Best of Rose Royce: Car Wash

Performer: Rose Royce
Distributor: Gotham Distributing Corp.

Notes: Best of Rose Royce: Car Wash is a budget-line best-of released in 2004 by Collectables in conjunction with Universal Special Products. The low-priced disc rounds up ten of the late-'70s funk band's key songs, including "Car Wash," "I Wanna Get Next to You," and "I'm Going Down." Granted, it's hard to beat the price of this collection, but keep in mind that you get what you pay for: less than 40 minutes of music (a single disc holds double that), quite a few missing key songs ("Ooh Baby," "Wishing on a Star," "Love Don't Live Here Anymore," and "Pop Your Fingers" in particular), and slapdash packaging (no liners, no photos, nada -- just an advertisement for the other budget-line best-ofs in this so-called "Priceless Collection"). All of this is fine for budget-minded consumers who want the biggest hits and only the biggest hits, and for a low price at that. After all, Rose Royce only had a few big hits to begin with, so there's no need for a box set or anything like that. Still, few big hits or not, the band made some good music during the late '70s with the guidance of Norman Whitfield, and it's preferable to have a full serving of that good music rounded up on a single disc. For that reason, you're better off spending the extra money to buy a more substantial best-of rather than this budget-line one, especially if you're a genuine fan. In particular, Rhino released one in 2001 that's first-rate -- well-packaged and chock-full of standout songs. Titled The Very Best of Rose Royce, it features a full 16 songs, all of them well chosen. And then there's also the old Whitfield best-of, Greatest Hits, originally released back in 1980 and re-released on CD years later. This is another first-rate compilation, including all the key songs, though assembled without the care put into the Rhino comp and also more difficult to find. In any event, Rose Royce collections don't get any more budget than this one by Collectables, which does the job, just not very well. ~ Jason Birchmeier MCA Records removes Richard Pryor, the Pointer Sisters, and many Rose Royce tunes ("Water," "Zig Zag") from the original soundtrack, paring the smash from 19 to 10 cuts. "Car Wash" sounds friskier on CD, and "Daddy Rich" stands out, employing multiple vocals (reminiscent of Norman Whitfield's work with the Temptations). Kenny Copeland's smoldering falsetto lead made "I Wanna Get Next to You" a quiet storm staple for over 25 years; ditto for Rose Dickey's heartbreaking lead on "I'm Going Down," remade by Mary J. Blige in the '90s. Whitfield brought his bag of studio tricks and employs them on every cut. If only all the Rose Royce tracks from the 1976 release were included here. ~ Andrew Hamilton

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