Al Wilson - Disc of the day

Al Wilson
Searching For The Dolphins

(Soul City, 1968/Kent Soul, 2008)

In memory of the man whose The Snake is now advertising something revolting called Lambrini.

Just when TV’s great explainer of Mother Earth and all her creatures, David Attenborough, was attempting to give reptiles a better name with a BBC series earlier this year, along came Al Wilson’s The Snake. Produced in 1968 by Soul City label-boss Johnny Rivers, the track was re-released a couple of months ago on this, its original album. The Snake put the cold-blooded slitherer back into its ‘original sin’ skin as the bad guy of Genesis 3, made the more plausible by Wilson’s wry, confiding manner (not unlike Oscar Brown Jr on this track) and his dark, rich vocal tone. The rest of the album offers wider evidence of that sophisticated singing style, from an expansive version of Fred Neil’s title track to a wistful and contemplative reading of Jim Webb’s Do What You Gotta Do. His take on This Guy’s In Love With You easily matches the hit version, but hey, Herb Alpert never did much more than speak in tune. Al Wilson went on to even greater commercial success in the early ’70s with Show And Tell, a US Number 1, and La La Peace Song, which brought him to the UK. But after 1979’s Count The Days he was mostly restricted to working the clubs and cabaret in the USA. Until, that is, a Liverpool firm who manufacture a drink called Lambrini – Pub Landlord Al Murray might call it “something fruit-based for the ladies”, well that’s what it looks like – helped Wilson’s brand of ’60s smooth soul get one more round in.

Geoff Brown

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 27/04/2008