Reviewed by Tony Cummings During his long career singer, actor and songwriter Louis Allen Rawls sang before presidents, appeared in numerous films and TV programmes, won just about every award the record industry could give him and sold, according to Wikipedia, more than 40 million records. In 1951 Rawls replaced Sam Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers. Rawls then went on to sing with the Chosen Gospel Singers and then the Pilgrim Travelers before going the way of numerous other church-raised singers and pursuing the glittering prizes of pop and R&B. It took Lou quite a while to make much headway and the late '50s recordings assembled on this two CD compilation, cut for tiny record companies like Shardee and Candix, aren't in truth particularly good, though some might enjoy his cover of the Brook Benton hit "Kiddio". By the time Lou signed with Capitol Records though, he had established himself as a sophisticated nightclub entertainer similar to Sam Cooke's approach at the time and his albums for Capitol featured here, 'Black & Blue' and 'Stormy Monday' (the latter with bluesy pianist Les McCann), offer finger-snapping renditions of blues evergreens like "Kansas City", "I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town" and "See See Rider". Gospel devotees will be most interested in the album Capitol unexpectedly released in 1962 when they brought him together again with the Pilgrim Travelers. Certainly, his renditions of Sam Cooke's "That's Heaven To Me" and J W Alexander's "Walking In The Light Of The Lord" showed that his rich baritone was still powerfully effective on songs of faith. All in all, an intriguing glimpse into the recording history of a larger than life figure.
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