The Very Best of Major Lance

by Major Lance

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Major Lance (vocals); Curtis Mayfield (background vocals).

Producers: Carl Davis, Curtis Mayfield, Gerald Sims, Billy Sherrill.

Recorded between 1962 & 1967.

Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl.

Even amid such illustrious company as Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler, Mississippi-born Major Lance was one of the most distinctive stylists on the 1960s Chicago soul scene. Like the Impressions, he sported a sound that mixed Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, and '50s doo-wop into a glorious, hit-bound stew. Impressions leader Curtis Mayfield himself wrote most of the tunes found here, but none is more resonant than the percolating "The Monkey Time," a dance tune that made "The Twist" sound like "The Hokey Pokey," with horn stabs, vibrant drums, and a testifying vocal bringing it all home. Though "Hey Little Girl" is something of a sequel to that hit, Lance had more than one trick up his sleeve. The melodically sophisticated, vibes-laden ballad "I'm Lost" and the maraca-laced, Latin-tinged "The Matador" show that he was ready to dance to anything he could put his heart and soul into, regardless of the steps.