Sammy Davis Jr. ”Something For Everyone”

Sammy Davis Jr.

”Something For Everyone”
( LP Tamla Motown, 1970 )
Catalog # 710

Tracklisting:
Side One
1. Spinning Wheel (D.C. Thomas)
2. You’d Better Sit Down, Kids (S. Bono)
3. For Once In My Life (R. Miller/O. Murden)
4. My Way (Anka/Revaux/Francois)
5. Wichita Lineman (J. Webb)
Side Two
1. And When I Die (L. Nyro)
2. In The Ghetto (S. Davis)
3. You’ve Made Me So Very Happy (B. Gordy Jr./P. Holloway/B.Holloway/F. Wilson)
4. Hi-Heel Sneakers (Higginbotham)

Credits:
Arranged By - Billy Strange , George Rhodes
Artwork By [Art Direction] - Ken Kim
Artwork By [Cover Design] - Ken Kim
Artwork By [Liner Design] - Bovema Art Studio , Ken Kim
Engineer - Eddie Brackett
Other [Creative Consultant] - Deke Richards
Photography - Ken Kim
Producer - Jimmy Bowen
Producer [Assistant] - Richard Burns

Reviews:
Sammy Davis, Jr. and other MOR artists signed by Motown, failed to chart. The label didn’t release any singles from this LP and that didn’t help. A bigger problem, however, was that other than carrying the Motown logo, the platter had nothing to do with the Motown sound. The label made no attempt to craft songs for Sammy like Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff later did for Jerry Butler, Joe Simon, the O’Jays, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfied, and others. This is a typical Easy Listening album, produced by Jimmy Bowen that’s not remotely related to Motown. When Gamble & Huff produced Lou Rawls the tracks differed from anything Rawls had done, but they tailored them to his voice and style, and used the same musicians and arrangers that they used for Archie Bell & the Drells, and others - this wasn’t even recorded at Motown. Still, Something For Everybody is no dog, it’s just not innovative. Sammy smokes “Spinning Wheel,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “In The Ghetto,” in his impressive, brassy masculine tenor. He does a couple of Motown remakes, the popular “You Made Me So Very Happy,” and “For Once In My Life.” The most adventurous cut is a rendition of Tommy Tuckers’ “Hi-Heel Sneakers.”
By Andrew Hamilton
(AMG. Copyright © 2010 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.)

===========================

Not something I would normally have picked up but had to get this album for the cover alone and bonus the music is great.
Everyone surely knows Sammy Davis Jr, singer, musician, dancer, actor, comedian. All-round entertainer from a generation that revelled in his type of performer. Of course member of the legendary ‘rat-pack’ that included Frank Sintatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. He had great success throughout the Sixties but his popularity wained as the music world changed and he just wasn’t ‘hip’ anymore as the decade reached its end.
Something For Everyone was released in 1970 by Tamla Motown and would seem to have been an attempt to revitalise his career with a younger crowd who were now listening to wildly different sounds than he’d been used to. The album was not well received at the time which is in some part a failing of Motown to apply their successful formula to his talents, they didn’t even release any singles from it. Despite this the album is great and he does his best with some wonderful takes of Spinning Wheel, In The Ghetto, and Wichita Lineman.

By Pier