Review by Mike Zwerin

Ford paying homage to General Motors? The Eagles covering the Rolling Stones? Read on.

 “SOULSVILLE SINGS HITSVILLE, Stax Sings Songs of Motown Records” (Stax): These two competing record companies, one in Memphis, the other in Detroit, feature different styles of black music from the U.S. Mixing them can become schizophrenic. You sense a certain discomfort. Motown slicked down its product and compromised with the commercial market toward the end. Rhythm and Blues is folk music more than pop. It doesn’t go out of style. Stax stayed truer to it. These versions of the songs, all from the 1960s and ’70s, are classic R&B. The Mar-Keys take on “Reach Out (I’ll Be There),” which furnished hits for both the Four Tops and Diana Ross, adds an infectious hillbilly-washboard beat, and thus brings another dimension to the old tune. Booker T. & the MG’s version of “I Hear a Symphony,” associated with the Supremes, has their usual attractive, soft, tightly wound swing. The Staples Singers do Smokey Robinson’s “You’ve Got to Earn It,” and they earn it. Mavis Staples sings “Chained,” originally recorded by Marvin Gaye, and when she gets righteous, she can make you think of Aretha Franklin. You can’t beat that. Nobody’s perfect, and it must be said that Billy Eckstine’s version of “My Cherie Amour,” originally associated with Stevie Wonder, is a crying shame. Speaking of righteous, the Soul Children doing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” another Stevie Wonder vehicle, may get you signifying. Liverpool Soul “STAX DOES THE BEATLES” (Stax): It’s refreshing to hear down-home black takes on white music rather than the other way around. Like the above-reviewed Stax/Motown collection, this is a compilation of classics recorded in the ’60s and ’70s, and it is even more schizophrenic. Stax may do the Beatles, but it doesn’t do fancy. It does, however, do kitsch. The corny tenor player on the Mar-Keys’ take on “Let It Be,” for instance, will have you crying in your beer. The whole thing involves some essential listening for anyone who still gets goose pimples from a groove. It reminds me of Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “All Along the Watchtower,” and of “Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan,” a compilation recording by musicians such as Shirley Ceasar, Dottie Peoples, Aaron Neville, and Mighty Clouds of Joy. Respect On the first-reviewed album, the artists obviously have esteem for the source material. They are proud to be taking on the competition, even if they are a bit cowed. Maybe it’s my imagination, yet on this one there’s a certain lack of respect. You know, we have to do this stuff because it’s commercial, but who really cares about those square white British kids, anyway? Carla Thomas’s version of “Yesterday” includes some wrong chord changes. On the original version of “Something,” the Fab Four incorporates a device called “la tierce Picard,” or the Picardie third, which involves ending a minor-key number with a major chord. Bach used it. The Beatles’ “Something” is the only time I’ve heard the Picardie third in pop music. It’s divine, the whole point of the tune. Isaac Hayes’s pompous adaptation disregards it, and that drives me up the wall. John Gary Williams’s “My Sweet Lord” will convert you to the religion of your choice. The velvet groove of Booker T. & the MG’s is perfect for “Lady Madonna” and “Eleanor Rigby.” Steve Cropper’s version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” is seriously soulful. The highlight, however, is Otis Redding’s “Day Tripper,” which grooves in your face right from the start. The conviction will blow you out of your chair. Play it loud, and I dare you not to dance. (Mike Zwerin is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer of this review: Mike Zwerin, in Paris, at mikezwerin@gmail.com.