Bobby Caldwell: Bobby Caldwell [BE WITH RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

Be With Records' reissue is newly remastered. "What You Won't Do for Love" reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 on the R&B chart, and the album spent 31 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 21.

This edition

• Remastered

About the album

Smooth soul doesn't get much silkier than this. Bobby Caldwell wrote every song on his debut, and when it came out on TK Records' Clouds imprint in October 1978 it slid straight onto R&B radio, which took to his warm, easy croon and the album's blend of soul, disco and jazz.

Ann Holloway produced most of it, with Marsha Radcliffe on "Special to Me" and "My Flame" and George "Chocolate" Perry on "Can't Say Goodbye." "What You Won't Do for Love" is the big one, all lush horns and a melody that's impossible to shake, while "Special to Me" kicks things off with a bright, dancing groove and "My Flame" glows. "Come to Me" and "Take Me Back to Then" keep the late-night mood, and the instrumental "Kalimba Song" adds a little sunshine before "Down for the Third Time" closes it out.

It reached No. 7 on the Soul LPs chart and No. 35 in Canada, and later CDs simply renamed it after the hit. The record is called Bobby Caldwell, by Bobby Caldwell, which is the kind of plain dealing we appreciate in an album this smooth.

Also at Kops: more Bobby Caldwell on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Clouds / Be With Records (cat# BEWITH158LP), a reissue of the 1978 album.