Customer Reviews

The Best of Jerry Butler

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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)

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.

This CD is a marvelous showcase for this extremely gifted performer. It is a collection you will listen to again and again. It spotlights the "Iceman's" early hits giving you rare gems with the Impressions as well as some of his later masters. Listen to one of the truly great yet under appreciated singers of our time.

Because Butler has changed labels several times over his 4 decade long career, it's pretty well impossible to get EVERYTHING on 1 disc due to licensing issues. This one does about as good a job as I've seen though:

All his most well-known crossover hits are here: "Moon River" (the definitive version of the tune...sorry Mr. Williams), "He Will Break Your Heart","Make it Easy on Yourself", his duet with Betty Everett for a great cover of the Everly Brothers "Let it Be Me", and soul classic "For Your Precious Love" (with the Impressions). Late 60s comeback pop hits "Hey, Western Union Man" and "Only the Strong Survive" are a bit murkier in many oldies fans memories, but they're nonetheless great songs that deserve to be remembered.

Outside of those, you get several tunes that did well on R&B charts if more unknown to pop fans: Top 10 hits "Find Another Girl","I'm a Telling You", and "Never Give You Up". The only omission from the 50s/60s era is top 10 hit "Are You Happy?" from 1967. (His latter-day 70s stuff isn't here either...probably because of licensing..but you can get that on the Millennium collection, ASIN B00004ZDVY)

Add to that the usual fantastic Rhino job of remastering and liner notes and you have as close to the definitive Jerry Butler single CD compilation as exists for the time being.

Excellent collection of the Ice man on VeeJay records. It only overlaps on 2 songs with his Mercury Very Best compilation.
Only 4 stars because of the sound quality, it could be very much better.

Jerry Butler was known as the ICEMAN because of his cool demeanor on stage. His deep melodic voice defies this description. He has a distinctive smokey throaty voice. MOON RIVER becomes a love theme that you can visualize as he croons. This is worth having if you want to have a valuble additon to your classic R&B collection.

These are all original versions and no remakes!!!!!! Awesome!!! These are the songs that I remember as I remenber them and it's wonderful to listen to my favorite Soul Performers of the 60s and 70s. Great!!!

Although I didn't think it was the best of Jerry Butler, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the 18 tracks included. I'm primarily interested in most of his cuts prior to 1965 (the year I graduated from high school) and it's obvious I will have to get others to have a complete collection. However, if you are a fan of JB, I think you will enjoy this CD although I consider it to be incomplete.

Great compilation by the Iceman. The voice of heartbreak, loneliness, rejection, the used then dismissed suitor who only wanted true love and an honest committment, Jerry sang for all of us who went through the pangs of disappointment back in the day. Many of his best songs never achieved a high chart rating, yet these tunes were always played at parties in the neighborhood, among them, "I Stand Accused", "Need to Belong", "Make It Easy On Yourself", "Giving Up On Love", the list goes on and on. Jerry's recordings late in his career with the Philadelphia Sound resulted in some of his big hits but his work with the Impressions in the late '50s also rates high praise from music lovers. Jerry Butler was always a class act and a gentleman, and his songs will endure forever.