Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul Album Reviews

Billboard requires a JavaScript enabled browser to get the full experience

AMG Review

Although it was a big commercial success, reaching number two on the LP charts, this record would typify the erratic nature of much of Charles' '60s output. It's too eclectic for its own good, really, encompassing pop standards, lowdown blues, Mel Torm� songs, and after-hours ballads. The high points are very high -- "Busted," his hit reworking of a composition by country songwriter Harlan Howard, is jazzy and tough, and one of his best early-'60s singles. And the low points are pretty low, especially when he adds the snow-white backup vocals of the Jack Halloran Singers to "Over the Rainbow" and "Ol' Man River." A number of the remaining cuts are pretty respectable, like the tight big band arrangement of "Ol' Man Time" and the ominously urbane "Where Can I Go?." In 1997, it was paired with the 1964 LP Have a Smile With Me on a two-for-one CD reissue on Rhino, with the addition of historical liner notes. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide