Syl Johnson started out his career on the blues side of things, working with Howlin' Wolf, Junior Wells, Magic Sam and others, but his biggest successes have come as a soul singer, first for Peter Wright's TwiNight label (originally TwiLight Records, it became TwiNight when it was discovered that another label already owned the Twilight name) in the late 1960s, and then with Hi Records in the early- to mid-'70s. Working with the venerable producer Willie Mitchell and ...   [ read more ]

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The Hi recordings of Charlie Rich are in many ways the most reckless and adventurous of his career. In 1966 and 1967, Hi, a small Memphis label that hosted acts such as Willie Mitchell (and later Al Green) and the Bill Black Combo believed, like Sun, RCA, and Mercury before them, in Rich's prodigious talent but had no idea where to put him categorically. On this set of 28 tracks there is everything from killer Memphis soul a la the David Porter/Isaac Hayes collaborati...   [ read more ]

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Gene Simmons is remembered for his 1964 novelty hit "Haunted House," but his career was longer and more varied than the term one-hit wonder suggests. He had only one other hit, "The Dodo," which peaked at number 83 in the wake of "Haunted House," but he recorded an entire album and numerous singles for Hi Records in the '60s. The era covered by this collection, 1959-1965, found Simmons abandoning the rockabilly of his Sun years in favor of a straight rock & roll sound that edg...   [ read more ]

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