Title
Artist
Label
Format
Date

 The Best Of Alton Ellis
Alton Ellis
Studio One
CD
20-02-1998

Track list
  1. Can I change your mind
  2. Breaking up is hard
  3. This feeling of love
  4. Land of loving
  5. Pearls
  6. Knock on wood
  7. Can't stop now
  8. Remember that Sunday
  9. Baby I love you
  10. Jamaica
  11. Sitting in the park
  12. Set a better example
  13. Chatty chatty
  14. Cry tough
  15. Still trying
  16. Willow tree
Rating : from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
Vocals : 5 Backing : 5 Production : 5 Sound quality : 3/4 Sleeve : 3/4
Coxsonne Dodd keeps on releasing classic Studio sets on compact disc. HeartBeat has issued a lot of essential recordings and will be releasing more Studio productions in the near future.
Alton Ellis was born in 1944, Kingston, Jamaica. He has been in the business for more than 30 years and is still making fine records. He recorded intensively for both Coxsonne Dodd and Duke Reid in the '60s and '70s. Apart from his songwriting abilities and voice Alton Eliss' particular gift was his ability to take soul songs and place them in a specifically Jamaican context and so make them 'reggae songs' rather than mere cover versions.
This Alton Ellis set is on Coxsonne Dodd's own Studio One imprint. It's a re-release of the early '70s album with extended mixes and added (strong) Treasure Isle tracks.(For some unknown reason the track 'La la la' is not found on the cd). It's a classic collection of some of his best material recorded at Brentford Road. It's hard to choose between the self-penned material and his reworkings of US hits (only the Eddy Floyd song 'Knock On Wood' doesn't quite come off). Tracks like 'Still Trying', 'Breaking Up Is Hard', 'Pearls', 'Sitting In The Park' and 'Willow Tree' have been versioned countless times, but even Coxsonne dodd has yet to put out a next cut to 'Set A Better Example', which deserves similar status.
Essential release !