Let The Good Times Roll & (Feel So Good) (Mono Version)

Album review

Philly soul singer Bunny Sigler's first LP carried the name of his summer 1967 hit cover of Shirley & Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll." Issued by Philadelphia, PA-based Cameo Parkway and produced by John Medara and Dave White (Len Barry's "1-2-3"), the cover photo of Let the Good Times Roll featured Sigler with a smiling, whimsical expression on his face on a sunny day in the Alice in Wonderland section of New York City's Central Park. The inference was to the hurried white bunny rabbit in the classic Lewis Carroll book. Future Philadelphia International Records co-owner Leon Huff played piano, wrote the beautifully bombastic first single "Girl Don't Make Me Wait," and did some arranging on the LP.
Lennon and McCartney's "Yesterday" gets a bluesy, horns-punctuated reworking. Besides the rollicking "Let the Good Times Roll," another single was the Little Richard-ish "Lovey Dovey," the U.K. Northern soul favorite. The bluesy "Sunny Sunday" is enlivened by vibraphonist Vince Montana. Standout tracks are the Stax-flavored ballad "It's Up to the Women and the comin-ta-get-ya Motown flourishes of "Follow Your Heart." "Always in the Wrong Place (At The Wrong Time)" foreshadows the everyman poignancy of "Somebody Free" found on 1974's That's How Long I'll Be Loving You. There are no original songs by Sigler on Let the Good Times Roll because he hadn't started writing songs. His introduction to the art of songwriting happened in 1968 while he was hanging around the offices of the just-opened Gamble & Huff Productions.

© Ed Hogan /TiVo