Georgie Fame - 20 Beat Classics

Georgie Fame is an English rhythm and blues and jazz singer, and keyboard player. The musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only British pop star to have achieved three number one hits with his only Top 10 chart entries: "Yeh, Yeh" in 1964, "Get Away" in 1966 and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967.

"If you weren't there, you wouldn't know. But Fame was the undisputed king of the R&B club scene, with a fanatical following," writes Peter Savage on Amazon. "Why wasn't he a bigger star? Too sophisticated, too musical for an era that was gravitating to loud guitars and crass 'blooze' jamming. In contrast, there was nothing crass or gormless about Fame and the Blue Flames. Listening to this CD brings it all back. Until he popped up as Van Morrison's music director, I'd honestly thought he'd died. [And you should check out the 1990s CDs he appears on with Morrison, they're great]. Now what we need is for some record company to have the intelligence to re-release the whole catalog -- 'Live At The Flamingo', his early ska sides, 'Fame At Last,' 'Sweet Thing'. High spots of this record include an amazing 'Ride Your Pony,' and 'Funny How Times Slips Away.' One thing that made me smile: it's amazing how much this resembles some of Elvis Costello's output. I'm thinking of 'Punch The Clock,' but also some of his recent 'soulful' work. That, BTW, is a compliment, to both."