K SPECIAL Alice Clark - The Complete Studio Recordings 1968-1972 (Updated Remastered Reconfigured Edition) [2024]

K SPECIAL

Alice Clark - The Complete Studio Recordings 1968-1972 (Updated Remastered Reconfigured Edition) [2024].

Alice Clark was an American soul singer, who had little commercial success but whose recordings became highly regarded.

Little is known publicly of her life outside her brief music career between 1968 and 1972. She grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. According to Billy Vera, who wrote and produced her first record, "I got the impression her life wasn't that great. She... had kids and belonged to a religious order that forbade either bathing or washing hair, I don't recall exactly which..."

Her first record, pairing two Vera songs, "You Got a Deal" and "Say You'll Never (Never Leave Me)", was recorded in 1968 at the Jubilee Records studio with musicians including Vera and Butch Mann (guitars), Jimmy Tyrell (bass), Earl Williams (drums), Money Johnson (trumpet) and others. Produced by Vera, it was released on the Rainy Day label owned by Chip Taylor and Al Gorgoni. Later the same year, Clark recorded "You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)" and "Heaven's Will (Must Be Obeyed)", both arranged by Richard Tee and produced by George Kerr. Released on Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records, "You Hit Me" - co-written by Sylvia Moy and first recorded by Kim Weston at Motown was not a hit at the time.

In 1972, Bob Shad of Mainstream Records signed Clark to record an LP with arranger Ernie Wilkins. Produced by Shad, the album, Alice Clark, was recorded at the Record Plant in New York and included three songs written by Bobby Hebb, as well as Jimmy Webb's "I Keep It Hid" - also issued as a single - Juanita Fleming's "Never Did I Stop Loving You", and John Bromley and Petula Clark's "Looking at Life". The session musicians on the album included guitarist Cornell Dupree, keyboardist Paul Griffin, and drummer Bernard Purdie. Again, the records were unsuccessful, and Clark made no more recordings.

In Britain, "You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)" became a staple of the Northern Soul scene in the early 1970s, valued both for its rarity and its quality as "a classic piece of uptown soul". Her album also became highly valued and collectable, later claimed as "delivered with understated passion and appealing vulnerability", "astonishing", "sublime", "perhaps one of the finest soul albums ever recorded" and "the Holy Grail of modern soul", in which "every single element - the singer, the songs, the musicians, the production - are simply superb...[and] the whole is even greater than the sum of the parts."

She retired from the music industry after the commercial failure of the album and returned to family life in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She died from cancer in 2004, aged 57.

Alice Clark's highly sought-after soul jazz classic produced by Mainstream Records' Bob Shad was originally released in 1972.

Featuring original artwork and remastered sound makes this reissue the first official reissue of Alice Clark's original album for decades, a long overdue release of one of the best Soul albums ever recorded. When it comes to legendary albums, very few can match the cult status achieved on the international jazz and funk scene, by Alice Clark's eponymous album, recorded for Mainstream Records in 1972. The record which went unnoticed when it first came out has become one of the most sought-after albums ever since it became cult on the London jazz and funk scene in the late '80s. It is now being acknowledged as one of the best soul albums of all-time. Recorded live over two days at the Record Plant studios in New York City, the album was produced by Bob Shad and arranged by jazz veteran Ernie Wilkins with a big band setting. The music is a superb mix of jazz and soul blessed by Clark's superb singing and including two all-time favorites, "Don't You Care" and "Never Did I Stop Loving You" plus a selection of heart-wrenching songs beautifully sung by Clark. Hailed as a soul masterpiece alongside Aretha Franklin or Roberta Flack's best albums, Alice Clark's LP took fifty years to achieve classic status and Alice Clark is now finally getting the recognition she deserves.

This new configuration presented here restores this album masterpiece to the original 1972 ten track running order, plus the added bonus of her two A-side singles and B-sides released in 1968 and two previously unissued tracks also recorded in 1968.

Enjoy!

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Track lists

01 Alice Clark - Keep It Hid (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:26

02 Alice Clark - Looking At Life (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:08

03 Alice Clark - Don't Wonder Why (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:20

04 Alice Clark - Maybe This Time (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:18

05 Alice Clark - Never Did I Ever Stop Loving You (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 2:32

06 Alice Clark - Charms of the Arms of Love (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 2:38

07 Alice Clark - Don't You Care (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 2:49

08 Alice Clark - It Takes Too Long to Learn to Live Alone (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:34

09 Alice Clark - Hard Hard Promises (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:03

10 Alice Clark - Hey Girl (Mainstream LP MRL 362 (1972) 3:17

11 Alice Clark - You Got a Deal (Rainy Day Records Single A-Side 45-8004) (1968) 1:58

12 Alice Clark - Say You'll Never (Never Leave Me) (Rainy Day Records Single B-Side 45-8004) (1968) 2:53

13 Alice Clark - You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me) (Warner Bros. - Seven Arts Records Single A-Side 7270) (1968) 2:52

14 Alice Clark - Heaven's Will (Must Be Obeyed) (Warner Bros. - Seven Arts Records Single B-Side 7270) (1968) 3:29

15 Alice Clark - Before Her Time (Previously Unissued Rainy Day Recording) (2010) 2:59

16 Alice Clark - You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me) Instrumental (Previously Unissued GWP Recording) (2010) 3:15

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