CoronaVinyl Day 137 (All First Names): The Best of Sam & Dave by Sam & Dave

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "all first names."  By that, I mean groups/bands whose names are comprised solely of first names.  When I came up with this category, I only had a few in mind, but there have actually been quite a lot over the years.  Some examples include Jan & Dean, Peter, Paul & Mary, Sam & Dave, Sonny & Cher, Peter & Gordon, Chad & Jeremy, and Mickey & Sylvia.

I have albums by some of these groups, but I decided to go with my favorite of the bunch, Sam & Dave, and their 1969 "Best of" album.  Sam & Dave -- comprised of Sam Moore (the tenor) and Dave Prater (the baritone/tenor) -- were one of the most successful soul acts of the late '60s.  They were part of the Memphis soul scene, and recorded most of their work in the late '60s at Stax Records, backed by Booker T. & The MGs and the Memphis Horns.  Most of the songs on this album were written by the Stax in-house songwriting power team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter.  So what we're listening to today is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group on vocals, backed by a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group of musicians, performing songs written by two Songwriting Hall of Famers (one of whom is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer).  Decent.  Very decent.

One of the great things about Sam & Dave is their interplay, call-and-response, and interjections where it seems like their either talking to each other, the audience, or the band members.  Sam's line "Play it, Steve" on "Soul Man" has always been a favorite throwaway line of mine -- just a quick, unplanned shout-out to guitarist Steve Cropper (who also played on the Blues Brothers version of the song and was part of the band in the movie).

Anyway, the Best Of album contains nearly all of their A-side singles from their Stax years, as well as a few B-sides.  Of the 14 songs on the album, ten reached the Top 20 of the Billboard R&B chart, including seven that reached the Top 10 and two #1s -- their most famous songs, "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Comin'."  They also had crossover success on the Billboard Hot 100, with those same ten songs all charting, including three Top 40 songs and two Top 10 songs, "Soul Man" (#2) and "I Thank You" (#9), the latter of which was also famously covered by ZZ Top on on their 1979 album Degüello (their cover reached #34 on the Billboard Hot 100).

The Spotify version of the album has 7 more songs than the vinyl version, and the songs aren't in the same order.  Deal with it.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "You Don't Know Like I Know"

This is probably my favorite Sam & Dave song.  I don't know what to say about it, other than it's a great Memphis soul song.  It was their first song that charted on either the Billboard Hot 100 (#90) and the Billboard R&B chart (#7).

Favorite song from Side 2:  "You Don't Know What You Mean to Me"
For Side 2, I'm going with another "You Don't Know" song, and it's another great one that doesn't get as much love as it should.  This one went to #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the Billboard R&B chart.