Bobby Bland Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings

Bobby "Blue" Bland | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 14, 1998)
• Original Release Date: July 14, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000009D21
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #8 in Music > Blues > Regional Blues > Texas Blues
  • #21 in Music > R&B > Classic R&B
  • #47 in Music > Blues > Electric Blues

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bobby Bland's uptown, brass-and-strings-drenched blues kept him on the charts long after gut-bucket kings such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters had dropped from black-radio airwaves. The artistic successes chronicled on this second volume of his greatest hits shouldn't come as a surprise, then, despite the frequent input of ultracommercial producer Steve Barri, who'd crafted AM hits for acts as diverse as the Grass Roots and the post-Motown Four Tops. Even with some accommodations to trends (the disco beat of "The Soul of a Man," chicken-scratching guitars here, there, and everywhere), Bland kept on being Bland, cutting country songs ("Today I Started Loving You Again") and blues standards ("Goin' Down Slow") and investing Dan Penn's "I Hate You" with a unique pungency. This disc performs a valuable service in lifting the veil from an often-overlooked period in the career of one of American music's most important interpretive singers. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BLAND,BOBBY BLUE
Title: VOL. 2-GREATEST HITS
Street Release Date: 07/14/1998
Domestic
Genre: BLUES

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No blues fan should be without this one!, December 28, 2007

By 

Bluesismylife! "Bluesismylife!" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bobby Bland Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings (Audio CD)

What can I say, I love this CD - Bobby Blue Bland is known for many songs but the way he sings "Yolanda" is outstanding - I hit repeat so many times when I played this CD my grandson asked me if I had any other music!It is indeed a must have!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "You're A Link In My Chain...Someone Will Chase The Clouds Away...", November 22, 2008

By 

Mark Barry, Reckless Records, London (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bobby Bland Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings (Audio CD)

Subtitled "The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings" this 1998 USA-only compilation is a deceptive little bugger that packs a whole lot more punch than it's naff title and sleeve would suggest. It covers the period 1973 to 1982 and therefore gives us some great-sounding remasters from a criminally under-represented part of Bland's extraordinary career.

Here's the breakdown - US LP catalogue numbers (69:33 minutes):
1. This Time I'm Gone For Good
2. Goin Down Slow
(Tracks 1 and 2 are from "His California Album", 1973 on Dunhill 50163)
3. I Wouldn't Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)
4. Ain't No Love In the Heart Of The City
5. Yolanda
6. I Ain't Gonna Be The First To Cry
(Tracks 3 to 6 are from "Dreamer", 1974 on Dunhill 50169)
7. Today I Started Loving You Again
8. I Hate You
(Tracks 7 and 8 are from "Get Down With", 1975 on ABC 895)
9. The Soul Of A Man
10. It Ain't The Real Thing
11. Sittin' On A Poor Man's Throne
(Tracks 9 to 11 are from "Reflections In Blue", 1978 on ABC 1018)
12. Let The Good Times Roll [Live] with B.B. KING
(Track 12 is from Together Again...Live", 1976 on ABC-Impulse 9317
13. You'd Be A Millionaire
(Track 13 is from "Sweet Vibrations", 1980 on MCA 5142
14. Love To See You Smile
(Track 14 is from "Come Fly With Me", 1978 on ABC 1075
15. Recess In Heaven
(Track 15 is from "Here We Go Again", 1982 on MCA 5297
16. Soon As The Weather Breaks
(Track 16 is from "I Feel Good, I Feel Fine", 1979 on MCA 3157

His 50s and 60's tracks have been done to death in the USA - and fabulous they are too - but I adore his Seventies stuff more - and especially the two masterpieces that turned up on Probe Records in the UK in 1973 and 1974, "His California Album" and "Dreamer". I've had OK-only reissues of these for years just to have the music, and have dreamed of the day that either or both receive the DELUXE EDITION treatment - or a Hip-O Select issue where I know the sound will be the business. Well, this compilation goes a bit of a way towards that - because it's remastered by one of Universal's top engineers ERICK LABSON - and the sound quality is GORGEOUS - really clean, muscular and a revelation on every track. The slinky Steely Dan funk soul of "I Ain't Gonna Be The First To Cry" is a joy - every instrument impressive - and of course `that' voice - fantastic (title of this review is lyrics from it).

Sure it tapers off a bit towards the end and it could easily have had 2 more tracks on it, but as it stands this compilation is about ten dollars for US buyers and £5 for UK - and as such represents amazing value for money - a top soul bargain.

Discover Bobby "Blue" Bland through "Greatest Hits Vol. Two" - and watch that phone dial light up as the bank manager begs you to stop spending money on his catalogue.

Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bol 2 Bobby Bland Greatest Hits, September 6, 2011

By 

EYB - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bobby Bland Greatest Hits Vol. 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings (Audio CD)

This volume is a feast for those who love Bobby Bland. With an additional Dreamer album from him, your collection of Mr. Bland becomes almost complete of his best songs.