Kent Records UK Keep On Pushing People Get Ready

These two 1964 and 1965 albums (released originally as ABC 493 and 505, respectively) are the second of five CDs that comprehensively cover the ABC-Paramount recordings of the fabulous vocal group The Impressions. In their various guises, the group scored 50 (no, that's not a misprint!) US R&B chart singles and 39 on the Pop chart.

Led by the charismatic singer, songwriter and guitarist Curtis Mayfield, the group also included Fred Cash and Sam Gooden (and, for the first album only, Arthur and Richard Brooks). In 1958, the group had backed Jerry Butler on such recordings as his mammoth hit For Your Precious Love (No. 3 R&B, No. 11 Pop).

Mayfield continued to work with Butler as a musical arranger and guitarist but in 1961, The Impressions signed with ABC-Paramount and cut the sultry, Latin-tinged Gypsy Woman. It achieved classic status, reaching the charts at No. 2 R&B and No. 20 Pop. The songs that comprised the first album The Impressions defined the Chicago sound of soul: smooth, cleverly arranged vocals, light dramatic orchestrations and subtle but compelling rhythms.

Tied up by their second album with the other co-founder of the Chicago sound - Johnny Pate - Mayfield and The Impressions cut their first complete album Never Ending Impressions, a key album from that soul era. The sound The Impressions created influenced not only American and European pop balladeers (The Walker Brothers, among them) but it had a great influence on Jamaican music. I Gotta Keep On Movin' supposedly influenced Bob Marley when writing the reggae classic I Shot The Sheriff. Keep On Pushing / People Get Ready (CDKEND 130) contain two of Mayfield's most telling and timeless performances - Amen and People Get Ready - plus the first socially-aware Mayfield composition to enter the Top 10 - Keep On Pushing. People Get Ready is a stunning song.

It combines the intensity and vision of early gospel music with the new assertiveness of Civil Rights and it went on to become one of the movement's greatest slogans. Elsewhere, the group are content to be nothing but oh-so-cool! (check out Talking About My Baby). They still do even that better than any other group from that era.A message from the keeper of the Kent UK vaults: Kent originally issued these albums on vinyl in 1984.

This release marks their first time ever on CD in their original form.