Chuck Willis

• The Songs of Chuck Willis [Jasmine, 2016] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

The Songs of Chuck Willis [Jasmine, 2016]
Willis was a Georgia-born r&b singer whose first hit revived the traditional blues "C.C. Rider" in 1957 and whose prophetic double-sided "What Am I Living For"/"Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" charted just after he died of peritonitis at 30 in 1958. A mellow baritone who never approached the sweetness, sophistication, or subtlety of Pookie Hudson, Percy Mayfield, Ben E. King, or others he and I could name, he wrote all the time, and while the 24 self-sung numbers on Willis the performer's half of this carefully curated double-CD provide a worthy overview, it's the 26 copyrights on the Willis-the-composer disc that might just wow you. Mostly these are impressively varied r&b records that seldom even went top 40, including Buddy Holly's "It's Too Late." The big exception was Elvis's top-10 1961 "I Feel So Bad"--the one that continues "Just like a ballpark on a rainy day," it was Willis who made that up. Instead, this collection documents the frantic base-covering of the late-'50s pop world from Steve & Eydie's showbiz "Take a Breath" to Ernest Tubb's solemn "What Am I Living For." With the verities shifting fast, Willis's songs helped confused players sound like they were on top of their game. A-