Got To Be Real: The Columbia Anthology

構成数 : 2枚
合計収録時間 : 02:30:28
Audio Remasterer: Nick Robbins. Cheryl Lynn's eight-year run with Columbia, from 1978 through 1985, yielded six albums that have been recirculated in piecemeal fashion over the decades by Sony's catalog divisions and various reissue labels. It's also been summarized with mixed results on a handful of anthologies, the best of which was over 20 years old when David Nathan's Soul Music label addressed the matter with Got to Be Real: The Columbia Anthology. Easily the most thoughtful and comprehensive Lynn anthology yet, this two-disc set has all 15 singles that touched at least one Billboard chart during the period, including the Top Five R&B hits "Got to Be Real," "Shake It Up Tonight," "If This World Were Mine," and "Encore." That quartet alone displayed Lynn's range from belting disco to quiet storm. Though she benefited from those timely associations with David Foster and David Paich, Ray Parker, Jr., Luther Vandross, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it can be argued just as easily that the singer provided her collaborators with some of their most significant and opportune achievements. Beyond the A-sides, the album cuts are astutely selected, highlighted by the deep club classic "You Saved My Day" (a standout on commercial DJ mixes by house legends Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson) and "I Just Wanna Be Your Fantasy," a shimmering Luther Vandross production with one of Marcus Miller's slickest basslines. There are some rarities, too. "Goodbye for Now," flutist Hubert Laws' non-album version of Stephen Sondheim's theme for Reds, makes its first off-vinyl appearance here. There's another adult contemporary-styled ballad, "At Last You're Mine," co-written by pre-fame Michael Bolton for the soundtrack of after-dark Flashdance knockoff Heavenly Bodies. As usual for Soul Music's two-disc compilations, the booklet is generous with its liner notes (from former Billboard editor Janine Coveney) and recording and chart data. ~ Andy Kellman