Track Listing

1. Dance (Disco Heat)
2. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) [from the Movie Milk]
3. Down, Down, Down
4. Stars
5. Body Strong
6. I Need You
7. Sell My Soul
8. Cry Me a River
9. Ooo Baby Baby
10. Can't Stop Dancing
11. You Are My Friend

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52180 in Music
• Released on: 1989-07-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Soulful disco
This is the most delectable, elegant disco music, better than most of today's House. Sylvester had a strong and expressive falsetto voice that is carried along on the most infectious dance beats. One could say he was the Smokey Robinson of the disco era. In the late 70s he was as popular as Donna Summer and ruled the dance charts with memorable tracks like the atmospheric Dance (Disco Heat), the rousing You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)and the soulful Stars. This album is not complete, as Sylvester had a couple of other hits too, like the brilliant Do You Wanna Funk and his version of the classic I Who Have Nothing. But this is still a satisfying collection of very melodic, hypnotic music that works well for listening and on the dancefloor.

Four stars in one way, three in another
As a confirmed Sylvester fan, "Original Hits" greatly confuses me. What is this album's point? How is it trying to keep itself together? These are indeed the original recordings, and some were even hits. But "Sell My Soul" and "I Need You," to quote two examples, weren't. Neither was "Body Strong." "Can't Stop Dancing" was basically a concert track which also happened to appear on his 1983 "Non-Stop Dance Party" greatest hits LP. "You Are My Friend" was more of a hit for Patti LaBelle than Sylvester, although it is a great song and helps anchor the brilliant 1979 "Living Proof" concert album. Where, for that matter, is "Do You Wanna Funk?"

If you are going to call yourself a "hits" album and forget perhaps Sylvester's biggest hit (outside of the double A-side of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and "Dance (Disco Heat)), where is your thematic cohesion? It's an album chock full of great songs, but more a scattershot collection of good moments rather than a unified "hits" album.

Where are you know?
I saw him in concert at the Galleria Design Center on several occasions...Tea Dances, Halloween, New Year's Eve - I saw him sing with Patti LeBelle at the Moscone Center - I even saw him sing at the Van Ness Muni Station when MUNI opened their new subway/underground. Wouldn't you know, we had to go in and have an all night dance party first - MUNI cars end-to-end on both sides of the station as bar cars, coat cars, lounge cars - and the main platform as the dance floor - with Sylvester overhead, singing his heart out for us!!!

This CD, if you ever see him in person, will bring you back. If you never saw him perform, you'll get a hint of what the energy was like.