Freddie Scott – Mr Heartache – The Best Of The Columbia Recordings Plus! CD (Kent)

Freddie Scott was one of the best exponents of big city soul New York ever produced. He reached the Top 10 with Goffin & King’s ‘Hey Girl’, cut for Colpix in 1963, and topped the R&B chart three years later with ‘Are You Lonely For Me’, released on Bert Berns’ Shout label. Few people ever got to hear the wonderful music he recorded in the interim for Columbia.

CDs of the great balladeer’s Colpix and Shout tracks are out there already, but “Mr Heartache” marks the first ever reissue of his Columbia material, most of which was arranged and conducted by Garry Sherman and produced by Clyde Otis. Our CD opens with the complete “Lonely Man” album, recorded in 1964, but for reasons known only to the executives at Columbia, not released until 1967. Also included are six tracks released only on 45, three selections from his first Columbia LP “Everything I Have Is Yours” and four Shout recordings never previously unissued.

Fans of Chuck Jackson, Roy Hamilton and Walter Jackson should lap up this CD, the accompanying booklet of which contains a detailed and exquisitely written 6,000 word essay by Scott’s Long Island friend, neighbour and sometime singing colleague Dennis Garvey. – Ace Records