Product Description
Johnny Ace's greatest hit, the dirge-like blues ballad "Pledging My Love," will forever be entwined with the shocking story of his death during a game of Russian roulette in Houston on Christmas Eve, 1954. The opening track on Duke's Memorial Album, it sounds--with its stark beat, chiming vibes, and Western-saloon piano--as if it had been sung by a ghost. An original member of Memphis's Beale Streeters, piano man Ace could also do rollicking R&B ("Don't You Know"), but Memorial Album is top-heavy with all things slow and mournful: "The Clock" and "Never Let Me Go" were essentially prototypes for the posthumously-released "Pledging My Love," and the lugubrious "Anymore" was its identical follow-up. --Barney Hoskyns
- Track Listings : Disc 1
- Pledging My Love
- Don't You Know
- Never Let Me Go
- So Lonely
- I'm Crazy Baby
- My Song
- Saving My Love For You
- The Clock
- How Can You Be So Mean
- Still Love You So
- Cross My Heart
- Anymore
