Little Willie John: All 15 of His Chart Hits from 1953-1962

Album Review

Little Willie John was a unique talent, with a voice that conveyed pain and hurt at an emotional pitch seldom encountered in pop music in the 1950s, or since. John's impassioned, gospel-tinged vocals influenced singers as diverse as Sam Cooke and John Lennon and paved the way for the concept of soul. This guy knew how to put himself over (he sang with both Duke Ellington and Count Basie's bands, remember), and his work for Syd Nathan's King Records from 1953 to 1962 is indispensable. This collection features his biggest hits for the label, including his best-known track, "Fever," which he co-wrote, and his first and last hits, "All Around the World" and "Sleep," and the incredible, burn-the-night-down vocals of "Need Your Love So Bad." A diminutive man with a volatile temper and a drinking problem, John stabbed a man and was sent to prison for manslaughter in 1966, where he died two years later at the age of 31, robbing the world of its first true soul singer, and his story is one of the most tragic in all of pop. The release has the same running order as King's 1996 issue under the same title, but sports different artwork.