Customer Reviews

Very Best of William Bell

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

 

 

This is another sale attributable to a book by Dave Marsh called "The Heart of Rock and Soul." Which has now gone out of print at least twice and is one of the first items I ever reviewed. Anyway, Mr. Bell is one of several R & B veterans with several singles described in that book. This is the first CD to include all of them. "The Best of" doesn't have "You Don't Miss Your Water" and "Everybody Loves a Winner"; "The Soul of a Bell" has those but not "Private Number" (a duet with Judy Clay) and "I Forgot To Be Your Lover." All are now, finally, available on one disc that covers Bell's Stax career through 1974. [Ironically, Bell didn't reach the Pop Top 40 until he'd left Stax for Mercury. The single, "Tryin' To Love Two", got to #10 (#1 R&B) in 1977. I estimate it's the most successful song of the era I've never heard on the radio then or since. It appears on Volume 18 of Rhino's "Soul Hits of the '70's" series which, as I just checked, is (criminally) OUT OF PRINT.]

The Very Best of William Bell CD is Great. "Lovin'on Borrowed Time" MAN! Just blows me away everytime I listen to it. This CD has several Great songs on it. If you love "You Don't Miss Your Water, I Forgot to Be Your Lover, My Whole World is falling Down. You'll be blown away too!!! Amazon.com has the best selections on Blues and other music than any other sites that I know. Now, I check in Weekly to see if Amazon.com has anything on Rueben Bell such as "Down On My Knees and I hear you Knocking".

I have to admit, I bought this CD for the pseudo holiday tune "Every day will be like a holiday". While listening through the CD, I was pleasantly surprised, and carried back to a simpler and more soulful time for the music industry. Having been born, (50's) and raised in southeast Michigan during the Motown Era, I was happy to expand my R & B library, and to learn a little more about the music of the period, (60's). The small pamphlet included with the CD helped give me insight into Bell's history. Now, I'm ready to explore more music, more artists of the time period. GREAT!!!

Received the cd fast. I thought I would like it from some of the reviews I had read. It just didn't do it for me.

I unintentionally stumbled upon WILLIAM BELL while sampling various old time Soul artists on Amazon. I just love finding new artists this way, or should I say new to me as WILLIAM BELL is certainly not new - yet he's been fortunitely pulled out of that musical graveyard that is my ignorance. THE VERY BEST OF WILLIAM BELL is an excellent introduction to this fine entertainer and this CD would only enhance one's own personal musical library. Most of the songs here are from the 1960's, and have a wonderful touchstone like quality to that time, yet still sound strangly contemporary and fresh. MR. BELL has a sincerity and strengh to his voice; it's quite masculine and emotive which I find rather appealing. The music has a variety of tempos and textures while the vocals mesh with these diverse musical fabrics wonderfully. I'm so glad I stumbled across this stellar artist and vocalist; the twenty songs on this compilation are soulfully sublime and I'll be listening to MR. BELL for quite some time.

i really enjoy this cd and i recommend this cd to lovers of r&b in particular.