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BOBBY WOMACK GIVES HIS 'BEST': New 'Best of' now available.
He is easily grouped with the likes of Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and Wilson Pickett, with a repertoire that not only compares to the masterpieces of these artists, but also ties him to the hits of some.
His songwriting and guitarist skills and have given hit tracks for them and legends Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Sly Stone, and Janis Joplin. The man’s resume reads like the Soul Hall of Fame.
It’s no wonder the singer’s ‘Best Of’ collection has been so highly anticipated. The disc, titled “The Best of Bobby Womack: The Soul Years” hit stores just last week and is available for download at iTunes, too.
The hits on the new album span his soulful decades, and still don’t even begin to encompass all his great hits of Womack.
“EMI, who I’ve been with for at least 30 years, decided to come out with the ‘Best Of’. I think it’s great that people of today and before – if they can’t get it, they’ve now got a way of getting it,” Womack said of the disc and explained that EMI had most of his hit tracks, so he was confident that the company would pick a good group of them for the album.
“When they ran it passed me, I said great, but there were a few things that I thought would be in it.”
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As it happens, some famed Womack tracks weren’t available because of label politics. The Cleveland native began his career on Sam Cook’s SAR Label, and weaved his career through the United Artist label, Columbia Records, Arista Records, and MCA, just to name a few. With a long career, Womack was on several labels throughout his career, and as such, not all his hits came through EMI, such as his major hit “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” That hit song was on the album “The Poet,” which Womack released in 1981 through a small independent label called Beverly Glen.
“The issue was that Beverly Glen didn’t want EMI to have ‘If You Think You’re Lonely Now,’” Womack explained to EUR’s Lee Bailey, but the singer said he is not discouraged.
“I’d say 90% of the stuff [on the new disc] is good, but it leaves a lot of room for Part 2,” he said.
Clearly, there are no worries for soul-funk fiends. The “Best of Bobby Womack” features the hits “Harry Hippie,” “Woman’s Gotta Have It,” “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha,” and “Across 110th Street,” just to name a few. The album will not only have ‘70s soulsters reminiscing, but will just as easily have new heads bobbin’.
Womack not only made and gave hits to some of soul and rock’s most celebrated singers – Womack remakes done by The Rolling Stones and George Benson garnered top hits – but contemporary artists have gained from his mastery. K-Ci Hailey (K-Ci & JoJo) redid two of Womack’s hits and Mariah Carey gives a nod in her track “We Belong Together.”
“I’ve had some good shots with that and I’ve had some negative shots where I said they couldn’t come out with that,” Womack said of the knack of sampling.
He recalled one incident where an artist wanted to sample his voice singing “A Woman’s Gotta Have It” and he had to decline the $75,000 recompense.
“When I said ‘A woman’s gotta have it,’ I was giving respect to my mom for putting up with five sons. I was just saying, you gotta give it to a woman,” he said. “But they just wanted to use my voice saying that. And they were changing the story to say “a b*tch ain’t gotta have this, ain’t gotta have that.’ I said, ‘No, no, no!’”
Womack said that he does not do what he does for the money. And although isn’t a big fan of contemporary R&B, he understands the place and importance of music in society.
“Music is definitely important. Regardless of the fact that I don’t listen to [contemporary music] that much and don’t give it a lot of respect, the respect I give it is that it’s still entertainment and the generations can have their wishes and what they like to hear. I remember when jazz was looking at what R&B was doing was a cheap way out. Everybody’s complained.”
He continued: “Music can make people forget and get you away from depression their dealing with,” he said, describing that the thing that gets him charged is performing to packed houses, and he’s quite thankful that he’s still able to do that.
“It’s like a love affair. The main thing is being able to perform and cut records, and more important than that is that I’m still around and healthy,” he said. “These people can turn away from their pressures and I can turn away from mine and we both feed each other. In a very positive way, in a very spiritual way, that’s great to me.”
What else is great to Womack? The new disc.
“I think it’s a great idea because the generations hear it different and want to approach it different. So it allows them a chance to know who Bobby Womack is and where Bobby Womack comes from.”
To know more about Bobby Womack and his new disc, check out www.bobbywomack.com.
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