Trojan Us
2004
The Anthology: Mad About You
About This Album
Bruce Ruffin's solo career wasn't that of a typical Jamaican singer in the late '60s and early '70s. He began singing rocksteady with the Techniques and dipped his toes briefly in the new sound of reggae, but after that his path is one that few others followed, one of syrupy conservative pop. Almost all of Ruffin's solo material is gathered here on Mad About You, titled after the song that shaped the singer's legacy of reggae-pop. The title cut had a novelty sheen, with chipmunk backing vocals and sappy strings, and was an embarrassment to Ruffin -- but its success convinced him and his producers at the time, Tony Cousins and Bruce White, to run with it. That summery material with breezy melodies and light brass and string arrangements is what the singer is best known for, and in the pantheon of pop-soul and reggae-pop Ruffin falls somewhere between R.B. Greaves and Johnny Nash. There are some revelatory moments tucked in with those examples of Ruffin at his most commercial, though, including tough live versions of José Feliciano's "Rain" and a great original, "Bitterness of Life," which ends with the singer shouting "Yeah! Reggae power!!" There is also a disarming number of unreleased demos, some of which rise above the somewhat dated sound of the released tunes, especially the urgent Bill Withers soul of the Ruffin-penned "Two Sides to Every Story.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 and 22)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 and 19)

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