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| All Shook Up: A Reggae Tribute to the King (Trojan, 2005) I don't know who keeps buying these reggae tribute albums -- from the Beatles to the Grateful Dead to the Rolling Stones to Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan -- but record companies keep making them, so there must be an audience somewhere. It's generally not in my house, though. All Shook Up is perhaps the most far-fetched of the bunch yet, as Elvis Presley's bouncy '50s pop sound seems least suited to the reggae rhythm -- not to mention the fact that Elvis isn't generally the most beloved figure in the black community, given his appropriation of rhythm and blues and his alleged racial prejudices. Sure, many Elvis tunes were popular in Jamaica, but that was literally half a century ago. And referencing "a reggae tribute to the King" seems slightly insensitive, since to many artists in the Rasta-dominated reggae realm, "the King" would be Jah (or at least Bob Marley). The opening track, Chaka Demus & Pliers' "Don’t Be Cruel" -- a cheesy, dated romp in the '50s style of their past hits "Tease Me" and "Twist and Shout" -- is indicative of the lack of cohesion between Elvis's sound and that of modern reggae. Thankfully, not all of the songs here are quite so painful -- and some, like Cornel Campbell's "It's Now Or Never" and Junior Byles' classic "Fever" -- are downright lovely, but the compilers should've shown much more restraint in their selection. Just because the Trojan vaults contain 20-plus Elvis covers doesn't mean they all need to be packaged together. Ten or 12 tracks here could've made a decent album. As it is, it's hit-or-miss, with the best tracks being the ones you may not immediately associate with Elvis, including tunes he covered, like "Fever" and "For the Good Times," and lesser-known songs like "Wooden Heart," "The Wonder of You," "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," and "Pledging My Love." One of the best reggae Elvis covers, the Heptones' "Suspicious Minds," is "suspiciously" absent, replaced by an inferior Hortense Ellise version. At least Trojan didn't spend their resources recording a bunch of new tracks for All Shook Up, something I can't say about most of the previous reggae tribute albums. |
| Track Listing 1. Don’t Be Cruel -- Chaka Demus & Pliers 2. Love Me Tender -- Slim Smith 3. All Shook Up -- Jackie Edwards 4. One Night -- Jackie Brown 5. It’s Now Or Never -- Cornel Campbell 6. Are You Lonesome Tonight -- Pat Kelly 7. Wooden Heart -- Hortense Ellis 8. Kiss Me Quick -- Keeling Beckford 9. Suspicion -- Jimmy London 10. Frankie and Johnny -- Eugene Paul (as Al Cook) 11. Love Letters -- Alton & Phyllis 12. You’ll Never Walk Alone -- Vic Taylor 13. How Great Thou Art -- Cedric Poitier with Byron Lee & The Dragonaires 14. In the Ghetto -- Susan Cadogan 15. Suspicious Minds -- Hortense Ellis 16. The Wonder Of You -- Lloyd Parks 17. Walk a Mile in My Shoes -- Bob Andy 18. Always On My Mind -- Barbara Jones 19. The Impossible Dream -- Ken Boothe 20. For The Good Times -- Lloyd Charmers 21. Fever -- Junior Byles 22. Lovin' Arms -- Al Brown 23. Pledging My Love -- John Holt |
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