Monday, January 09, 2006

Lou Rawls To Be Buried Friday

Singer Lou Rawls will be buried Friday, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson presiding. The family asked that in lieu of flowers, people donate to the United Negro College Fund. No surprise there -- Rawls has been supporting that charity for decades and raised literally hundreds of millions of dollars. Jerry Lewis ain't the only game in town. In fact, I think it was last year that I stumbled across the annual benefit TV show some Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The aging Rawls -- looking dapper in a tux -- strode on stage to the familiar strains of his iconic hit "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" and...blew...me...away. His voice sounded amazing, thrilling, wonderful and the song of course is a stone cold classic.

I was ashamed to find I didn't own it somewhere in my voluminous CD collection. And I was annoyed after going to music stores and finding many shoddy compilations that didn't even include the one titanic hit you absolutely have to have. Finally settled on a Greatest Hits CD from Cema put out in '94. Only ten tracks, and obviously the mastering is dated but I could play that song over and over and over and never get sick of it. As one of his other hits put it, this song will last forever.

2 comments:

Michael in New York said...

Well, I'll definitely check out The Axelrod Years -- 25 tracks for $19 is a good deal. (Don't get me started on CD prices -- I love going to a record store to buy a 20 year old album or a new cd by an unknown band and finding it's $18.95. I love music and I ain't gonna do it; not at that price. But even if the Axelrod CD is amazing, I needed to buy "You'll Never Find..." and it was on virtually none of the paltry CDs I saw -- including the ones that claimed to be greatest hits compilations, including your intriguing recommendation.

Michael in New York said...

And thank you for helping to build the community...one blogger at a time.