I Wanna Be Selfish

I can't tell you how happy I am to find this available at iTunes! I remember getting this album (yes, children, we did vinyl back then) after seeing A&S on Soul Train. I couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old. That poor thing was worn down to the grooves. So, I guess I'll be getting it one more time on iTunes. FINALLY some decent music--good songwriters, good musicianship and everyone has their clothes on!

This album has been and will always be my all time favorite from Nick & Val. When this hit in "74 they jammed it as only they could and Main Line is my favorite song from this priceless and timeless album.

On their second Warner Brothers album, Ashford and Simpson upped the mood from 1973's somewhat mellow GIMME SOMETHING REAL. While that album was excellent, I WANNA BE SELFISH trumps it by offering shorter, more precise songs, more spirited performances by Nick and Valerie, and great uptempo tunes including the catchy, r&b top-40 single "Main Line", considered one of the prototypes of a disco recording according to historians. Other recording artists back in the day must have been listening to this album because four songs here have been covered by others: "Everybody's Got To Give It Up" (covered by the Fifth Dimension), the beautiful "I Had A Love" (covered by Ben E. King), "Ain't Nothing But A Maybe" (covered by Rufus featurng Chaka Khan, and Diana Ross), and "Take All The Time You Need" (covered by Roy Ayers on his breakthrough 1975 album MYSTIC VOYAGE). Criminally overlooked at the time of release and out-of-print for over thirty years, I WANNA BE SELFISH is a treasure waiting to be discovered again. This album demonstrates r&b songwriting at its best.