Mockingbird: The Best of Charlie & Inez Foxx

Inez & Charlie Foxx

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collectables
• ASIN: B0000008P8
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,130 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mockingbird

2. Hurt by Love

3. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

4. De Dah I Love You

5. Ask Me

6. Don't Do It No More

7. Searching for My C.C.

8. Confusion

9. Sitting Here

10. My Momma Told Me

11. I Fancy You

12. Jaybirds

13. Broken Hearted Fool

14. Down by the Seashore

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Par Excellence, May 17, 2005

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Foxx's great single Mockingbird took its style from the call and response pattern worked up over a century by Southern gospel choirs, in which many of our finest singers began their careers. The pattern allowed for an amazing number of variations and embellishments on a simple theme, and music as different as Duke Ellington's and Harry Partch's developed it further. Charlie and Inez Foxx had a sympathy with each other's voices, it's almost as though each of them knew what the other would do vocally and could anticipate which harmony best to employ, what kind of vocal repartee would be needed. They grew up together, of course, as brother and sister, and thus learned each other's voices very early. (Many so-called music "historians" assume they were husband and wife, but that is not so.) The song itself, a variation on an old "folk" number with plantation origins, has many meanings encoded in its lyrics--the diamond ring, the mockingbird that may or may not sing, the threatened breaking of hearts--all in a sequence that seems preordained, older than time.

From the way I'm going on about this one track, you'd think it was the only one I liked by Charlie and Inez, but to tell the truth, most of them are of this caliber. For those of you who like Ike and Tina Turner, there are some bluesy rockers on this LP too, that will show you where Ike got some of his duet ideas from. Even more of an influence was Sam Cooke, whose velvety stylings can be heard all over this album. The best tracks include "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush," which was their attempt at replicating the children's tune + soul formula used on "Mockingbird" and the indelible "Hurt By Love," so doleful and lowdown it could have been on a Tom Waits record.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mockingbird, August 23, 2000

By A Customer

inez foxx' voice is pure strawberries and cream. a mighty fine album!

5.0 out of 5 stars JUST HEARD IT, October 15, 2007

By	B. Munson "listening" (California high desert) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just heard the Foxx version of "Mockingbird" on Sirius.

We have always loved the James Taylor/Carly Simon "Mockingbird" and thought the arrangement original to them.

The Foxx version raised the hair on the back of my neck (a personal reaction to true duet and harmony singing) and I am buying the CD because of it. Let you know later about the rest of the cuts, but I already know "Mockingbird" is a stunner.