*FRIDAY OLDIES* Billy Paul – Feelin’ Good At The Cadillac Club (Reissue) (2013)

Posted by HHB Admin on February 14, 2014 – 12:25 pm

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01. Billy Boy
02. Missing You
03. Bluesette
04. On A Clear Day
05. Just In Time
06. That’s Life
07. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
08. Feeling Good
09. Somewhere

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Big Break Records and Billy Paul – they’ve got a thing going on. The label, an imprint of the Cherry Red Group, has just returned to the soul titan’s catalogue for the sixth time – and with this release has gone back to the very beginning. BBR’s previous reissues from the “Me And Mrs. Jones” singer have explored his Philadelphia International discography as well as his Neptune release Ebony Woman and a post-PIR album for Total Experience Records. Now, the label has turned its attention to Paul’s debut LP, 1968’s Feelin’ Good At The Cadillac Club. Despite its title, Feelin’ Good is not a live recording, but rather a studio creation based upon the singer’s successful club act. And though it’s far from a typical “soul” album, one listen reveals just how much soul always resided within Billy Paul. Feelin’ Good At The Cadillac Club was financed for $365.00 (yes, you read that right – three hundred and sixty five dollars) by the singer, then approaching his mid-thirties, and his wife and business partner Blanche Williams. Paul and Williams delivered the LP, nearly complete, to the budding entrepreneur Kenny Gamble. Before Philadelphia International, Gamble and Leon Huff had tried their hand at a number of record labels, among them Excel and Gamble. Feelin’ Good would be just the second LP ever released on the Gamble label, following The Intruders Are Together from the “Cowboys To Girls” vocal group. Paul recorded the album at Philly’s Virtue Studios with just his jazz trio: pianist/arranger Stanley Johnson, drummer Norman Fearrington and bassist Bill Collick. Paul, also serving as producer, and Gamble resisted any temptation to “sweeten” the tracks, and so the sound is far-removed from the orchestrated R&B with which Gamble and Huff would soon conquer the charts. In other words, this is the pure Paul.

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