Product Description:
Personnel includes: Clyde McPhatter (vocals).
Producers: Rick Hall, Bob Montgomery, Alan Lorber, Bob Davie.
Reissue producers: Efram Turchick, Bill Dahl.
Recorded at Regent Sound Studio, Mirasound Studio, New York, New York and Fame Studio, Muscle Shoals, Alabama between 1965 & 1967. Originally released on Amy. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl.
Digitally remastered by Bob Irwin (Sundazed Studio, Coxsackie, New York).
As a lead singer of the Dominoes and the Drifters (in their pre-"Up on the Roof" era), Clyde McPhatter shone as one of the great R&B singers of the 1950s, and laid the groundwork for Aaron Neville, Smokey Robinson, and Marvin Gaye. Unfortunately, by the mid-'60s, McPhatter was something of a forgotten man, and he hooked up with Amy Records in an attempt to come to grips with the rapidly changing pop-music scene.
For the most part, he succeeds: A SHOT OF... is a fine slice of '60s Brill Building pop/R&B, leaning more to Chuck Jackson and Little Anthony & The Imperials than Wilson Pickett. McPhatter's sanctified gospel roots are felt as he testifies throughout "Everybody's Somebody's Fool." "Everybody Loves a Good Time" has the optimistic, lifting strut of Curtis Mayfield's Chicago soul, recalling both The Impressions and Major Lance. "A Little Bit of Sunshine" is the real gem of this set--a touch of Phil Spector's wall-of-sound approach on this angst-laden melodramatic ballad makes this the best song Gene Pitney, or Dionne Warwick, never did. For scholars of '60s pop-soul, this set is a find, one that shows McPhatter's talent didn't fade with the '50s.
Entertainment Reviews:
Living Blues - 1-2/01, p.81
"...His pipes were near the height of their powers....tantalizing..."
Mojo (Publisher) - 11/00, p.118
"...The ex-Drifters man's much overlooked Amy material from 1965-67..."
