Customer Reviews

This Is It: The Best of Melba Moore

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This compilation of Melba Moore's greatest hits is truely a work of art. Her vocals are impeccably strong and soothing. My favorites are "Falling" and "A Little Bit More", a duet with soulful singer Freddie Jackson. She will go down in history as one of the greatest black songtresses of all time. Where are you Melba? I have truly missed you; but until I hear from you again I will have this album close to my heart and in my CD changer!

This is the most complete anthology released on Melba Moore to date. Just about every major hit of her career is represented here. This CD represents Melba in her finest hour.

The 80's were especially kind to Melba. She had 2 number one songs and a slew of Top 20 hits during her stint at Capitol Records. Being all of the albums these songs were culled from are currently Out of Print, this is a real collector's item.

The only disappointment was the total disregard for Melba's last Capitol recording "Soul Exposed". Nothing from that album is included on this CD. And I was really disappointed "When You Love Me Like This" from the "Read My Lips" LP was also passed over. Although it was only a minor hit for Moore, it was still important enough for them to have included here.

If you are an 80's R&B connoisseur, this CD is a must for your collection.

Melba Moore is still one of my favorite singers. I loved that 1982 to 1990 period of hits that she had! This album has her best music! I had never heard the first hits from 1975, but they were quite impressive, the starting point to a successful music career. I think that the trio of albums she did in '85, '86 and '88 are her best and it's well represented on this album. The rocking Read My Lips, the nice It's Been So Long, A Little Bit More, I Can't Complain, Love the One I'm With and others. One song I never heard that was a hit was Living For Your Love and she sounds fabulous vocally on that one. The first Melba song I ever heard was You Stepped Into My Life, that Bee Gees remake, and I still love that song. She could do disco quite good on that one, even though her forte is midtempo to slow ballads. The songs are well assembled here to show her many vocal styles on them. They're not in chronological order, but they sound good together. Perhaps her best performance is Lean on Me, where she holds that note for 22 seconds or so! She has a way with that voice of hers! The same way with Falling. Last year, I saw her sing on Beyonce's movie The Fighting Temptations. She still has it today with her singing and I hope that her venture into gospel goes well too. This album covers her music career very strongly and it's just a true representation of her talent.

This woman is incredible!!
First, of all I wouldlike to say that this woman has talent and was so underrated. I love this cd this woman has a great voice, sense of style, beauty, class, and talent. I only know of her hits in the 80's; But this is still a nice Melba Moore Collection I remember her singing a lot of other songs that aren't on this cd that should be. This woman has accomplished a lot and also has shown that "Only the strong shall survive"!!!

This woman posesses pop, jazz, and R&B skills. She also poesess acting skills she has won a Tony Award for a Broadway show. And now she is acting ans singing Jazz. Melba I wish you the best and I tip my hat off to you!!!!! Congrats! to you for all of your accomplishments and I thank you for coming back; Because so many underrated artists just give up thanks for the determination and proving to the world that you are a great artist. I love this album it contains some nice songs such as: Falling, A Little Bit More, and my favorite Melba Moore song of al time "Living for your Love" . This song is so wonderful and nicely arranged Kashif is singing background vocals w/ her on this song it is so nice and amazing you would love it if you never heard this song before then I suggest that you listen to it and buy this cd because you would definitely enjoy it if you like Melba Moore. If I could I would give this cd 100 stars just for the song "Living for your Love"

This is a great selection of work by one of the greatest vocalists today, Melba Moore. I was however a little dissapointed that "The Other Side of the Mountian" which I think is one of her BEST songs was left out. But all in all a great CD

Melba Moore's Capitol releases from 1980-89 yielded a number of Top 20 R&B hits for her. The various producers she worked with (Paul Laurence, Kashif, McFadden & Whitehead,etc.) gave her many fine songs which showcased her vocal talents while simultaneously keeping her in contemporary R&B circles. While her recent CDs leave much to be desired, Melba Moore was a great diva in her own right and this is her best collection to date.

I enjoyed this album and listening to some of the Dance Tracks that made Melba's songs a favorite in the early 1980's. I just wished she included her version of "Lift every voice and sing"

Phyllis Hyman turned out 26 Top 100 R&B single hits from 1976 to 1998, but could never achieve enough interest in the more lucrative pop field to even garner one entry in Billboard Pop Hot 100!

Melba Moore comes in at a close second. She put 32 into the R&B Top 100 from 1975 to 1990 for the Buddah [6], Epic [4], EMI America [3], and Capitol [19] labels and could only manage to get two into the mid- to lower regions of the Hot 100, while adding another six that bubbled under. What the heck was going on back then? Wasn't anyone listening?

Like Phyllis, not even her smash R&B # 1 hits, A Little Bit More in summer 1986 in a duet with Freddie Jackson, and Falling later that year, along with the solid # 6 R&B It's Been So Long in 1987, could nudge the pop charts. Her best in that regard was her second hit, This Is It, which peaked at # 18 R&B/# 91 Hot 100 in May 1976 and You Stepped Into My Life in late 1978 which, written for her by The Bee Gees, reached # 17 R&B/# 47 Hot 100. Very strange results, considering the wonderful quality of her voice.

