Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading through the twenty or so reviews of "The Man Who Invented Soul" I wanted to comment on a number of issues raised by the various writers. 1. BMG/RCA does not own material recorded by Sam recorded after September 1963, even though it was originally released on the RCA label. This is owned by ABKCO Records (Allen Klein). 2. For the above reasons we were unable to inlcude signature songs like "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Shake" and so on. These titles will presumably appear on future releases from ABKCO. 3. The intention of this box was to focus in on the Keen repertoire which RCA purchased in the early '60s and his RCA recordings up until the "Tracey" period (post 9/63). 4. That having been said, it was my intention to use come up with some hundred or so Cooke classics, many of which have never been on CD. I would have loved to include the ABKCO owned material, but this wasn't possible and it is my feeling that it is best to have something out there than nothing at all. 5. All the RCA songs are from the original first generation session or master tapes so this is the best ever sound quality, substantially better than "The Man and his Music" (compare 'em). 6. RCA had to delete (cut out) "The Man And His Music" because it contained several titles which reverted to ABKCO. (There are no copies of this CD on the market legitimately). 7. There is a legal issue over the original version of "Another Saturday Night", so we used a very similar alternate version. 8. Many people have commented that they prefer the stereo versions to the mono mixes. All these titles were mixed to stereo at the same time (or very close to) the original 45. In some cases, "Cool Train" for example, this is the first release in stereo. 9. RCA was very limited in its use of photos because of legal issues; this also goes for some of the original album covers. 10. Mr Klein approved the liner notes and made corrections as appropriate. All in all, I was very happy with the end result which, although I have to admit I'm a little biased, is as good as it gets, given the various issues surrounding Sam's recordings. I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before Allen and/or Jody Klein put together a release befitting the repertoire that is now ABKCO's. ABKCO has put together some wonderful boxes in the past and I know that the Tracey period will be well served by them. Paul Williams - Compilation Producer