1990
Here is the album where Norman Whitfield said goodbye to the Temptations and hello to a new L.A. groove. To record his final LP with the group in 1973, no longer did Whit use the Funk Brothers to lay down Motown's old-school Detroit funk. Now he was in Hollywood, cutting these band tracks with discovery Rose Royce. 1990 followed the albums All Directions and Masterpiece, two classics of Whitfield's psychedelic soul. This album worked the successful Whitfield formula: short radio hits that snapped with soul and tight rhythms, complemented by spaced-out suites about a screwed-up society that took up almost a whole LP side.1990 featured "Let Your Hair Down," a No. 1 R&B; smash, and two singles that hit the Top 10, the sublime "Heavenly" and "You've Got My Soul On Fire." Yet the album, although No. 2 R&B; and Top 20 Pop, has never been issued on CD until now. The beautifully remastered disc is encased in a mini version of the original, double-cardboard sleeve packaging.