Marcia Griffiths - Sweet And Nice

 

140-gram 2024 reissue

Double LP includes the remastered original album together with a second LP of 14 rare tracks!

Sweet And Nice is the vital debut album from Jamaica's undisputed first lady of song Marcia Griffiths. It's reggae at its most soulful. Slinking through a tight 10 tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. Forty-five years after its initial release the LP is available again on vinyl, now as a double LP, with an extra record collecting 14 rare tracks.

Sweet And Nice has appeared over the years with a revised running order and under different titles. But the original's opening sequence of loping soul is legendary, even beyond reggae circles. These songs are now returned to how they were presented on that first Jamaican release, and under their intended album title. Be With doesn't mess with magic.

Among the 14 extra tracks you'll find the exquisite late-60s singles "Melody Life" and "Mark My Word" which, along with the sumptuous reading of "Band Of Gold," are now £100 records, if you can find them! Just sayin'. There‘s also a fantastic version of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and an alternate take of "Play Me" with producer Lloyd Charmers adding his own vocals.

Everything's been remastered of course, including the original LP, so Sweet And Nice now sounds even sweeter, and even nicer.

 

Side A

1. Here I Am Baby (Come and Take Me)

2. Everything I Own

3. Green Grasshopper

4. Play Me

5. Children at Play

Side B

1. Sweet Bitter Love

2. Gypsy Man

3. There's No Me Without You

4. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

5. I Just Don't Want to Be Lonely

Side C

1. Mark My Word

2. The First Cut Is the Deepest

3. Melody Life

4. Work and Slave

5. Working to the Top (My Ambition) [Part 1]

6. Don't Let Me Down

7. Band of Gold

Side D

1. Put a Little Love in Your Heart

2. I See You

3. It's Too Late

4. Baby If You Don't Love Me

5. Love Walked In

6. When Will I See You Again

7. Play Me (Part 2)

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