This Love Is Real

AMG Review of This Love Is Real

Ed Hogan
All Music Guide

By the time of the release of This Love Is Real, it seemed that Chicago soul producer Carl Davis had the hit formula for Jackie Wilson down pat. He'd recruit Motown's James Jamerson, Earl Van Dyke, Benny Benjamin, and the rest of the Funk Brothers and combine their dynamic interplay with a top-notch song from his stable of talented songwriters. It had worked with Wilson's comeback hit "Higher and Higher and was still working some three years later. The effervescent single "(I Can Feel Those Vibrations) This Love Is Real" charted on Billboard in late 1970, becoming a steppers classic. The pop ballad "Love Is Funny That Way" broke the R&B Top 20. Wilson's impressive vocal prowess is showcased on "Let This Be a Letter (To My Baby)" and "Love Uprising," both written by the Chi-Lites' Eugene Record. The ethereal "Think About the Good Times" features an outstanding instrumental break that features fluid wah-wah guitar, dazzling bass runs, and otherworldly sound effects supplied by engineer Bruce Swedien. This Love Is Real was reissued with another great Davis/Wilson LP, You Got Me Walking, on a fine 1999 single CD This Love Is Real/You Got Me Walking from U.K. label Edsel Records.