Steve Cropper - With A Little Help From My Friends (Expanded & Remastered) (1969/2024)

As a founding member of Stax house band Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Steve Cropper was involved in some of the most important music of the 1960s as a player, songwriter, and producer. The following decade introduced him to a new group of fans as guitarist for The Blues Brothers, appearing on both their records and film. A two-time Grammy® winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Cropper has been an integral thread in the cloth of American music, writing, playing and producing into the 21st century to this very day.

In 1969, Cropper released his first solo album, producing and arranging its eleven tracks himself. His backing band? While there is no actual record of who played on the album itself, Grammy® winner Robert Gordon’s liner notes point to his fellow M.G.’s, Buddy Miles, Jim Keltner, the Bar-Kay’s James Alexander, and more as candidates. From original tracks to its well-known covers (including The Beatles classic the release shares its name with), it is a tour de force of pure Memphis rock and soul.

The core eleven tracks now appear again on an all-analog cut, new pressing of the LP as With A Little Help From My Friends returns for a new generation to experience. The CD version contains a whopping eight bonus tracks, including four tracks not included on the original release and alternate versions of four that do. Add in Robert Gordon’s notes and this release is as much a history lesson as it is a timepiece of pure musical magic.

Allmusic Review by Cub Koda
After years of being a team player, Steve Cropper got to make a solo album for the label he helped put on the map, Stax Records (actually their Volt subsidiary). As you might figure, it turned out as an instrumental soul album, and a darn good one, too. It's a bona fide Telecaster-soaked dance workout, with Cropper turning in signature versions of "Land of a Thousand Dances," "99 1/2," (which features a particularly nasty period fuzz guitar), "Funky Broadway," "Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway," "In the Midnight Hour," and original instrumentals like "Crop Dustin'" and the closer "Rattlesnake." A solid and soulful little side project that holds up quite well years later.

Tracklist
01 - Crop-Dustin' (Remastered 2024)
02 - Land Of 1000 Dances (Remastered 2024)
03 - 99-1_2 (Remastered 2024)
04 - Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway (Remastered 2024)
05 - Funky Broadway (Remastered 2024)
06 - With A Little Help From My Friends (Remastered 2024)
07 - Oh, Pretty Woman (Remastered 2024)
08 - I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (Remastered 2024)
09 - The Way I Feel Tonight (Remastered 2024)
10 - In The Midnight Hour (Remastered 2024)
11 - Rattlesnake (Remastered 2024)
12 - You Don't Know (Remastered 2024)
13 - I'm Going Home (Remastered 2024)
14 - Grazing In The Grass (Take 2 _ Remastered 2024)
15 - Soulful Strut (Take 10 _ Remastered 2024)
16 - Oh, Pretty Woman (Alternate Version _ Remastered 2024)
17 - The Way I Feel Tonight (Alternate Version _ Remastered 2024)
18 - Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway (Alternate Version _ Remastered 2024)
19 - Land Of 1000 Dances (Alternate Version _ Remastered 2024)