Paul Davis - The Very Best Of Paul Davis (2015)

For someone who racked up fourteen Hot 100 hits over a twelve-year span (eight of which reached the Top 40), it's surprising that Paul Davis is not an instantly recognizable name. Yet when I spoke of working on this compilation, I continuously had to mention records like "I Like Crazy" or "Cool Night" as reminders, which immediately resulted in high praise and distant gazes that suggested fond memories. And just like those whose revelries I instigated, I've my own cherished memory set to a Davis hit. Paul Lavon Davis was born a minister's son in Meridian, Mississippi in 1946 and was already a hometown legend by age eighteen due to his involvement with local band Six Soul Survivors. A one-off single (recorded in an empty grocery store, so legend has it) was released on Rap Records, but "I Gotta Find A Way" / "It's Over My Head" didn't make its way past the local airwaves and remains a rare collectors' item. They survived a name change to The Endless Chain but failed to forge a follow-up until another moniker makeover The Livin' End brought "Soul Ghost," backed with a cover of The Young Rascals' "Groovin,'" for the Mistown label. But it, too, remained a mystery to the national audience. Paul eventually began to focus on songwriting and found a partner in George Soule, who had been a teenage DJ in the Meridian area, and was also a talented musician, playing in several local bands. The two began producing demos, some of which got noticed by Wesley Rose, who signed them to the fabled Acuff-Rose publishing company. While their time with the legendary organization didn't provide the duo with their breakthrough, it did inadvertently lead to their next contract when they learned about the new Malaco Records studio in nearby Jackson. Tired of braving the six-hour journey to Nashville to record their demos, they could cut their travel time by two thirds. When their contract with Acuff-Rose came to an end in 1968, they moved to Jackson and became the first two writers signed to Malaco's upstart publishing outfit. Several local deep soul hits would follow, and while national exposure still eluded Davis and Soule, the experience composing and in the studio bode well for Davis' future. Opportunity soon came to call in the form of Ilene Berns who was running New York's Bang Records after the death of her husband, Bert. Initially interested in a vocalist she had heard on some demos recorded at Malaco, Ilene quickly shifted her interest after hearing Paul sing, and tracks were cut on the spot. Feeling that the results would benefit from some more work back in New York, Paul's Bang debut would benefit from an impressive group of talent that included strings arranged by Thom Bell, background vocals from Sweet Inspirations, and some uncredited tinkering from Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Somehow, despite this lustrous pedigree, "Mississippi River" ran dry chart-wise. His Billboard breakthrough came via a cover of the Bert (Berns) Russell classic "A Little Bit Of Soap," with its light tropical motif, that drifted to #52 on the charts. The follow-up, "I Just Want To Keep It Together," managed to gather enough momentum to go one notch further later that summer, and might have fared better if BJ Thomas, for whom it seemed tailor-made, hadn't been having such a successful year. The events leading up to Paul's next release credited to The Reivers and issued on the Los Angeles label White Whale Records seem to be lost to time, but the single "Revolution In My Soul" c/w "Constantly" is enshrined here. What we do know is that Ilene Berns was married to Eddie Biscoe of White Whale, so the couple may have been being both cost-conscious and cost-effective. The both sides of the record managed to garner enough airplay and sales to bubble under at #112 in 1970, but its growth was most likely hampered by the financial problems that would cause White Whale to flounder and fold later that year. A few more singles followed, but it wasn't until 1972 that Davis would make another substantial dent in the charts, as the Chips Moman-produced "Boogie Woogie Man" danced its way to #68, but the other singles pulled from the Paul Davis album failed to further any momentum. "Ride 'Em Cowboy" the title track from his 1974 album finally broke Davis into the top 40, peaking at #23, and also provided him with his first hit on the Country chart. Although his next two singles came and went unnoticed, the album would inadvertently lead to future successes as it was during this project that Paul first met Ed Seay, engineer at Bang's Web IV studio and the man would soon become an integral part in Davis' production. The next album, Southern Tracks And Fantasies, released in 1976, not only offered a more country element to Paul's sound, it also spawned two more chart singles: "Thinking Of You" (#45) and "Superstar" (#35). Despite another top forty placing under his belt, Paul decided once again to focus on songwriting. Ed Seay recalls, "At that point, Paul was frustrated at being an artist, because [he was] working so hard and not getting really any success out of it. And at that point, he said 'I'm just gonna be a writer, I'm just gonna write songs.' And that's where he'd written 'I Go Crazy.'"