![]() The lilt in Green’s voice conjures many possible readings. As a music critic forced to listen to music 24/7, it’s hard for me to lose myself in very many albums these days, but I’m Still In Love With You never fails to envelop me into the crushed velvet sound of Willie Mitchell’s production and plaintive edge of Green’s wails, cries, and croons. Instead, what I was so taken with on that first listen - and what takes me every time I play it - is how it evokes moments of beauty so intense that I lose my consciousness in them. On a basic level, the album simply boasts superior songwriting and arrangement/production but it probably took me years to really even appreciate it on an analytical level. I realize that the latter is the critics’ favorite and Let’s Stay Together is probably one of his best sellers but I instantly - and permanently - gravitated to the songs on I’m Still In Love With You. I also went out and purchased Green’s holy triumphirate of Hi Records albums: Let’s Stay Together, I’m Still In Love With You, and Call Me. I purchased one for $10 and promptly wore the tape to static, playing it over and over and then making dubs for friends, assuming that they probably had never heard an Al Green album simply because I hadn’t (this was likely a poor assumption but I was so eager to share what I thought was an amazing discovery that I never stopped to think - hey, this guy’s probably really popular). A budding entrepreneur had recorded his own “best of” compilations of different soul and reggae artists and he was playing selections from Green’s Let’s Stay Together and I’m Still In Love With You LPs. And then one day, probably in 1994 or ’95, I heard the most gorgeous soul songs coming out of a boombox at the Ashby Flea Market. Of course, I had heard “Let’s Stay Together” on the radio - loved the song - but never managed to follow-up on that piqued interest to listen to his albums. I first discovered Al Green in a Berkeley flea market. In other words, if I were forced to spend eternity listening to one album, I would, without hesitation, select Green’s 1972 classic to be my musical companion until the end of days. Just to retain some mystery, I won’t reveal what all four LPs are though I will share that the album that begins the quartet is Al Green’s I’m Still In Love With You, undoubtedly one of all-time favorite albums and more importantly, my so-called “desert island disc”. Where one of them could fall and crush his skull in his sleep.” They represent a mix of both my favorite and most influential LPs in my young musical audiobiography and are my way of not-so-subtly saying to those who visit - “Hey, Oliver really must like these LPs since he has them framed. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart the year of its release.Īnd of course, Chris Stapleton released what is now the most well-known version of the iconic country song as a cover on his iconic 2015 Traveler album.Being the record geek that I am, in my bedroom, above my bed, are mounted four album covers. ![]() Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1981, though George Jones’ 1983 cover peaked at #2 on the U.S. Written by the great Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, “Tennessee Whiskey” was originally recorded by David Allan Coe as the title track to his 1981 album. One of the songs he covered on the album, On Top Of The Covers, is “Tennessee Whiskey.” The famed Auto-Tune singer responsible for early 2000s bangers like “I’m Sprung,” “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper),” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” and more dropped an album last week filled with covers of love songs we all know and love. T-Pain covering Chris Stapleton was not on my bingo card for 2023. ![]()
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