Customer Reviews

Complete Smash Sessions

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This CD combines two albums put out by Charlie Rich
in the mid-1960s - "The Many New Sides of Charlie Rich"
and "The Best Years" plus three previously unreleased tracks.
If you are a Charlie Rich fan (and you should be) and don't have this CD, your collection isn't complete. Charlie considered these tracks among his best "studio" work. There is such a variety here that listeners will be stunned and Charlie plays all the piano (something he often gave up until "Pictures and Paintings" in 1992). From rockers like "Down and Out" to incredible ballads like "The Best Years" to little gems like "Tears A Go-Go" and the magnificent, "ahead of its time" "I Can't Go On" and the wonderful rendition of "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water," this is the eclectic master singer and pianist at his best. As liner notes writer "Dave Marsh" states: "I slipped needle into groove and entered a new world. What gave Charlie Rich his continuing grip on me is his heart." This is a must have CD - grab it!

Charlie Rich was one of the greatest singers of all time. He was brilliant singing jazz,R&B or country. Unfortunately, the charts didn't gave him the recognition he deserved. The Smash Sessions show Charlie Rich in his best moment ever. This record is part of the history of the american popular music. It's time to give the great and late Charlie Rich the credits he allways deserved.

From 1965-1966 at Smash Records, as on "Pictures and Paintings" (his final album before his death), Charlie Rich worked with kindred souls who let him do what he wanted. The difference between the two albums is age. On "Pictures," Rich is wiser and mellower; on the Smash cuts he's young and full of juice. Both are essential, but the Smash sessions more so. The vitality of these recordings--as Rich rolls from hip, stuttering growls to transcendent falsetto and tosses jazzy piano arabesques against throbbing rock rhythms--is unbelievable.

After leaving Sun Records in the early 60s, Charlie Rich moved to Groove Records, a subsidiary of RCA. From there was released a minor hit (Big Boss Man), but nothing sustainable, sadly. Perhaps he was too eclectic for radio, which is the case here. The Complete Smash Sessions is as the title suggests: it contains everything recorded at the Mercury subsidiary, including all available on The Many New Sides and The Best Years albums, a single (When My Baby Comes Home b/w That's My Way), and 3 never before available recordings. With 29 tracks here and even more diversity, it's hard not to like something on this CD. Surprisingly it even has the Christmas recording Santa Claus' Daughter, even more reason to buy this great compilation! So what are you waiting for?

This is literally my favorite music ever. Rich was a genius at blending styles, and these sessions caught him at the perfect moment. This stuff never ceases to make me smile.

It would be hard not to appreciate how good Charlie Rich was at blending multible genres of music into his own high quality unique stye that few if any could after hearing this cd.I think Charlie Rich was cheated out of his fair share of recognition due to the fact that he could not be easily pigeonholed into a narrowly defined type of music.In my opinion this is a great cd that fell between the cracks.