In the history of American popular music, the name "Brunswick" has meant different things at different times, so it is worth pointing out that the music on this compilation is drawn from the R&B-oriented
Brunswick
(and its
Dakar
subsidiary) label run by
Carl Davis
in Chicago in the 1960s and '70s, not from the catalog of the
Brunswick Records
originally founded during World War I by the Brunswick-Balke-Collendar company, an Iowa piano manufacturer, and phased out at the end of the '30s, when it was owned by
Columbia Records
.
was revived as a subsidiary by
Decca
in the '40s, but by the time
Davis
was its A&R supervisor, it was in the process of being purchased by
Nat Tarnopol
. Throughout this latter period, its flagship artist was
Jackie Wilson
(whom
Tarnopol
managed), but, as this collection demonstrates, it also boasted such major artists as
Major Lance
and
Little Richard
. This second volume of
obscurities is more varied than its predecessor, including tracks from a wider time period and material licensed from other labels. It casts back to
Isaac Hayes
' 1962 inaugural vocal performance, "Sweet Temptation," originally issued locally on Memphis'
Youngstown Records
, then reissued nationally by
in 1964. On the other end, it also includes early-'70s tracks like
Walter Jackson
's "Easy Evil," which, with its prominent clavinet, recalls
Stevie Wonder
's "Superstition." That is one of many songs that ape the
Motown
sound, with
Johnny Williams
' "Just a Little Misunderstanding" (a remake of a
Contours
tune co-written by
Wonder
) featuring an arrangement in the
Miracles
mold, while
Billy Butler
's "Burning Touch of Love" and
Wales Wallace
's "Talk a Little Louder" both evoke
the Temptations
. But then, so much of the set sounds like the popular R&B of the era that listening is like discovering an alternate historical universe of should-have-been hits. ~ William Ruhlmann