Tower of Power have openly admitted resistance toward covering any hit R&B classics, preferring to play their original brand of funky soul and dance music with a horn-fired edge over their four decades on the scene. But they have finally acquiesced, reluctantly but with growing confidence during this session, in producing a tribute to the many solid singers who appeared in the charts during the '60s and '70s with these renditions of tunes familiar to Top 40 AM radio listeners. Special guest singers range from
Sam Moore of
Sam & Dave fame to young pop songstress
Joss Stone, the veteran British lounge crooner
Tom Jones, and rocker
Huey Lewis, not to mention
TOP frontman
Larry Braggs. Philly and Motown music, love songs, retro-soul, and a little disco are included in this collection that is, for the most part, faithfully reproduced. A
Sam & Dave hit penned by
Isaac Hayes, "I Thank You" is soulfully rendered by
Jones, while
Moore digs in on
Otis Redding's "Mr. Pitiful," both the most authentic highlights of the album.
Lewis is quite convincing in his blue-eyed soul role during
Wilson Pickett's shuffle swing "634-5789," offering the premise that he could pull off a whole album of this stuff.
Braggs cops
Stevie Wonder's style during "You Met Your Match," while he and an overamped
Stone combine on the more heavily funky and contemporized version of
Marvin Gaye and
Kim Weston's "It Takes Two."
Aretha Franklin's "Since You've Been Gone," sporting the refrain "Why'd you have to do it" with a backup chorus, is as true to the original as any other version. A
James Brown medley unfortunately does not come close to
the Godfather of Soul, and there are some sappy renditions of such numbers as
Billy Paul's "Me & Mrs. Jones,"
Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's "Loveland," and the
Gaye/
Tammi Terrell hit "Your Precious Love" with
Braggs and
Stone. "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel," originally done by
Tavares, is simply soupy and far too slick, and the
Bill Withers song "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?" is a revisited disco throwaway. Missing from these songs are the extended, powerful horn charts that made
Tower of Power famous, with only a modicum of interaction and with little punch to add to the flavor of these charts. Perhaps a second volume might yield better results than the overtly commercialized collection that is presented here. Not bad -- just not great.