Al Green Gets Next To You/The Dude
Two monster R&B LPs celebrate monumental anniversaries this month … Al Green Gets Next To You was release in March 1971 …. And, ‘The Dude” from Quincy Jones was released in Mach 1981 … These are two of my favorite R&B LPs. This weekend, On The Turntable will feature both, back to back and in their entirety.
Al Green Gets Next To You
Albert Leornes Green … also known as The Reverend Al Green released ‘Al Green Gets Next to You’ as his 3rd studio album … released in March 1971 in the US and in August 1971 in the UK. The title cut is a cover of The Temptations hit from their 1969 album ‘Puzzle People’ … Green delivers the song a slow-burning plea for love which I find very enjoyable … The album also features the very popular “Tired of Being Alone.”
Al Green has been referred to as “one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music” and “The last of the great soul singers” … Green is the winner of 11 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He ranked 65th in the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 14th on the magazines 100 Greatest Singers of all Time …. Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers ‘Al Green Gets Next To You’ to be the 213th best album of 1971. Digital Dream Door Dot Com ranked the LP 24th on its top 100 list of the year.
Notable Tracks – ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’, ‘Tired Of Being Alone’, ‘Driving Wheel’
The Dude
It was forty years ago this month that Quincy Jones collaborated with dozens of artists and musicians to create an enormously successful album … The Dude was release on March 26, 1981 … The album is one of my favorites…I purchased a Half Speed Mastered Nautilus Super Disc in 1981 and have held on to it all these years. The Dude features a bevy of guest artists and musicians including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Syretta Wright, Patti Austin, Greg Phillinganes, Herbie Hancock and David Foster. This lp set the mark for production values in the 1980’s…Side one features four incredible songs, but the title song and ‘Betcha’ Wouldn’t Hurt Me’ are two songs I can listen to over and over again.
The Dude won three Grammy Awards … Best Instrumental Arrangement, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Instrumental Arrangement and also earned James Ingram three Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Just Once” and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for “One Hundred Ways”, for which he won at the 24th Grammy Awards in 1982. The album was nominated for a total of twelve Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The single Just Once was featured in the 1982 film The Last American Virgin. Best Ever Albums Dot Com ranked The Dude as the 129th best album of 1981…. Digital Dream Door Dot Com ranked Th Dude 37th on its top 100 for the year … IMO they all missed on this one. If I had written the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’, this album would have made the list; Robert Dimery also missed on this one.
Notable Tracks – “The Dude’, ‘One Hundred Ways’ ‘Just Once’ ‘Betcha’ Wouldn’t Hurt Me’
On The Turntable can be heard on KVOL 1330AM/97.7 FM The Rewind each Saturday evening at 6pm. The program is also rewound Sunday mornings at 7am. Listen over-the-air, on line @ www.kvol1330.com and on The Rewind App.