The daughter of singer Bonnie Davis, who had one R&B hit way back in 1943 with Don't Stop Now with The Bunny Banks Trio [# 1], Melba was in both the Broadway and film versions of Hair, played the character Lutiebelle in the musical Purlie, and also had a part in the movie Def By Temptation.

Aside from the above-mentioned R&B results, the remainder of her successful singles didn't exactly burn up those charts either: I Am His Lady [# 82 R&B 1975]; Lean On Me [# 17 R&B 1976]; I Can't Complain [# 12 R&B 1988 duet with Freddie Jackson]; Keepin' My Lover Satisfied [# 14 R&B 1983]; Livin' For Your Love [# 6 R&B/# 108 Hot 100 "bubble under" in 1984]; Love Me Right [# 15 R&B 1984]; Love The One I'm With (A Lot Of Lovin') [# 5 R&B 1986 with Kashif]; Love's Comin' At Ya [# 5 R&B/# 104 Hot 100 "bubble under" 1982]; Mind Up Tonight [# 25 R&B 1982]; Read My Lips [# 12 R&B/# 104 Hot 100 "bubble under" 1985]; Take My Love [# 15 R&B 1981].

Adding to the strangeness of her chart performances, two of her lesser R&B hits were ones that almost made it to the pop charts: The Way You Make Me Feel [# 62 R&B/# 108 Hot 100 "bubble under" 1977], and Pick Me Up, I'll Dance [# 85 R&B/# 103 Hot 100 "bubble under" 1979].

In terms of some of her hits not included in this volume, these would include: When You Love Me Like This [# 14 R&B/# 106 Hot 100 "bubble under" 1985]; I'm In Love [# 13 R&B 1988 with Kashif], and her final charter, Do You Really Want My Love? [# 10 R&B 1990]. Even so, this is a fine package from the folks at Razor & Tie for one of the best, but sadly overlooked, voices of that era.

First let me say thanks Razor & Tie for releasing this collection since there is SO little of Melba's work on cd to begin with. It's hard to believe, with this woman's 35 + year career as a top R&B and dance hitmaker, that practically none of her albums are available on compact disc. It's a very sad statement on the lack of attention and/or respect the major labels give to soul/dance artists these days.

That said, while this is a good collection of some of Melba's better material, there are definitely some noticeable holes that could have been filled if this had been a 2 disc set instead. But since Melba has had such a long and impressive career on many different labels (Buddah, Epic, EMI, Capitol), it's hard to contain all her hits on the various music charts on one cd. This cd seems to (understandably) focus more on her Capitol years in the mid 80s when she was a top 20 R&B star and neglect her earlier dance hits.

Some notable omissions are the long versions of "This Is It" (which of course most fans of her disco diva days would undoubtedly prefer) and "You Stepped Into My Life" (the 12" mix is a disco classic that only seems to appear on cd in some edited form, such as here and the "Club Epic" cd which was missing 2 of its 7+ minutes), my personal favorite of hers the John Luongo remix of "Pick Me Up I'll Dance" (Epic; #22 Dance, Billboard), "Standing Right Here" (Buddah; #53 Dance), "Miss Thing" (Epic, #41 Dance) [I remember her promoting this on "Dance Fever" and various talk shows] and "Let's Stand Together" (EMI America; #12 Dance). I would love to find these tracks on cd (as well as the title track from the "What a Woman Needs" album - a killer r&b/dance cut) but, so far, I've had no luck!

On the positive side, I must say that I was thrilled that this cd has the extended versions of "Take My Love" and "Love's Comin' At Ya" so her club hits weren't completely overlooked. While I am a fan of her soul singles (her deserved #1 "Falling" is a must!), I just hope there will be another collection in the future with all her club hits. Until then, I guess this will do.

(Note to Sony: How about doing me a favor and releasing 1978's "Melba" and 1979's "Burn" on CD? And to EMI: Please release the 1981 "What A Woman Needs" LP on CD too! This woman deserves some more recognition!)

You will have to bare with me here. I was just so very lucky enough to find an early 1970s Melba Moore album called Look What You're Doing which was issued on Mercury.

As a major music hunter, I sometimes have the good fortune of picking just the right LP, or CD, out of a street fresh bag, putting it on, and getting that "My god, this is the best thing I have ever heard in my life" impulse. Of course music heads know this is never true, but at that moment, it seems heavenly so.

Well, that was what happened with the Melba Moore album, and since Look What You're Doing has shamefully dropped off the earth, I have to use this to tell you how impressed I am with Moore, at least her early 1970s material

Her voice is strong, and backed by great middle of the road soul that you heard on AM radio during the era--the type that energized you when you were dragged out 3am and trying to stay up: hear it, and you get that second wind. It is sweet but not too sweet. The playing is so creamy, and every dynamic perfect

I can't (yet) speak to what Melba did later, but if you come across her early material, grab it while you can

Soul was a singles medium. Unfortunately a lot of great albums never got proper reissues, and Moore's absolutely should.