Me And Mrs. Jones: The Best Of Billy Paul
Billy Paul might've been just an archetypal '70sPhilly-soullove man with a slightly over-formal jazz-trained voice, melodramatic arrangements, and one great cheating song (the title track), but there was a side of him that was a revolutionary dressed as a Casanova: some of his best crooning was in the service of black power.Curtis Mayfield's early solo work is the obvious template for epics such as "Black Wonders of the World," but recastingPaul McCartney's "Let 'Em In" as a civil rights anthem is a stroke of genius only a populist like Billy Paul could've had. The lighter, more apolitical songs here sometimes stagger under their Gamble-Huff production, but when Paul gets a chance to cut loose and jazz up aDylantune with a piano trio, it's a treat.--Douglas Wolk