Chuck Jackson

This two-fer reissues soul belter Chuck Jackson's earliest LPs for the Wand label. A significant cut above the typical filler-stuffed soul collections of the early '60s, I Don't Want to Cry's hit title cut serves as a springboard to explore 11 other tear-stained tunes, forming a concept record detailing the many subtle gradations of melancholy and heartbreak. Pop classics like "Tears on My Pillow," "Lonely Teardrops," and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" are well matched to Jackson's deep, poignant vocals -- blunt emotional force was always his greatest strength, and rarely was he served by better material, most notably the early Burt Bacharach/Hal David collaboration "I Wake Up Crying." Indeed, after Dionne Warwick, Jackson was arguably the premier interpreter of the indelible Bacharach oeuvre, and Any Day Now's title cut remains the apex of their collaboration, its dramatic arrangement and suffocating fatalism proving the perfect showcase for Jackson's richly poignant vocals. The LP also features the wrenching ballad "I Keep Forgetting," but on the whole it's wildly uneven, fleshing out the hits with pedestrian filler. The singer invests even the weakest material, like "Angel of Angels," with startling emotion, but more often than not his rescue attempts fall short. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide