Customer Reviews

Maxine Brown - 25 All Time Greatest Hits

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There have been a number of Maxine Brown compilation CD's issued over the CD-era years, with the better ones coming from across the pond via Ace Records of the U.K. while the domestic ones have been mostly a sorry lot.

Here, Varese Vintage does a quality job sonically, but selection-wise, misses the mark to some extent. Though the majority of her most commercially successful singles from the Nomar and Wand labels are here, her charting song from ABC-Paramount, "My Time For Cryin'" and her final pop-charting entry, "We'll Cry Together" are absent. Also, her five charting duets with labelmate Chuck Jackson are not here, a debatable decision for a "25 Greatest Hits" collection. Perhaps licensing difficulties are to blame but with 15 charting entries to her credit yet there being 25 tracks on the CD, including only eight of those hits hardly qualifies for "all time greatest hits" status.

Nevertheless, this collection does what it does well and the sound quality is better than found in other collections with many tracks (1,3-5,7,8,11,12,14,23-25) in stereo. The eight-page liner notes booklet provides a background history of Brown by Bill Dahl along with pics and illustrations.

Though not as exhaustive as it should/could have been, this is by far the best CD on Brown to date and will have to fill the bill until a truly comprehensive piece comes to market.

I can appreciate where some of the other reviewers are coming from when they bemoan the fact that, in a volume titled 25 All-Time Greatest Hits, Varese Vintage managed to omit eight legitimate hit singles, including her five duets with Chuck Jackson, while including two album cuts (Gotta Find A Way and I Wonder What My Baby`s Doing Tonight from the 1965 Wand LP 613 "Spotlight On Maxine Brown," two previously-unreleased sides (Baby Cakes and Slipping Through My Fingers), and seven failed singles (I Don't Need You No More - Wand 656 in 1963, Little Girl Lost - Wand 152 and I Cry Alone - Wand 158 - both in 1964, Let Me Give You My Lovin' - Wand 1128 in 1965, Anything You Do Is Alright - Wand 1111 in 1966, The Secret Of Livin' - Wand 1145 in 1967, and Soul Serenade - Wand 1179 in 1968 (the jump in label numbering is the way Wand structured their releases).

On the other hand, you do get eight of her hit singles along with four flipsides. All In My Mind was her first, hitting # 2 R&B/# 19 Pop Hot 100 in late 1961/early 1962 on Nomar 103 (the B-side, Harry Let's Marry, is not here), and in April 1961 she had Funny make it to # 3 R&B/# 25 Hot 100 on Nomar 105 b/w Now That's You've Gone (omitted here). Note, too, that Funny and All In My Mind had been released back to back on Nomar 103, and that Funny also came out as a re-issue in 1963 on Musictone 1117, while the two hits were alo released together later with a picture sleeve on Wham 7036.

Skipped here are both sides of her 3rd hit single, the minor My Time For Cryin (# 98 Hot 100 in June 1962 on ABC-Paramount 10327 b/w Wanting You. Her next four hits and three B-sides are, however, included: Ask Me - # 75 Hot 100 in April 1963 b/w Yesterday's Kisses on Wand 135; Coming Back To You - # 99 Hot 100 in January 1964 b/w Since I Found You on Wand 142; Oh No, Not My Baby - # 24 Hot 100 in Nov/Dec 1964 on Wand 162 b/w You Upset My Soul; and It's Gonna Be Alright - # 26 R&B and # 56 Hot 100 on Wand 173 in Feb/March 1965. It should be noted that the Billboard R&B charts had been suspended from late 1963 and throughout 1964, and that the same chart positions were only later added to the R&B listing for "historical and Continuity" purposes.

Her next hit was Something You Got, a duet with Chuck Jackson that finished at # 10 R&B/# 55 Hot 100 in May 1965 on Wand181 b/w Baby Take Me, but they're omitted as are the other three Jackson collaboration hits. But in July she had the solo hit One Step At A Time reach # 55 Hot 100 on Wand 185 b/w Anything For A Laugh (omitted), and that December saw If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody peak at # 63 Hot 100 on Wand 1104 b/w You're In Love (both here).

In between came these two Chuck Jackson duets: Can't Let You Out Of My Sight - # 91 Hot 100 in August 1965 b/w Don't Go on Wand 191, and I Need You So, - # 98 Hot 100 in October 1965 on Wand 198 b/w `Cause We're In Love. In 1967 she then had these duets with Jackson: Hold On I'm Coming - # 20 R&B/# 91 Hot 100 on Wand 1148 b/w Never Had It So Good, and Daddy's Home - # 46 R&B/# 91 Hot 100 on Wand 1155 b/w a re-release of Don't Go.

In 1969 she turned up at Commonwealth-United Records and that October had We'll Cry Together reach # 15 R&B/# 73 Hot 100 on Common.-U 3001 b/w Darling, Be Home Soon, and in April 1970 had I Can't Get Along Without You finish at # 44 R&B b/w Reason To Believe on Common.-U 3008. That would be her final charter.

So, all in all, not a bad compilation, with 6 pages of interesting notes written by Bill Dahl, sprinkled with some nice shots of the gorgeous Maxine and, on the reverse, a discography of the contents. By knocking off those unreleased sides and some of the failed singles (which in no way can be described as among her "25 all-time greatest hits"), and replacing them with the missing hits would have made this a 5-star release.

This is a nice, if underwhelming overview of Maxine Brown. Her biggest hit,"Oh No Not My Baby" has been covered by such disparate artists from Manfred Mann to Rod Stewart. She stills sounds best. Others here have complained that is there no duets w/ Chuck Jackson. I say leave it to Chuck on his complilation. Maxine Brown might always be just an elbow nudge, a lamp lit low, a sweet semi- out of tune songstress...but it winks like a grin half sinned oh now what next..

25 ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS consists of 25 songs, which, with the exception of one from 1968 (track 23), were recorded 1962-1967 on Nomar, ABC-Paramount, and Scepter/Wand labels; songs are not in chronological order. Disc packaged in clear jewel case; total running time: 64:59. Booklet includes an essay by Bill Dahl and several black & white photographs; track information (including release dates and chart info) is located on the back cover with the track listing. Sound quality is good.

Not included are Maxine's duets with label mate Chuck Jackson (they covered Chris Kenner's "Something You Got" and Sam & Dave's "Hold On, I'm Coming"), anything from her 1968 LP on Epic, or her 1969 #15 hit "We'll Cry Together". Tracks 18 and 24 are previously unissued; both are written by Otis Redding.

Most of the songs included are ballads, including "Since I Found You", which features backing vocals by The Sweet Inspirations. There are few up-tempo tracks, including the rockin' "I Don't Need You No More", written by Curtis Mayfield. The sound quality of "Anything You Do Is Alright" is not good (the horns sound terrible).

Maxine Brown has a pleasant voice, not unlike Brenda Holloway or any number of Motown-era female singers, but it is not amazing or distinctive. It has been written that Maxine had a very dynamic voice, but such range is not demonstrated in this collection.

Music: 1 & half stars

Packaging: 3 stars