The Best of The Okeh Years

Description by OLDIES.com:

In the mid-1960s, Johnny "Guitar" Watson hooked up with Larry Williams (who by that time was the West Coast recording producer for Okeh) and recorded a number of sides for that label, including the Top 40 R&B hits "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and "Nobody" (which was recorded along with Kaleidoscope). This collection compiles the best of the three albums he recorded for the Okeh label, and includes two tracks originally released as singles in 1967.

Product Description:

/Larry Williams.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson had a long, colorful, and varied career that catered to different aspects of his talent. He began as a straight blues player (with excursions into futuristic sound experimentation, as on 1954's "Space Guitar"), and reinvented himself in the '70s and '80s as a funkster. In between he had a brief stint at Okeh, where he recorded some excellent sides that were heavily inflected with the R&B feel of the day.

Watson recorded three albums and some singles for Okeh in the mid-'60s. And listeners who are surprised at the many "faces" of Watson will find the sides on BEST OF THE OKEH YEARS to be a missing link of sorts. While reminiscent of the blues structures of his earlier recordings, Watson's Okeh material is up-tempo and funky with an ear toward mainstream accessibility ("Nobody" and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" made the R&B charts). It's fun, energetic music, with plenty of Watson's trademark pyrotechnic guitar to satisfy six-string enthusiasts.