1-CD (Digipak) with 36-page booklet, 31 tracks. Total playing time approx. 79 min.

With the fantastic The ''5'' Royales, we introduce another significant element in the transformation of African-American music from gospel to R&B to soul in our 'Rocks' CD-series.

Bear Family outlines the vocal quintet's journey from a pure gospel group to one of rhythm 'n' blues' most successful formations.

From their beginnings on Apollo Records to their outstanding recordings for King, we deliver the quintet's best powerful songs.

The energetic playing of guitarist Lowman Pauling, Jr. influenced later peers such as Steve Cropper, who was instrumental in shaping the Stax sound in the '60s.

Competent and meticulously researched liner notes by Chicago black music expert Bill Dahl in the richly illustrated booklet; 6-page digipak.

Like Clyde McPhatter and Ray Charles, The ''5'' Royales played a seminal role in combining melismatic gospel vocals with rhythm and blues lyrics and instrumentation to help invent soul music. The powerhouse vocal quintet from Winston-Salem, North Carolina started out belting spirituals exclusively, but after signing with New York's Apollo Records in 1951 detoured onto a secular route. They were unabashed rockers, as Bear Family's new compilation of their sides makes abundantly clear, from their earliest Apollo classics (1953's R&B chart-topper Baby Don't Do It and the delightfully ribald Laundromat Blues are prime examples) through their prolific heyday on the King label. Their principal source of material, Lowman Pauling, Jr., unleashed his previously undocumented lead guitar work from 1957 on so lethally that it became a prime component of the Royales' attack, slashing through their '57 hit Think and deeply influencing Stax guitar king Steve Cropper's developing style. The unholy marriage of sanctified and secular never rocked harder than when The '5' Royales were positioned behind a microphone!

 

Cast & Crew

Director: 

Track Listing

• I Like It Like That
• The Real Thing
• Monkey Hibs And Rice
• It Hurts Inside
• Baby, Don't Do It
• I Ain't Getting Caught
• Tell The Truth
• Not Going To Cry
• Do The Cha Cha Cherry
• Laundromat Blues
• (Something Moves Me) Within My Heart
• Right Around The Corner
• Catch That Teardrop
• Think
• I Need Your Lovin' Baby
• Baby, Take All Of Me
• You Know I Know
• What's That
• Mohawk Squaw
• Messin' Up
• I Could Love You
• Too Much Lovin'
• I Know It's Hard But It's Fair
• All Righty
• The Slummer The Slum
• I Want It Like That
• Goof Ball
• I Do
• Don't Give No More Than You Can Take
• Mine Forevermore
• I'm Gonna Run It Down

Additional Details

Label: Bear Family Records

Genre: R & B

Language: English

Run Time: 79:00 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 06/04/21

UPC: 5397102175220