The Relief Of Ben E King

Some mellow soul for your Sunday evening. Today's selection are both taken from "The Beginning Of It All" by Ben E. King, released in 1972 on the Mandala label. Sadly it proved to be the end of it all, at least for a while, as the record label collapsed a few months after the album was released and Mr King was reduced to playing the oldies circuit for a few years until he was "rediscovered" by Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic Records in the mid-70s.

Overall "The Beginning Of It All" is a pretty decent album, with some good originals and some well chosen covers including Elton's "Take Me To The Pilot" and Dave Mason's "Only You Know And I Know". The pick of the covers is probably his very pleasant take on Van's "Into The Mystic" and, together with one of the originals, that is what you are getting.

"Into The Mystic"

"All Of Your Tomorrows"

Here he is enjoying greater success a few years later:



And here's how they do the same thing in Italy. The leading lady goes by the name of Miriana Trevisan. Personally I would like to have seen more of the all-female horn section - and any innuendo you read into that is entirely of your own making - as I suspect their instuments are purely for display purposes. I wouldn't be surprised if three or four of them are MEPs by now.