Al Green Vinyl Records

Cut From The Original Masters

Reissues Celebrating The 20th Anniversary Of The Original Release Of “Episode 1”

2xLP Housed In A Gatefold Sleeve With CD Included

Legendary Deep Soul French compilations featuring many Soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest Hip-Hop acts.

Cut From The Original Masters

Reissues Celebrating The 20th Anniversary Of The Original Release Of “Episode 1”

2xLP Housed In A Gatefold Sleeve With CD Included

Legendary Deep Soul French compilations featuring many Soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest Hip-Hop acts.

By the time I'm Still In Love With You was released in 1972, the Al Green/Willie Mitchell Hi Records team was a well-oiled hit-making machine. With a #1 hit under his belt with Let's Stay Together, I'm Still In Love With You put Green right back at the top of the charts with hits like Look What You Done For Me and Love And Happiness. Green also began exploring country music here with his fine interpretations of Kris Kristofferson's For the Good Times and Roy Orbison's Oh Pretty Woman.

What connects celebrity chefs and pop stars is their fine nose for ingredients, especially when hot and spicy ones are mixed with milder elements to create an aromatic result. A combination of 'sweet' and 'funky' is the secret of Al Green’s gloriously sentimental and sensual pop songs, which in the sexually free Seventies were often referred to as »songs to make love by«. What swings along gently is, however, Al Green’s subtly controlled falsetto, which he can tone right to the threshold of audibility. But watch out! This music belts out some fiery sounds right from the very first number. The sinuous, swinging request in the brilliant hit single "Call Me", the relaxed and groovy "Stand Up", with its sharp wind interjections which demand one’s unerring attention, are typical for Green’s style, just as is his almost disturbing capability to gain comfort from loneliness ("I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry"). This rhythmically powered music can best be described as light, intensive, dynamic but never flashy ("Your Love Is Like The Morning Sun"). It finds its earthly culmination in soul ("I’m Waiting") and spiritual depth.

Musicians:

• Al Green (vocal)
• James Mitchell (bassoon, arranger)
• Andrew Love (tenor sax)
• Jack Hale (trombone)
• Wayne Jackson (trumpet)
• Mabon Hodges (guitar)
• Charles Hodges (keyboards)
• Archie Turner (piano)
• Leroy Hodges (bass)
• Howard Grimes (drums)
• The Memphis Strings

Recording: 1973 at Royal Recording Studios, Memphis, TN, by Willie Mitchell
Production: Al Green and Willie Mitchell

About Speakers Corner

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Speakers Corner all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existant tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasise that Speakers Corner Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle. We have one digital recording in our catalogue (Alan Parsons / Eye In The Sky“), but even in this particular case we used the analogue tapes for cutting.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects – excluding the exception above – and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

Originally released in 1971, Al Green Get's Next To You was his first major release and it features a killer selection of raw Memphis soul. The formula for his string of subsequent hits is firmly in place and Al's beautiful voice is swept up wonderfully in the sympathetic production handled here by the great Willie Mitchell.

It's hard to imagine how anyone could have come up with a better showcase for Al's amazing voice. Proof of this can be heard on the record's great Green originals "All Because," "I'm A Ram," "You Say It" and the classic "Tired of Being Alone" as well as on the covers like "Driving Wheel," "Can't Get Next To You" and "Light My Fire."

Original Members Of Cream Take The Stage For The First Time In 25 Years For A Blistering “Sunshine Of Your Love"

Includes performances from legends like Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Cream, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Metallica, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Joe Perry, Tom Petty, Green Day, James Taylor, Al Green, Chuck Berry and more

Jam-filled performances of chart-busters like “Johnny B. Goode", “Ironman”, “Blitzkrieg Bop", “Can’t Get No Satisfaction", and a show-stopping performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

For over a quarter century, rock and roll’s biggest stars have gathered annually on one special evening for an exclusive party: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. Honoring music’s most influential figures with the most prestigious of awards, it’s also an evening where both artists and fans celebrate rock and roll with once-in-a-lifetime performances. For the first time on vinyl, Time Life has pressed a selection of the most memorable moments in the history of the induction ceremony, previously only available in digital and physical formats. ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME LIVE: VOLUME 1 is a unique, collectible vinyl album featuring an unforgettable “set list” including the biggest names in rock ‘n’ roll.

First Pressing of The Belle Album in 30 Years

The Belle Album is a studio album by soul musician Al Green. It is his first album recorded without longtime producer Willie Mitchell, owner of Green's former label, Hi Records. This also marks the first instance in which Green plays lead guitar on his records. The Belle Album is one of the last in a string of secular recordings made by Green; he had recently converted to Christianity and had been ordained as a pastor, and thereafter he began creating gospel records exclusively.

Musicians:

• Al Green (vocal)
• Wayne Jackson (trumpet)
• Andrew Love (tenor saxophone)
• James Mitchell (bassoon)
• Jack Hale (trombone)
• Charles Hodges (keyboards)
• Archie Turner( piano)
• Mabon "Teenie" Hodges (guitar)
• Leroy Hodges (bass)
• Howard Grimes (drums, percussion)

Recording: 1974 at Royal Recording Studios, South Lauderdale, Memphis, Tennessee by Willie Mitchell
Production: Willie Mitchell & Al Green

About Pure Pleasure

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

After the shaky start of "Green Is Blues", Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell established their classic sound with Green's second album, "Gets Next to You". The main difference is in the rhythm section. Abandoning the gritty syncopations of deep Southern soul, the Hi Rhythm Section plays it slow and seductive, working a sultry, steady pulse that Green exploits with his remarkable voice. Alternating between Sam Cooke's croon and Otis Redding's shout, Green develops his own distinctive style, and "Gets Next To You" only touches the surface of its depth. Although the album is filled with wonderful moments, few are as astonishing as Green and Mitchell's reinterpretation of the Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You", which turns the original inside out.

Musicians:

• Al Green (vocal)
• Wayne Jackson (trumpet)
• Ed Logan (tenor saxophone)
• James Mitchell (bassoon)
• Jack Hale (trombone)
• Charles Hodges (keyboards)
• Mabon "Teenie" Hodges (guitar)
• Leroy Hodges (bass)
• Al Jackson (drums)

About Pure Pleasure

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

Al Green was the first great soul singer of the '70s and arguably the last great Southern soul singer. With his seductive singles for Hi Records in the early '70s, Green bridged the gap between deep soul and smooth Philadelphia soul. He incorporated elements of gospel, interjecting his performances with wild moans and wails, but his records were stylish, boasting immaculate productions that rolled along with a tight beat, sexy backing vocals, and lush strings. The distinctive Hi Records sound that the vocalist and producer Willie Mitchell developed made Al Green the most popular and influential soul singer of the early '70s. Greatest Hits epitomizes that trademark sound with 10 of the R&B legends' all-time classics.