Tommy Hunt's reputation as a major soul artist was built on his Scepter and Wand sides and augmented in the UK by his dance tracks, belatedly issued from those labels tapes along with his later independent UK waxings in the 70s. Recent tape research has revealed five more unissued Scepter recordings, including a great take on Van McCoy's What's The Matter Baby originally cut on the Shirelles. I'm Lonely For You and One Of These Days are beat ballads in his popular early 60s style, while Who You Gonna Thrill Tonight and Girls Are Sentimental are the sort of romantic ballads that New York studios specialised in. All the tracks are fully orchestrated. The Pretty Part Of You was a 100 Club floor-filler from its tape discovery in the mid-80s, around the same time his effervescent version of The Work Song became a favourite. The popularity of Never Love A Robin dates back to the earliest Northern Soul clubs. It is the first time on CD for most tracks, including the rare alternate B-side How Young Is Young, the scarce Scepter LP-only You're So Fine and some hard-to-find Dynamo recordings, including a later recording of his biggest hit Human . Tommy's four immediate post-Scepter recordings for Atlantic and Capitol in 1965 and 1966 are reissued for the first time and sound magnificent; the Atlantic recordings were actually cut in Chicago. Tommy's intriguing life story is a read in itself and his black music history, covering so many eras, is enthralling. Compilation and notes by Ady Croasdell.
