Customer Reviews

Adam Wade - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We kept hearing "As If I Didn't Know" on our local oldies station, but the title/artist were never announced. We finally figured we'd try Amazon.com by title to see if we could figure out who the artist was, and the only one who came up was ADAM WADE. We took a flyer and ordered it. We love it. We love him. Neither my mother, nor I, had ever heard any of his music nor had we ever heard of Adam Wade, so we have been very pleased w/the selection of songs. I had made the comparison of Adam sounding like a cross between Jerry Vale and Johnny Mathis.

Adam rides in the car w/us and we play him nearly non-stop whenever/wherever we go.

Anyone who likes 'Oldies But Goodies' will like Adam Wade--he's so listenable.

My advice--TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!

Being from Adam Wade's hometown of Pittsburgh has perhaps slanted my appreciation for his vocal talent. I remember hearing him on the radio when I was a child. Now when I play his songs on my radio program everyweek,(some 40+ years later) I truly appreciate his talent.The recording is a superb example of a great voice singing memorable songs with terrific arrangements. I truly wish Adam was still singing in the Pittsburgh area. I only regret I've never seen him in a live show, but this recording is the next best thing. Well done Adam and thanks. Mike McGann WJAS 1320AM , Pittsburgh,PA.

Suave is the perfect word to describe Adam Wade's music.

Gifted and blessed with a strong resemblance to Johnny Mathis' vocal styling, this singer sure can carry a tune in a rather effortless way. His version of the often-recorded `Take Good Care Of Her' is in my book the best that I've come across so far. His rendition of `I Can't Help It' is not really that exceptional but it's not scruffy either. The arrangement of `The Prisoner's Song' is rather odd and so foreign from what I expected, lacking the feeling and lamentation that the song ought to convey. But that should not distract from the overall brilliance of this recording.

I haven't heard of Mr. Wade before this album but I took the chance anyway to invest on this CD. Needless to say that chance paid off.

AMAZON SURFING NETTED ME THIS GEM-"AS IF I DIDN'T KNOW" WAS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE TUNES AND TO SPOT THIS SONG TOGETHER WITH MOST OF WADE'S HITS WAS A FIND THAT WAS A DELIGHTFUL SURPRIZE.THE CD HAS BEEN PLAYING NON STOP FOR A MONTH-TOTALLY DELIGHTED THAT THIS WONDERFUL ARTIST'S MUSIC WAS ON DISC.HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CD TO ALL PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS-SUSPECT ONLY THOSE OVER 50 WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ADAM AS HIS POPULARITY WANED IN THE EARLY 60'S.DO NOT HESITATE TO ACQUIRE THIS WINNER AND ADD TO YOUR MUSIC COLLECTION-YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Little is known about Adam Wade these days primarily because little has been written about him. We do know he was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1937 in Pittsburgh and that, in addition to some hit songs in 1960/61, he's done a little television acting and is noted as being the first black to host a U.S. prime-time game show, Musical Chairs, which ran on CBS from June to October 1975.

What you might not know is that, before hooking up with the small Coed label in 1959 he worked as a laboratory assistant with the renowned Dr. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine.

After getting the Coed contract, his first hit was Tell Her For Me which went to # 66 Billboard Hot 199 in February 1960 b/w Don't Cry, My Love, and right away everyone noticed a similarity to Johnny Mathis. This was even more evident in his next minor charter, Ruby, which made it to # 58 in April b/w Too Far, finishing a distant second to the Ray Charles version (# 10 R&B/# 28 Hot 100). In July he then took the old Hank Williams hit, I Can't Help It to # 64 Hot 100 and, still not that well known, had many people who were hearing it for the first time wondering if Johnny Mathis had gone COuntry! Its flipside was I Had The Craziest Dream.

All that changed with his first hit of 1961, Take Good Care Of Her. Backed with the old standard Sleepy Time Gal, it scored on both the R&B (# 20) and Hot 100 (# 7) charts in May (Mel Carter would have a # 78 Hot 100 hit with the A-side in 1966, and in 1974 Elvis Presley would take it to # 74 Hot 100).

A month later he had a double-sided hit with The Writing on The Wall (# 5 on both the Hot 100 and new Adult Contemporary (AC) charts and # 21 R&B) b/w Point Of No Return which made the # 85 Hot 100 position (not the same one as the 1962 Gene McDaniels hit). Then, in September, As If I Didn't Know made it to # 4 AC/# 10 Hot 100 nd # 16 R&B b/w Playin' Around. He then finished off a very successful year with another two-sided hit, Tonight I Won't Be There (# 14 AC and # 61 Hot 100) b/w the old standard Linda (# 94 Hot 100) in October. On all of his hits to this point, except Linda, he was backed by George Paxton & His Orchestra. On that last hit the orchestra belonged to Joe Sherman.

He then hit a three-year dry spell before resurfacing in 1965 on the Epic label with a nice rendition of Crying In The Chapel which reached # 20 AC and # 88 Hot 100 in February 1965 b/w Broken-Hearted Stranger. Teach Wiltshire's orchestra backed both.

That's about when he turned his attention to television which, in 1978, led to a stint in an L.A. all-black production of Guys And Dolls.

The AAD sound quality is excellent, and the only reason I've assigned 3 stars is the skimpy nature of the volume and liner notes (3 brief paragraphs), as well as the omission of Point Of No Return and Crying In The Chapel, both of which will now be in the extremely hard-to-find category as it's very doubtful there will ever be a volume 2, and all of the uncharted flipsides except Sleepy Time Gal.

I bought "Writing On The Wall" MP3 from this album. It was very low quality VBR. I would recommend that people do not buy this album. I would also recommend that people complain about Amazon degrading their downloads to save space in the cloud.

Amazon should put the quality of the download next to the songs so people can know in advance what they are buying. Do a search on the internet "VBR vs CBR" (Variable Bit Rate versus Constant Bit Rate) and all websites will tell you that VBR is low quality way of reducing file sizes.

Let me be clear - I am talking about the MP3 download from Amazon, not the CD. I really like Adam Wade's voice or I would not have ordered the MP3 version of the song.

I orderdered this cd online on may 2nd. i chose for it to be delivered her in ONE, working day. It was supposed to arrive at my house on May 6th. But it is not here. I paid extra money for it to be here earlier, but it isn't here yet. i would really appreciate if you could get it here as soon as possible and maybe give me a refund on the shipping charge. Thank you, Kiya Olsen.