Keep on Pushing
Released 1964
1 Keep on Pushing
2 I've Been Trying
3 I Ain't Supposed To
4 Dedicate My Song to You
5 Long Long Winter
6 Somebody Help Me
7 Amen , Pate
8 I Thank Heaven
9 Talking About My Baby
10 Don't Let It Hide
11 I Love You (Yeah)
12 I Made a Mistake
Review by John Bush
Already a celebrated songwriter by the time of the third Impressions album, Curtis Mayfield introduced a political element to his material with the Top Ten hit "Keep on Pushing." An anthem of the burgeoning civil-rights movement (the 1964 Civil Rights Act was signed several weeks after its release), "Keep on Pushing" cemented his blend of gospel optimism with a relentless spirit of self-improvement. Though it was the only message song present, the album featured all the hallmarks of an Impressions set: impeccably smooth harmonies, the dynamic horn charts of Johnny Pate, and many more of Mayfield's irresistible songs (each with a clever spin on the usual love lyric as well as a strong sense of melody). "Talking About My Baby," the album's other big hit, was an adoring love song driven by a simple chorus and delivered by soul music's greatest harmonists. The simple ballad "I've Been Trying" was one of the most delicate and powerful the group had ever delivered, and the gospel march "Amen" became a Top Ten pop hit in early 1965 after its use in the Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field (for which Poitier became the first African-American to receive an Academy award). Keep on Pushing was the Impressions' first Top Ten album hit, and an excellent introduction for pop audiences just waking up to the inspirational power of soul music's finest group.
----------------------------------
People Get Ready
Released 1965
1 Woman's Got Soul 2:20
2 Emotions (Won't You Let Me Cry) 2:48
3 Sometimes I Wonder 2:58
4 We're in Love 2:28
5 Just Another Dance 2:51
6 Can't Work No Longer 2:21
7 People Get Ready 2:40
8 I've Found Out That I've Lost 2:51
9 Hard to Believe 2:27
10 See the Real Me 2:25
11 Get Up and Move 2:13
12 You Must Believe Me 2:30
--------------------------------------------------------------
Review by John Bush
As with the previous year's Keep on Pushing, People Get Ready featured another big Curtis Mayfield hit, one that made as strong an impact on the civil-rights movement as on the charts. One of the most beautiful songs of the '60s, "People Get Ready" set the oft-used "gospel train" as its theme, with Mayfield speaking of faith for the present and deliverance in the future, while Sam Gooden and Fred Cash contributed beautiful harmony vocals (and a few lines of their own). That career touchstone aside, the rest of the material on the LP wasn't as strong as Keep on Pushing or the Impressions' marvelous debut. The two winners were "Woman's Got Soul" and "You Must Believe Me," both in a similar brassy, uptown mode as expected from the Chicago soul kingpins. A few of the songs were hauled out from as long as three years ago, like Mayfield's own version of "Can't Work No Longer," a Billy Butler hit he'd produced (also in 1965). The exceptional harmonies and arrangements were still in place, but for a few songs it was clear that Mayfield had tired of concocting novelties that looked back to the age of doo wop.