You can never have enough "Good News"!!!!!
Ted | 06/12/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's hard to not give a Persuasions album 5 stars. They're all grand affairs, but they have very different personalities. "Good News", recorded in 1982, finds them working mostly as a quartet (with occasional touches by "Sweet Joe" Russell, who was on hiatus from the group at the time), but their sound is, if anything, punchier than usual. There's a bright quality and lively energy to each tune that is absolutely unique to this album. Maybe it was just their mood in the recording studio...In any case, the song line-up is eclectic as always: everything from the Everly Brothers' "All I have To Do Is Dream" (with a lovely baseline by Jimmy Hayes) to Sam Cooke's "Cupid" (complete with flying arrow sound effects by Jerry Lawson) and Stephen Foster's "Swanee River Medley." There are also two wonderful live cuts here, included because they caught the group in especially fine fettle: "I'll Come Running Back To You" and "I Won't Be The Fool Anymore." These guys have a knack for picking unfamiliar and lesser-known tunes and bringing out the glory in them in ways the authors never imagined. For that matter they have a knack for picking out familiar tunes and bringing out the glory in them. They add little twists and tempo changes in arrangements that render the songs, as lead singer Jerry Lawson often says, "Persuasion songs." I bought this in 1982 on vinyl, and wore the thing out. Good news, to be sure. Great news, in fact. And here's a scoop: The Persuasions are a national treasure. Somebody get these guys a Grammy, and make it fast!"
Just Makes Me Think of David
Ted | Brooklyn | 01/19/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Fans of David Ruffin take note, this collection features two of the greatest Persuasions tracks: 'Message From Maria' and 'I've Lost Everything I Ever Loved,' both originally on Ruffin's 'My Whole World Ended,' his first solo LP after leaving The Temptations. Not only surpassing the intensity of the originals, the Persuasions also pay one of the few (only?) relevant musical tributes to the solo career of one of soul's finest voices. 'I Won't Be The Fool Anymore' closes the LP and unrelated from this Ruffin banter is also a total stand-out. I only prod because I think fans of this should lend an ear to one of the David Ruffin collections that feature these tracks because I'd be happy just bending people's ears to the great David Ruffin and his spotty solo career."