For Danceable Fun, Charlie Faye & The Fayettes Offer ‘The Whole Shebang’
Henry Carrigan
Posted On February 8, 2019
From the roll of the snare drum on the opening song to the last joyous, celebratory shout to close out the final track, The Whole Shebang delivers groovy, soulful, and gloriously entertaining music. This album is just plain fun, and Charlie Faye and her Fayettes — Betty Soo and Akina Adderley — invite us to push the furniture to the walls and clear the floor so we can dance with abandon or sing along with these transporting tunes. Faye, Soo, and Adderley’s transcendent vocals float over and around each other, spiraling higher and higher with perfect phrasing.
“1-2-3-4” opens the album with a Martha and the Vandellas “Heat Wave” vibe. Propelled by Eric Holden’s jaunty organ and Bill Barrett’s harmonica on the bridge, Faye and the Fayettes’ vocals soar as they let us know that “love’s an elementary thing / like 1-2-3 / Like A-B-C.” In clever fashion, “I Don’t Need No Baby” offers the group’s riposte to The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.” Musically, the song opens with same phrasing as The Ronettes’ song, and then moves in minor chord to an inversion of “Be My Baby”; toward the end of the song, the backing vocals reprise the sonic structure of the Ronettes’ tune, with Soo and Adderley crooning “don’t need you” and “no, no” in call-and-response fashion to Faye’s vocals.
Holden’s spry organ, with ringing bells weaving in and out of the notes, propels the title track — which recalls the musical structure of Gary Lewis and the Playboys’ “Everybody Loves a Clown” — as Faye celebrates having the complete package in her lover: “you could outdo any love song I ever sang / yeah to me, to me, baby, you’re the whole shebang.”
“Night People” delivers a Philly soul vibe, while “Tonight’s the Night” arrives straight out of East Coast doo wop — until the song rockets off in the second verse with a skittering Jerry Lee Lewis-like piano driving the vocals. “Riding High” comes straight out of Memphis and Stax with its Booker T-like keys and horns; Faye’s vocals recall Dusty Springfield’s on this song.
Every song on Charlie Faye & The Fayettes’ new album serves up a heaping helping of perfection. The Whole Shebang is one of those albums that shouts out “Drop me on the turntable and listen!”
