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The Isley Brothers - Shout!: The Complete Victor Sessions (1960)

Track listing:
  1. Shout, Part 1 2:15
  2. Shout, Part 2 2:22
  3. Tell Me Who 2:47
  4. How Deep Is The Ocean 1:56
  5. Respectable (2) 2:12
  6. Say You Love Me 2:13
  7. Open Up Your Heart 2:10
  8. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands 2:01
  9. Without A Song 2:01
  10. Yes Indeed 2:05
  11. Ring-A-Ling-A-Ling 3:01
  12. That Lucky Old Sun 2:47
  13. How Deep Is The Ocean 1:56
  14. Respectable 2:10
  15. When The Saints Go Marching In 2:35
  16. Gypsy Love Song 2:36
  17. St. Louis Blues 3:00
  18. Rock Around The Clock 2:16
  19. Turn To Me 2:43
  20. Not One Minute More 2:23
  21. I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door 1:52

Notes

The Isley Brothers' year-long stay (1959-1960) on the RCA Victor label has long had the reputation for uneven results, as well as being something of a mystery to all but hardcore fans, mostly owing to the fact that the majority of it was barely available until well into the CD era. Beyond "Shout" and "Respectable," none of what they released for the label ever made an impact, and both of those songs are much better known in recordings by other acts, including Joey Dee & the Starliters and the Outsiders. The group more properly should have been on the company's Vik Records subsidiary, which was more oriented toward R&B, rather than working under the aegis of producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore at Victor, who evidently saw the trio as a potential crossover pop act in the same manner that they would later treat Sam Cooke. As this CD demonstrates, the fit was an awkward one at times, the trio trying to transform pure pop like "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door" into R&B, attempting (without success) to overcome the presence of a pop string section on "Not One Minute More," stumbling through "St. Louis Blues," and wasting a lot of good effort on "Gypsy Love Song." Still, the good moments outnumber the bad -- "Tell Me Who," "When the Saints Go Marching In," "Ring-A-Ling-A-Ling (Let the Wedding Bells Ring)," "That Lucky Old Sun," and even "Rock Around the Clock" show them in excellent form, if not exactly breaking new ground. What's more, there are some genuine musical delights buried among these 19 tracks, in the form of Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean," which is given a beat and arrangement very close to that of "Respectable," and "Without a Song," which is made to sound a lot like Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops." This was the second RCA CD devoted to the Isley Brothers and is preferable to its 1991 predecessor simply based on its improved sound quality, and for the presence of two very different versions of "Respectable," both the fine album rendition and the more raucous and passionate single version. Serious fans, however, might want to spring for the Bear Family CD of the very same material, containing as it does more thorough session information.