Jackie DeShannon

Comprising performances of songs from the Ray Charles repertoire, here's the very belated release of what would have been the young Jackie’s first album, plus 13 rare bonus Liberty masters.

Of the 11 tracks intended for Jackie’s shelved album, ‘Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying’ would be included on her “This Is Jackie DeShannon” LP in 1965. Liberty issued ‘Ain’t That Love’ and ‘I’ll Drown In My Own Tears’ on singles in late 1961 and early ’62, and ‘This Little Boy Of Mine’ appeared on a Ray Charles tribute collection over 40 years later; the stereo mixes of all three debut here. The remaining seven “Hits Of The Genius” tracks are previously unreleased in any format. Jackie’s soulful vocals are sensational throughout: torrid and exciting on the up-tempo ‘Swanee River Rock’, ‘I Got A Sweetie’, ‘What’d I Say’, ‘Yes Indeed’ and ‘Hallelujah, I Love Him So’, and moody and atmospheric on the slower ‘Night Time Is The Right Time’ and ‘Georgia On My Mind’.

Among the bonus tracks are a further six recorded in New York with producer Clyde Otis, of which ‘I Won’t Turn You Down’ and ‘Baby (When Ya Kiss Me)’ appear here in stereo for the first time, the latter in an alternate take. Elsewhere, ‘I Don’t Think So Much Of Myself Now’, produced by Dick Glasser in Nashville, is here in first-time stereo and ‘That’s What Boys Are Made Of’ is an alternate take. The other nine bonus titles – including two more Ray Charles songs and several written by Jackie with Sharon Sheeley – are previously unreleased full stop.