Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The recent return to gospel music of this wonderful artist ('Back To My Roots', 2005 and 'Is Anybody Out There?', 2008) brings Garnet's career full circle, as the veteran started out in gospel music way back in the '50s. This 2002 compilation showcases the singer during his best selling heyday as a '60s soul star. The 16 tracks here are unquestionably some of the finest recordings of the whole soul music era. The opener, the searingly soulful "Cry Baby" was cut with Garnet's vocal group, the Enchanters, and is a stone classic (later mangled by Janis Joplin) but showing here all its brooding, righteous million-selling power, a track, as the sleevenote asserts, which was "a tour de force of controlled hysteria and certainly one of the most intense records ever to achieve a high pop chart placing." That's followed here by Garnet's magnificent cover of the Impressions' "For Your Precious Love" which with "Baby Don't You Weep" was a double sided hit. Between 1964 and 1966 Mimms and brilliant producer/composer Jerry Ragavoy personified the "Uptown" soul sound of New York to make a series of dazzling singles for United Artists, most of which are showcased here. These tracks which merged Garnet's warm, smooth, deeply expressive voice with symphonic-tinged orchestrations reached their pinnacle with 1966's "I'll Take Good Care Of You". It reached number 30 on the pop charts and, like "Cry Baby", is up there as a classic of the genre. All that is missing from these pop music masterpieces is reference to the creator God who inspired Garnet's rich vocal phrasing. But if you're looking for romantic songs of devotion and loss, Garnet's '60s sortie into the mainstream produced some timeless art.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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