Lookin’ For A Love

ABKCO 2014, £5.49

You say: “He laid strong gospel and R&B foundations, the singing and writing so promising.” Jack Eyre, via e-mail

Collecting The Complete SAR

Recordings of both The Womack Brothers (Friendly Jr, Curtis, Harry, Cecil and Bobby) and their secular iteration The Valentinos. Bobby met mentor Sam Cooke in the early ’50s. By the time they reconnected in ’61, Cooke had his own label, SAR, and Womack was evolving as a writer, as heard on The Womack Brothers’ confident Yield Not To Temptation (sung by Curtis) and Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray. A year later they were The Valentinos and Bobby is firmly in charge, singing lead on Lookin’ For A Love (his Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray rewritten by JW Alexander & Zelda Samuels) and in 1964 his original It’s All Over Now, which gave The Rolling Stones a first UK Number 1 and first US hit.