AMG Review of If You Need Me

Joslyn Layne
All Music Guide

This early Solomon Burke album is named for the opening cut, his take on Wilson Pickett's "If You Need Me," which was a successful single for Burke, almost reaching number one on the R&B charts. Recorded between late 1959 and early 1963, these mostly mid-tempo songs find Burke's somewhat gritty pleas at home in sultry, bluesy surroundings ("Send Me Some Loving") and sweetened up for the occasional exotica-tinged arrangement ("Tonight My Heart She Is Crying"). It's unfortunate that the sound was not remastered for the late-'90s reissue by Sequel.