Tracklist

Side one

1. When the Saints Go Marching In
2. St. Louis Blues
3. Yes Indeed!
4. How Deep is the Ocean
5. Ring-A-Ling-A-Ling (Let the Wedding Bells Ring)
6. Rock Around the Clock

Side two

1. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
2. That Lucky Old Sun
3. Respectable
4. Without a Song
5. Shout (Part I)
6. Shout (Part II)

Thoughts

The Isley Brothers come up a lot in pop quizzes, particularly Popmaster, so it was inevitable that I would listen to one of their albums in the end. They are usually the answer to a question such as 'who recorded this originally' so I was expecting to know quite a few of these songs in a different format.

I was surprised, actually. Where I had thought the 50s and early 60s was all rock & roll guitar bands, last week The Animals opened my eyes to the blues, and this week we're all about gospel. Kicking off with When the Saints Go Marching In sets the scene nicely, you can picture these brothers at the front of the church in their robes, clapping away. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands leads off side two, and that just got me remembering school assemblies.

I liked listening to a genre I probably wouldn't pick out. The problem is that the earnestness of the gospel numbers bleeds through into the other doo-wop and rock and roll tracks. I didn't want to Rock Around the Clock, I thought I should probably just sit down and listen to the good word.

I also hadn't realised just what a good gospel song Shout is... that its origins are clearly from the church. I've only really known the Lulu version which is more of a belter and a bit of fun, but there's some excellent crowd control work in The Isley Brothers' original - raising and lowering the volume, encouraging people to join in, getting people to Shout!

It's difficult to rate this one because the pluses and minuses cancel each other out - it was a pleasant surprise and I learnt a lot, but I feel like trying to squeeze rock and roll, doo-wop and gospel into one album was a misstep. For that, it will have to be a 3 out of 5, but I'm very keen to listen to more.

Rating: 3 / 5