Bobby Mitchell

The only earthly reason for making this two-CD set an oversized box, as opposed to a small double jewel box, was so that the booklet could accommodate the notes and photos -- but it adds nothing to the retail cost, and the booklet is pretty cool. The 47 tracks here cover Mitchell's entire recording career through 1964, on the Imperial, Sho-Biz, Ron, and Rip labels, all in surprisingly consistent sound given the age and varied sources of the recordings. The early tracks, Mitchell and the Toppers' first sessions from 1953, are a little crude, as was typical of R&B from this era -- though the singing and playing overcome this inherent difficulty. By the time of their 1954 sessions, the group and their recordings are rather more sophisticated, and Mitchell's vocals are more confident as well. Disc Two covers the second half of Mitchell's career with Imperial, including the classic "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday." The four songs that Mitchell cut for Imperial on his brief return in 1962 show him working in an Arthur Alexander-type mode, doing slow romantic ballads extremely effectively. But the real jewels on Disc Two are the songs Mitchell cut with Dr. John on the Sho-Biz and Ron labels, which include a raft of dazzling, soulful rockers. If anything, these rock harder than the Imperial sides, and Mitchell sounds more comfortable, with an arrangement, backing band, and tempos more suited to his strengths as a singer, stretching out and finally finding a voice and sound completely his own. Those tracks and some unreleased numbers deserved hit status, and why they failed, apart from the modest resources of the labels they were done for, is anyone's guess. The box concludes with Mitchell's answer song to his second biggest hit, "I Don't Want to Be a Wheel No More," and his towering 1963 single "Walking in Circles" -- lushly scored for a full band and chorus, Mitchell's voice in these surroundings soars to majestic new heights of soulfulness. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide