Customer Reviews

I Like It Like That

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

 

 

First off, this is a truncated version of the great Charly compilation that appeared in 1990. That collection (Charly 230), sported 24 tracks. Chris Kenner has not been well served by history and the Charly compilation is the only really good one I know about. I quite enjoy Chris Kenner; he was a great songwriter. Stuff like "I Like It Like That" and "Land of 1000 Dances" everyone knows, but he also wrote some weird and enduring classics, like "They Took My Money" and the awe-inspiring "Packing Up" with its great line "She iron my clothes/And burn them up/I'm telling you, people, I've had enough" (and the way Kenner pronounces "burn" as "boin" is so New Orleans...). In the great "They Took My Money" he sings "I got a rifle I got in the war/A butcher knife, a axe and a saw/I tell you now they took my money/Now they gone." A really neglected artist, and a man who made a quite a bit of money from songwriting royalties and could often be found sleeping in the bus station. I wish that, in this age of rampant reissues of every half-baked rock and soul artist from the past, we could enjoy everything he ever recorded. So come on, Collectables, get it together and do something for history for a change!

No Rock and Roll here: just uptempo R & B with a "Churchy" touch. No overproduction - instead of the bells and whistles even prevalent in 1961, we get a heartful chorus to support the minimalist, piano driven arrangement. The finale tune, "(I Found) Peace" is a great example of this, a slow but measured Inspirational statement - you'll be replaying this sound for years to come.
The CD opener is the monster hit, "I Like It Like That", complete with studio chat up front. One of those grooves you could listen to into the night. Of course, it became a Mersey Beat Era staple, but the original has the funk and the Soul.
I mentioned up top "o Rock and roll", but "Come Back And See" just might be a tribute to another New Orleans exponent, Little Richard Penniman, with it's "Lucille" approach. Speaking of the Quasar Of Rock, there's a *near*-Gospel song included called "Never Reach Perfection", which incorportaes some lyrics reported to be on the unreleased James Gang - Little Richard opus called "But I Try".
Another Crescent City buddy, Antoine "Fats" Domino, also figures in the proceedings. We have *three* compositions here, "Something You Got", "Land Of A 1000 Dances" (from 1963!), and "Packing Up", all co-credited to FD and also showing up in his ABC-Paramount catalogue. The song "Shoo Rah"(track three), might inspire a mental reference to "Shu Ra" but it's suffficiently different. Both rockin' good R & B.
No liners as to year of release, or artist bio., but I still "Like it like that" - a notable Collectables label entry.

For all you "Musicians" out there who argue that Cannibal and the headhunters originated "Land of a thousand dances" Get this CD, and listen to the man who penned it.

The reviews here focus on the obvious hits. Lend an ear to TIME, one of CK's masterpieces. You gotta hear the choir kick in. It's R&B, gospel and raw soul. I was raised in NOLa, and this is as good as it gets.

Chris Kenner had a mediocre career in terms of hit singles, posting just three over a span of six years. His first came in 1957 for the Imperial label when Sick And Tired made it to # 13 R&B i August b/w Nothing Will Keep Me From You. That was a full year before Fats Domino took Sick And Tired to # 14 R&B and # 22 Billboard Top 100.

His second hit didn't come until 1961, and it was, by all standards, a monster. I Like It Like That (Part 1) was initially released on the Valiant label, but not until picked up by Instant Records did it hit the # 2 spot on both the R&B and Billboard Hot 100 charts that summer, kept from # 1 R&B and Hot 100 only by the phenominal success of Tossin' And Turnin' by Bobby Lewis, which held the top position on the R&B charts for 10 solid weeks and 7 on the Hot 100! The flipside of the Kenner hit was Part 2 of the same song.

Nothing else worked until 1963 when, still with Instant, his original version of Land Of 1000 Dances reached a mediocre # 77 Hot 100 in July b/w That's My Girl. That was also it, insofar as hit singles were concerned. In 1965 Cannibal & The Headhunters would do considerably better with the same song, taking it to # 30 Hot 100 while Thee Midnighters would see theirs go to # 67 Hot 100. The best version came from Wilson Pickett in 1966 when it peaked at # 1 R&B/# 6 Hot 100.

So, if you've come to the Chris Kenner page at Amazon you will notice that there are currently three different volumes, one from Varese Sarabande, one from Fuel, and this one from Collectables, and that all have one thing in common: none boasts his first hit and its flipside. I would therefore recommend you choose this one if all you're looking for is his biggest hit simply because it's the least expensive. Nor should the fact that it contains 16 tracks to the other's 24 sway you, because nothing else done by Kenner was in any way notable.