Give It Away

AMG Review of Give It Away

John Bush
All Music Guide

After nearly a decade of plugging away in the Chicago soul scene, the Chi-Lites finally reached the charts in 1969 with the effervescent Top Ten R&B hit "Give It Away." Hot on its heels followed this debut LP, a strong one thanks to the composing/performing/producing dynamo Eugene Record as well as the steady hand of producer Carl Davis. "24 Hours of Sadness" is a copycat of their first hit, but just as enjoyable a performance and just as sparkling a production, while "Let Me Be the Man My Daddy Was" is a sweet allad that avoids the expected melodramatic pitfalls. The group's runthrough of several Motown nuggets ("My Whole World Ended," "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me") is also surprisingly successful, with Record's crystal falsetto on the former making for a nice translation of David Ruffin's original. The quartet got a little groovy for "That's My Baby for You," and though a few of the other album tracks are distinctly inferior, the Chi-Lites' first full-length was a bright spot for Chicago soul.