The Winley Recordings 1957-62 Winley Records

This 18-song CD is as much a mystery as it is mostly a delight, and it is definitely the latter. It is first-rate R&B, to be sure, a fact that speaks volumes to the talent contained within the Clovers even in their later years. And even though only four tracks here can properly be credited to the Clovers, the singing, the material, and the arrangements all soar, pound, and surge with passion and phenomenal musicianship, whether it's the actual late-era Clovers (circa 1962) doing "Let Me Hold You" and "Wrapped Up in a Dream," "the Fabulous Clovers" (an offshoot group led by Billy Mitchell, the lead singer on "Love Potion No. 9") doing the pounding "They're Rockin' Down the Street," or the bluesy "Nobody's Fault But Mine," by Charlie White "of the Clovers." And one can't object to White's recordings filling out the CD, as he can belt out those rhythm numbers like nobody's business. Where precisely all of these recordings fit into the Clovers' broader history is a mystery that won't be solved on this collection — there's no annotation to speak of, and the makers even seem to obfuscate about the group's history with the one blurb that is here. A discography would be too much to hope for under these circumstances — but one area where they have not skimped is the sound quality, which is first-rate and then some, rivaling the best work done on the Drifters' catalog of the same era. And the biggest mystery for some will be the presence of the four "bonus" tracks at the end of the disc, two each credited to the New Souls and to Earl Knight & George Kelly — they're enjoyable enough, even if they have no connection stylistically to what we've heard before, and no obvious relationship to the Clovers.