GEORGIE FAME: "20 Beat Classics"

Original released on LP RSO SPELP 45

(UK, 1980)

The Sweet Things Of GEORGIE FAME

Original released on LP Columbia (EMI) SX 6043

(UK, May 1966)

Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames' third album very much follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, a punchy R&B stomper that could (even should) have been recorded live, so high is the energy, and so abandoned the backing of the Blue Flames. This is especially apparent on side two of the original vinyl, as the band all-but replicate the closing run of a hot and sweaty club gig, pounding through an electrifyingly note-perfect "My Girl," a rattling "The Whole World's Shaking" and a truly incredible version of "The In Crowd," all honking horns and smooth-flowing Hammond. Don Covay's "See Saw" is another jewel, but for sheer audacity, the highlight has to be calypso king Lord Kitchener's gleefully risqué "Dr Kitch," a percussively swaying romp that only grows more delightful as it becomes apparent that Fame himself is having trouble delivering the lyric straight-faced - the story of a doctor attempting to administer an injection to a nervous young lady, after all, is so rife with double meaning that it is virtually a sex act in its own right. Not quite up to the standard of the group's debut (which, of course, was recorded live), "Sweet Things" is nevertheless one of the finest British R&B albums of the mid-'60s, and one of the last to illustrate just how many possibilities were still open to the U.K. scene at that time. The journey from soft soul to rude calypso, via every musical shade in between, was not one that many performers were willing to take, after all. Fame and co, on the other hand, make the journey in record time. (Dave Thompson in AllMusic)

GEORGIE FAME Debut Album

Original released on LP Columbia (EMI) 33SX 1638

(UK 1965, January 1)

Following on from the blazing live set that was his debut, Georgie Fame's first studio album is one of those discs to which only one appellation can truly be applied - it's dangerous. A blistering romp through Fame & His Blue Flames' live repertoire of the day, fast and loose and driving, it captures one of Britain's best-ever R&B troupes stepping so far beyond the customary precepts of the Beat Boom that, if you were to come to this record without knowing who it was, there's no way you'd ever guess a bunch of (predominantly) Londoners were responsible. To pull out any highlights is to indicate that there are any corresponding low-lights - there aren't. But a "Green Onions" so sweet that you can taste it captures the group in full flame, while Willie Dixon's "I Love the Life I Live" has rarely sounded so supreme. Even the closing "I'm in the Mood for Love" - not a song one normally associates with heads-down blues boogie - is granted a cigarettes'n'alcohol ambience that could choke any passing puritan, and the whole disc adds up to one of the all-time great albums of its, or any other, R&B-blessed era. (Dave Thompson in AllMusic)

GEORGIE FAME: EP "Knock On Wood"

Original released on EP CBS 6363

(UK, June 1967)

Georgie Does His Thing...

Original released on LP Columbia 63650

(UK, 1969)

"Georgie Does His Thing with Strings" draws on arranger Keith Mansfield's past as a sound library maestro to create a lush, sweeping approach with a distinctively cinematic edge. Its moody, mellow sensibilities perfectly complement Georgie Fame's increasingly mature vocals, which sidestep the R&B inflections of his previous records in favor of a poignant style rooted in jazz and traditional pop--the inclusion of Bacharach/David gems like "This Guy's in Love with You" and "A House Is Not a Home" further underscores the session's sophistication and elegance.