All-Time Hits & Picks

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This is Ray Charles’ best-selling album of all time, with a series of duets with other greats, including Elton John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor, among others. The recent death of this legendary innovator, plus the well-regarded movie that bears his name, reminds us of his significant impact on American music. After 250 recording sessions and upon receiving 13 Grammy Awards, Ray Charles’ musical legacy is now complete.

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Blinded at 6, orphaned at 15, a star at 25. If you only buy one CD of Ray Charles, this one has more of his best than any other. The 2-disc set begins with “Mess Around,” recorded in 1953, and ends with “I’ll be Good To You” from 1989. In all, 36 hits to savor.

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This 2003 album is dedicated to the Motown sound that came from Detroit, Michigan. These songs, which includes several by Stevie Wonder and Ashford & Simpson, all have infectious beats and lyrics that concentrate on affairs of the heart. The album includes such great tunes as “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” McDonald’s rich, smooth and deep voice works well with these tunes.

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Grammy^® award-winning recording artist, Queen Latifah, debuts on Verve Records with her new album Trav’lin’ Light. On this jazz and R&B influenced album from legendary producers Tommy LiPuma and Ron Fair, Queen Latifah delivers sultry yet powerful performances on a hand-picked mix of familiar classics and forgotten jewels.

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“Leave the daddy-daughter dynamics for People magazine to dissect, but one thing’s for sure: with Coming Home, Lionel Richie may divebomb the spotlight so completely that daughter Nicole ends up a shadowy speck in the celebrity haze. Unlike virtually every other high-profile R&B record to arrive in recent years, Coming Home resists the temptation to lean back, even a little, on its dazzled-up list of collaborators, Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq, and Dallas Austin among them. Hot beats abound, especially on the dancefloor-ready ‘Up All Night,’ first single ‘I Call it Love,’ and ’Why,’ but the overall vibe is pure Lionel, from the Commodores-esque ‘What You Are’ to the ‘Penny Lover’-like prettiness of ‘Coming Home,’ to the wavy steel-guitar-laced lament that is ‘Outta My Head.’ Here are hooks that sink in instantly and vocals that float as if grafted to a bar of Ivory soap. Here, too, is a record unafraid of reaching artistically; if 2004’s Just For You was dominated by classy but predictable ballads, Coming Home represents Mr. Richie as the trailblazing musical titan generations of fans fell in love by. Turn the volume up to 11 and make room on the couch — a hotter homecoming won’t happen this year.” —Amazon.com

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“Add Smokey Robinson to the list of sophisticated crooners sidestepping the race to rack up songwriter credits in favor of revisiting standards. Don’t add him to the list of well-loved pop statesmen willing to let a team of backing musicians do the heavy lifting, though. With Timeless Love, Smokey situates himself in a candle-lit lounge of the mind: these may be other artists’ songs, but he sketches in the details with the very stuff of his soul. Which, as anybody who’s ever sung along to ‘The Tracks of My Tears’ knows, is leagues more potent than most. Heart-stabbingly so. In Frank Sinatra’s quite capable hands, for example, ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ is a bawdy, puff-chested romp; in Smokey’s it’s a tender celebration of blinding love (ditto for ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’). Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time,’ meanwhile, becomes less brooding and more pleading as he ups the romantic balladeer quotient — there’s something in the twists and turns of that gorgeous, trembling tenor.” —Amazon.com

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Barry White, a child of inner-city Los Angeles, grew up (and boy did he grow) into one of the great soul crooners of all time. His deep basso profundo reverberates around your soul and doesn’t stop, and his long list of hits are well represented in this 1994 collection. Go ahead, dim the lights and listen to: “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby,” and “Never, Never Gonna Give You Up.” And there’s 18 more after that.

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