A budget three-CD set,
Soul Hits of the 80's collects some of that awkward decade's
soul moments from the
Columbia/
Sony catalog. Note the author's use of "moments" and the title's use of "hits," because they are, in fact, talking about the same songs. Not everything here was a hit, with some of the songs just squeaking into the
Billboard Top 100; however, regardless of chart position, they do represent the era very well. There's a broad range of work here, from
jazz crossovers like
Stanley Jordan with
"Heaven Sent You" and
Grover Washington with
"Summer Nights" to straight
pop crossovers like
Deniece Williams with
"Let's Hear It for the Boy" and the classic and true hit
"Easy Lover" by
Philip Bailey and
Phil Collins. Other actual chart-toppers here include
"Juicy Fruit" by
Mtume,
Herbie Hancock with the seismic hit
"Rockit," and one-hit wonder
Johnny Kemp with
"Just Got Paid." Luther Vandross,
Teena Marie,
Bill Withers,
Babyface, and
Regina Belle are a few of the others whose tracks pepper this 40-song (!) collection. It's not definitive, but does a fine job of representing just how broad
soul music's reach had become in the '80s. ~ Wade Kergan
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