Compilation producers: Andy McKaie, Joe Reagoso.
Recorded between 1960 & 1983. Includes liner notes by Joe Reagoso.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is a somewhat schizophrenic compilation, with a few gritty selections from the great bluesman's early-'60s catalog interspersed with blatantly pop material from the '70s. A few of the tracks are obvious period pieces (the girl chorus on "Share Your Love With Me" makes it sound almost like a parody of an early Sam Cooke record) but most everything else is spine-tingling stuff, with Bland at the height of his vocal powers. Not to be missed: an ominous remake of Gladys Knight's "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and a nearly operatic version of Tommy Edwards' 1958 hit "It's All in the Game."