Alice Clark: Alice Clark ... plus (1966-1972)

It was not initially my intention to post the self-titled 1972 album from Alice Clark - fabulous at it is - because it has been posted everywhere, but as I have had some requests, here it is: your wish is my command. Anyway, I added a few bonus to make it more appealing to those of you who already got it. The album is a sublime masterpiece of R&B/pop from the house of Bob Shad, the jazz producer who founded Mainstream Records. Jimmy Webb's 'I Keep It Hid' starts things off, one of the singles released from this original package and a nugget from another soul masterpiece, Supremes Arranged and Produced by Jimmy Webb, when Webb oversaw the post-Diana Ross girl group the same year as this release. A rendition of Fred Ebb and John Kander's tune, 'Maybe This Time' from the motion picture Cabaret, is included along with three compositions from 'Sunny' author Bobby Hebb. These include 'Don't You Care' and 'Hard, Hard Promises,' two titles Hebb has yet to release on his own. The third is an up-tempo version of 'The Charms of the Arms of Love' which concluded his 1970 album Love Games. Clark rips apart 'It Takes Too Long to Learn to Live Alone' in wonderful fashion with tasteful guitar, chirping horns, and restrained vibraphone. Juanita Fleming's 'Never Did I Stop Loving You' is just brilliant as the vocals take off into different dimensions inside and between the unique melody. The final track, 'Hey Girl,' is not the famous Carole King/Freddy Scott hit, it's a true find originally covered by Donny Hathaway and written by Hathaway's percussion player, Earl DeRouen. Here Clark changes it to 'Hey Boy' in a lively, jazz-heavy jaunt which concludes this dynamite set of recordings that should have made Alice Clark a superstar. http://www.answers.com/. I added 4 bonus tracks here: the George Kerr-produced and wonderfully titled Northern Soul side 'You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)' - a burner of a tune that was released on Warner subsidiary Seven Arts in about 1966 -, the flip to that record, a moving deep soul ballad titled 'Heaven's Will (Must Be Obeyed)', and her 1968 single 'You Got a Deal' b/w 'Say You'll (Never Leave Me)', which was released by a label called Rainy Day Records.

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