launch (indeed, one,
Elmore James
'
"Dust My Blues,"
goes all the way back to 1955). As for the possibly confusing subtitle of the CD, the label was run by
Guy Stevens
, more famous for later producing
Free
,
Mott the Hoople
, and
the Clash
, but in the mid-'60s known as one of Britain's foremost
collectors and club DJs. Although this anthology contains much good music and is a representative sampling of
's output, it's a bit of an inconsistent listen for those not particularly interested in the
tie-in, drawing from all over the map of American
. There are some classic hits (in the U.S. at any rate; they were cult items in the U.K.) of varying size, like
Inez & Charlie Foxx
's
"Mockingbird,"
Chris Kenner
's original version of
"Land of 1,000 Dances,"
Ike & Tina Turner
"I Can't Believe What You Say,"
Bobby Parker
's great overlooked, ahead-of-its-time early (1961)
outing
"Watch Your Step."
There are also some excellent tracks known these days primarily to collectors, like
Baby Washington
's lush early
ballad
"That's How Heartaches Are Made,"
Derek Martin
's raucous
"Daddy Rollin' Stone"
(covered by
the Who
on the B-side of their second U.K. single),
Wilbert Harrison
's 1962 single
"Let's Stick Together"
(which he remade for his 1970 hit
"Let's Work Together"
), and
the Olympics
' 1962
dance
number
"The Bounce."
But much of the rest is just average, if typical, early-to-mid-'60s
of no great distinction, and the way the disc weaves from its
center to
novelty
, and even jazzy sidetracks can be mildly jarring. Along the way you do get some other relatively underexposed items of note, like
Ernestine Anderson
's unusual
bossa nova
-
hybrid
"Keep an Eye on Love"
;
Jimmy McGriff
's upbeat organ-
jazz
instrumental
"All About My Girl"
O.V. Wright
"That's How Strong My Love Is,"
adapted by
Otis Redding
(whose version
the Rolling Stones
covered);
the Manhattans
' 1964 proto-sweet
single
"I Wanna Be (Your Everything)"
; the African-tinged
acoustic blues
of
J.B. Lenoir
"I Sing 'Um the Way I Feel"
; and
Joe Tex
Little Richard
-like 1959 single
"Yum, Yum, Yum."
There's not much info about the tracks in the liner notes, but that's compensated for and then some by the 24-page booklet's thorough history of the
label, which has a lot of stuff on both
Stevens
and the early days of
Island Records
, too. ~ Richie Unterberger