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| 1. Who I Am | | | 2. It Takes All Kinds Of People To Make A World | | | 3. Walk Away From Love | | | 4. I've Got Nothing But Time | | | 5. The Finger Pointers | | | 6. Wild Honey | | | 7. Heavy Love | | | 8. Statue Of A Fool | | | 9. Love Can Be Hazardous To Your Health | | | 10. Discover Me | | | 11. First Round Knock Out | | | 12. Good Good Times | | | 13. On And Off | | | 14. Ready Willing And Able | | | 15. Everything's Coming Up Love | | | 16. Let's Get Into Something | | | 17. Until We Said Goodbye | | | 18. Christmas Greetings | | | Disc 2 |
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| 1. You're My Peace Of Mind | | | 2. Just Let Me Hold You For A Night | | | 3. I Can't Stop The Rain | | | 4. Nightmare | | | 5. Questions | | | 6. I'm Jealous | | | 7. Hey Woman | | | 8. Hey Woman | | | 9. Rode By The Place (Where We Used To Stay) | | | 10. Let's Say Goodbye Tomorrow | | | 11. Which Way To My Baby | | | 12. I Know She's Not A Mannequin | | | 13. Crime In The Street | | | 14. Show Her In Another Way | | | 15. That World I Lived In | | | 16. Can't Get Over Losing You | | | 17. Bring Her Back | | | 18. Bad, Bad Weather (Til You Come Home) | | | 19. Blackmail | | | 20. One Lucky Day I Found You | | | 21. Make My Water Boil (Loving You Has Been So Wonderful) | | | 22. You Oughta Know Me | |
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RELEASE DATE: October 13th 2006
CD Edition limited to 5000 non-numbered limited edition copies.
By the mid-70s, David Ruffin seemed like he had become a large but somewhat forgotten footnote in Motown lore. But then he came storming back to the top of the charts with “Walk Away From Love,” the first fruits of a stellar collaboration with producer-writer-arranger Van McCoy. “Ruff” and Van cut three albums together, and they are each a glorious moment in soul: elegant productions complementing one of the greatest voices we’ve ever heard. They’re all here, in our next (and final) installment of The Great David Ruffin: The Motown Albums.
Volume 2 collects all three of their albums together – Who I Am, Everything’s Coming Up Love and In My Stride, originally released 1975-77 – in one fantastic 2-CD set. Besides “Walk Away From Love,” highlights include the emotional, personalized cover of “Statue Of A Fool,” the chart hits “Heavy Love,” “Everything’s Coming Up Love,” and “Just Let Me Hold You For A Night,” plus classic LP tracks “Questions,” “Rode By The Place,” “The Finger Pointers” and much more.
That “much more” is no false boast. This edition of Ruffin’s Motown sessions includes an entire album’s worth of unreleased songs from the Motown vaults. These are incredible performances, great productions, classic cuts that were somehow left behind, like his unreleased album David. The second half of our disc 2 in fact includes another outtake from the David sessions. (It’s one we frankly missed when researching that awesome release.) Most of the tracks, cuts 10-19 on disc 2, are from the multi-producer sessions that produced Feelin’ Good, Ruffin’s second solo LP. Producers of these include Johnny Bristol, Ashford & Simpson, Weatherspoon & Dean and Hank Cosby. “You Ought To Know Me” is one of the last McCoy/Ruffin collaborations, an unfinished track from 1977 that nonetheless is a heart-wrenching performance. Another brief bonus is a “Season’s Greetings” recorded for a U.K. promotion around the time of In My Stride.
But the killer cut is “Make My Water Boil,” a.k.a. “Loving You Has Been So Wonderful,” a miracle find that features the once-in-a-lifetime meeting of David Ruffin and Stevie Wonder. It was recorded circa Stevie’s Where I’m Coming From. It’s “two masters mixing it up,” as David Ritz describes in his booklet essay, and alone it’s worth the price of admission.
Also Available: The Great David Ruffin Vol. 1 and Eddie Kendricks – The Thin Man: The Motown Solo Albums Vol. 2. Ruffin’s David is sold out!
Hip-OCrates says: Van McCoy was the writer and/or producer of sixties classics “Baby I’m Yours” by Barbara Lewis and Ruby & The Romantics’ “When You’re Young And In Love” (later covered by Motown’s Marvelettes), among others. In 1975, the year he first worked with Ruffin, Van had his own hit – the no. 1 pop and disco smash, “The Hustle.”
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