Search - Jim Weatherly :: The Very Best of Jim Weatherly: The Need to Be

JOURNEY BACK TO THOSE MELLOW 70'S

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 08/14/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jim Weatherly started out as a songwriter, and is responsible for such big 70's hits as "Neither One of Us Wants to be The First to Say Goodbye," "Midnight Train to Georgia", "Where Peaceful Waters Flow," "The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," to name a few. As a songwriter, he penned songs of lost love in a straight-forward, honest, every-day conversational tone. As a singer, his quivering tenor/baritone voice was nothing out of the ordinary, yet he managed to convey a great deal of emotion in his delivery. Weatherly's tunes were those James Taylor-ish type of songs, heavy on acoustic guitar, string accompaniment, and choral accompaniment. My favorite is his own "The Need to Be," which he enjoyed a mild hit with during those seventies years. A paen to the man who needs to be himself, Weatherly warmly evokes all the things that a man feels he needs to be to be himself. A nice song that conjures up many memories from those fleeting years. Other than this minor hit, the CD is composed of songs from his two solo efforts, that produced a couple of minor country hits and one more pop hit. The best of these are "Living for Everyman's Dream," "Like Old Times Again," "I'll Still Love You," "You Are a Song," "It Must Have Been the Rain," "Mississippi" and "What's One More Time." Weatherly the singer didn't make a tremendous impact, but as a songwriter, he fed some big hits to stars like Ray Price and Gladys Knight and the Pips. An enjoyable nostalgic collection."