Charlie Rich Album: «Complete Smash Sessions»

- Customers rating: (5.0 of 5)
- Title:Complete Smash Sessions
- Release date:1994-01-25
- Type:Audio CD
- Label:Polygram Records
- UPC:731451264320
This CD combines two albums put out by Charlie Rich
in the mid-1960s - "The Many New Sides of Charlie Rich"
and "The Best Years" plus three previously unreleased tracks.
If you are a Charlie Rich fan (and you should be) and don't have this CD, your collection isn't complete. Charlie considered these tracks among his best "studio" work. There is such a variety here that listeners will be stunned and Charlie plays all the piano (something he often gave up until "Pictures and Paintings" in 1992). From rockers like "Down and Out" to incredible ballads like "The Best Years" to little gems like "Tears A Go-Go" and the magnificent, "ahead of its time" "I Can't Go On" and the wonderful rendition of "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water," this is the eclectic master singer and pianist at his best. As liner notes writer "Dave Marsh" states: "I slipped needle into groove and entered a new world. What gave Charlie Rich his continuing grip on me is his heart." This is a must have CD - grab it!
From 1965-1966 at Smash Records, as on "Pictures and Paintings" (his final album before his death), Charlie Rich worked with kindred souls who let him do what he wanted. The difference between the two albums is age. On "Pictures," Rich is wiser and mellower; on the Smash cuts he's young and full of juice. Both are essential, but the Smash sessions more so. The vitality of these recordings--as Rich rolls from hip, stuttering growls to transcendent falsetto and tosses jazzy piano arabesques against throbbing rock rhythms--is unbelievable.
This is literally my favorite music ever. Rich was a genius at blending styles, and these sessions caught him at the perfect moment. This stuff never ceases to make me smile.

