William Bell - Wow...(1971) & Bound To Happen (1969)

 Released in the wake of his biggest Stax hit, 1968's "I Forgot to Be Your Lover" (which, oddly, is not included on the album), Bound to Happen had some blockbuster elements: Booker T. Jones produced and arranged, the MG's played backup, and the Memphis Horns were used. Bell and Jones wrote much of the material together. Still, it's only a cut above pleasant journeyman soul, often with a sweeter feel than you'd expect from a Jones production. The high points are the small hit "My Whole World Is Falling Down" and Bell's version of "Born Under a Bad Sign," which he co-wrote with Jones, and which had already been a big hit for Albert King. The covers of Sly Stone's "Everyday People" and Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," though, smack of filler. This has been paired with his 1971 album Wow... on a single-disc CD reissue. 

 Much of Bell's first '70s album was cut at Muscle Shoals, with background vocals layered in at a studio in Los Angeles and horns and strings recorded in Memphis. This kind of production-by-mail usually spells trouble, and while it didn't have a readily apparent impact upon the results, this doesn't count as one of Bell's more distinguished efforts. Part of the problem is that William himself wrote hardly any of the material, but the larger issue is that it's competent but unremarkable period soul with a slightly slicker-than-necessary execution -- criticisms that could be leveled at the output of the Stax label as a whole by 1970. When it gets just a little more rootsy, as on his version of Eddie Floyd's "I'll Be Home," things are more satisfying. To add marketability to the LP, Bell's late-1968 Top Ten R&B hit "I Forgot to Be Your Lover," his biggest single for Stax, was added to the track list. This has been paired with his 1969 album Bound to Happen on a single-disc CD reissue.