The Best of Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: July 6, 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00000348Y
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,353 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #19 in Music > R&B > Soul > Northern

Track Listings

1. For Your Precious Love

2. He Will Break Your Heart

3. Find Another Girl

4. I'm a Telling You

5. Moon River

6. Make It Easy on Yourself

7. You Can Run (But You Can't Hide)

8. I'm the One Who Loves You

9. Theme from Taras Bulba (The Wishing Star)

10. Whatever You Want

11. Need to Belong

12. Giving up on Love

13. I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore

14. I Stand Accused

15. Let It Be Me

16. Never Give You Up

17. Hey, Western Union Man

18. Only the Strong Survive

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Iceman cometh (so, originality is WAY overrated)!, December 11, 2000

By 

Eric V. Moye (New York, by way of Dallas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of Jerry Butler (Audio CD)

Jerry Butler was one of the smoothest, most soulful crooner to ever get onto vinyl. This compilation is the one place to find much of his best work, and is a great value.

Henry Mancini said on the liner notes to another great J.B. album The Spice of Life (which for God knows why has not made it yet to to compact discs) that Jerry Butler recorded the very first version of "Moon River". Appropriately, it is included here. It also has a representative of Butler's early work as a member of the Impressions, with that doo-wop classic, "Your Precious Love"

All of the hits from J.B.'s career are found on this one disc. "Make It Easy On Yourself", "He Will Break Your Heart", "Western Union Man", "Only the Strong Survive" and the great duet with Betty Everett, "Let It Be Me".

J.B. is a classic old school crooner. His voice is miles deep and smooth as slightly oiled silk. This album is the place to find his best work.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JERRY BUTLER, ONE OF A FEW CAPTIVATING VOICES!, September 10, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Philadelphia PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Jerry Butler (Audio CD)

Jerry butler is a man who has a soulful, melodic voice in a class all it's own that compliments the powerful messages in his songs. Those males with similar distinct voices are... Jackie Wilson, Ray Charles, Lou Rawls, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Otis Redding, David Ruffin, The Spinners, The Four Tops, The Dells, Luther Vandross and of course Elvis Presley. These artist songs and voices are priceless, timeless assets, crossing all color lines. I should know! I grew-up during a time, in a town who gave the world composers like Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. (The Sound Of Philadelphia - MFSB)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smooth as silk but some material is marginal, March 13, 2001

By 

John K. Reed (Harrisburg, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of Jerry Butler (Audio CD)

Being too young to know the complete library of Jerry Butler tunes I can only comment on what has been included on this disc. Suffice it to say that 90% of the tunes are outstanding but there are notable exceptions. That and only that is what brings the rating down to 4 stars.

Jerry's performances are flawless. His voice is fluid, soulful, and evocative. But even Henry Aaron couldn't hit a home run every time he came to the plate. If a few of the cuts (primarily) at the end of this compilation had been left off I would have rated this as a five star disc.

And I would invite more traditional music (non R&B) fans to take a listen. For the material within is appealing to both fans of soul and the more traditional.

I find myself coming back to this collection very often and singing along with these reflective songs of simplicity, beauty and longing that seems to have only existed in my memory.