VA - In The Naked City (2008)

Ah, New York, New York! The big apple! City of dreams! The town so nice they named it twice! Where would songwriters be without having the Big Town to use as a metaphor and/or a setting where big hopes and bigger challenges face every person who walks those mean streets? Two dozen classic rock and R&B songs about life in the Big City are collected on In the Naked City, a compilation from Kent Soul that pays musical homage to New York and its musical identity. These tunes were recorded between 1962 and 1972, with most dating from the mid-'60s, and while not all of the songs specifically namecheck New York City, all tell stories of the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life, from the celebratory (Chuck Jackson's "Big New York" and Marva Josie's "I Love New York") to the bittersweet ("No Pity in the Naked City" by Jackie Wilson and "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore" by Jerry Butler). Appropriately, most of these tracks lean to the polished Brill Building production style that ruled the airwaves in the mid-'60s, though Ralfi Pagan's cover of "Up o the Roof" adds some potent Latin flavor to the disc (as does Aretha Franklin's "Spanish Harlem"), and the great Arthur Alexander transplants a bit of Southern soul to his window box with "Concrete Jungle." A few key songs appear in cover versions, most notably Little Eva's recording of "Uptown" (a major hit for the Crystals), but compilers Mick Patrick and Tony Rounce have done a splendid job of tracking down great performances of tunes related to their theme, and In the Naked City is superb listening either for native New Yorkers celebrating their hometown or outsiders who've fallen in love with Manhattan's image in the media.~In the Naked City Review by Mark Deming