Best of high inergy

[glencro]

I ran across this Best of High Inergy cd on AMAZON. I know some of their songs but was not familiar with a lot of them. This cd has 19 tracks from their 8 recordings. I had no idea that High Inergy had released 8 recordings. I became very intrigued when I saw that some of the production was by Ashford & Simpson [[I LOVE their productions) and Rick James among others. Plus DeBarge, Switch and Smoke Robinson are among the guest artists. I'm really thinking about purchasing this project. Any recommendations.

[carlo]

There was a discussion about this CD earlier in the year in the Motown section...

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread...er-High-Inergy

I haven't bought this collection yet, but I read that the sound quality is good.

[Ngroove]

A "No-buy" from me - heard the CD only utilizes, of its many tracks, only about 3 or 4 of their 9 singles - that includes the slightings of "Shoulda Gone Dancin'", "Skate To the Rhythm", among other groovalicious numbers.

My recommendation; wait it out til' hopefully the rumored "Turnin' On" comes out on CD and hope the rest would eventually follow; until then, I'd say buy their vinyl; I myself have "Steppin' Out" and "Frenzy", both extremely fun records!

[jsmith]

This CD was issued by UK label Expansion.
It contains [[like most Expansion CD's) the group's most popular tracks with UK soul fans.
Expansion NEVER just try to release an act's top hits [[many of which haven't stood up to the test of time). They always go for the 'class tracks'.
So if you just want the group's hit 45's, this ain't for you.
If you want the group's best tracks then it's a 'must have'.
The CD blurb ......
In 1977 Motown were morning the fact that their legendary female group, The Supremes, had disbanded. In the wings were four young ladies from Pasadena, California waiting to fill the boots vacated by their idols. Motown swiftly moved to fashion a replacement in the image of The Supremes, so much so that this new vocal quartet were promptly named after their final album for the label High Energy. The e in energy was changed to an I and Motown s newest female group, High Inergy, were born... High Inergy, which comprised of sisters Barbara & Vernessa Mitchell along with Linda Howard and Michelle Rumph, won their recording contract via the very influential Gwen Gordy. They were part of a new crop of young talent coming to Motown at that time along with Switch and the DeBarge family. The writing partnership of Pam Sawyer & Marylin McLeod penned their first hit entitled You Can't Turn Me Off [[In The Middle Of Turning Me On) which reached #2 on the Billboard Black Singles chart, and #12 on the Pop Singles. The group s eight albums between 1977 and 1983 have never been released on CD and this 20 track collection highlights their absolute best from their time at Motown. Guests include Smokey Robinson, Switch and Debarge with productions by Ashford & Simpson, Rick James, Benjamin Wright and Smokey himself too Also includes the hit He s A Pretender performed live by the group on the prestigious Motown 25 TV special release a staggering total of eight albums between 1977 and 1983.

[Ngroove]

This CD was issued by UK label Expansion.
It contains [[like most Expansion CD's) the group's most popular tracks with UK soul fans.
Expansion NEVER just try to release an act's top hits [[many of which haven't stood up to the test of time). They always go for the 'class tracks'.
So if you just want the group's hit 45's, this ain't for you.
If you want the group's best tracks then it's a 'must have'.
The CD blurb ......
In 1977 Motown were morning the fact that their legendary female group, The Supremes, had disbanded. In the wings were four young ladies from Pasadena, California waiting to fill the boots vacated by their idols. Motown swiftly moved to fashion a replacement in the image of The Supremes, so much so that this new vocal quartet were promptly named after their final album for the label High Energy. The e in energy was changed to an I and Motown s newest female group, High Inergy, were born... High Inergy, which comprised of sisters Barbara & Vernessa Mitchell along with Linda Howard and Michelle Rumph, won their recording contract via the very influential Gwen Gordy. They were part of a new crop of young talent coming to Motown at that time along with Switch and the DeBarge family. The writing partnership of Pam Sawyer & Marylin McLeod penned their first hit entitled You Can't Turn Me Off [[In The Middle Of Turning Me On) which reached #2 on the Billboard Black Singles chart, and #12 on the Pop Singles. The group s eight albums between 1977 and 1983 have never been released on CD and this 20 track collection highlights their absolute best from their time at Motown. Guests include Smokey Robinson, Switch and Debarge with productions by Ashford & Simpson, Rick James, Benjamin Wright and Smokey himself too Also includes the hit He s A Pretender performed live by the group on the prestigious Motown 25 TV special release a staggering total of eight albums between 1977 and 1983.

Nevertheless, there are still omissions...
http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread...ht=high+inergy

[Ngroove]

And, "class tracks?" "Haven't stood the test of time?"

THEY were an act of the TIME of late 70s-early 80s - an era dominated by DISCO, FUNK, and whatever makes one DANCE!

Ommitting "dated" songs, regardless how danceable they sounded, for only "classy" , would be like, removing "Keep on Truckin'", "Boogie Down", and "He's A Friend" on an Eddie Kendricks collection; removing "Slippery When Wet", "Brick House", and "Too Hot Ta Trot" on Commodores' collection; just about a LOT of Rick James [[ You & I, Dance Wit Me, Bustin' Out, Cold Blooded, Superfreak, Give It To Me Baby, 69 Times, Glow, ect), and some of Diana Ross' dynamic numbers [[ Love Hangover, The Boss, Upside Down, I'm Comin' Out) - seriously, HOW BORING WOULD THAT BE?????

THE only excuse to exclude 1-2 notable numbers, is simply due to lack of space! If it was a single [[or even double on some of the higher profile long career names) discs, don't expect everything when it comes to Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder, but if it contains a hearty enough of HITS, most of the classics people been groovin' with all these years, those minor slights may be overlooked.

High Inergy, may not exactly be a "hits" act [[as they never having a CD before is evident to their demand for one), BUT, they only had NINE singles! That's like, all could be fittable in one "Milennium Collection", plus two-three album tracks! But instead, their "Best of" CD only really has about 4 of 9 of their "best of" - the rest, "fillered" with album tracks = if they're not chosen as singles on the radio to begin with, that means they must be pretty "fillery-sounding" in general!

Sorry, but their case, NO EXCUSE, to not put them ALL in!

[glencro]

Ngroove, thanx for the previous link. It was pretty helpful for the most part. Almost seems like the consensus is that the cd is not their best work according to the Motowners. I'm not very concerned with "singles". Most of the cd's that I have in my over 2000 cd collection, my favorite songs are random album cuts. It was the producers and guests on the songs that caight my attention, now I'm reading that some of the producers actually are not on there. I guess I'll wait and see.