Voices such as Donny Hathaway's come along maybe once a decade. Before his brief but influential career was cut short by suicide in 1979, Hathaway proved himself a maestro of protest soul who effused equal amounts of political anger and romantic tenderness. Culled from several early-Seventies concerts, These Songs for You, Live! displays the passion and charm that have inspired artists from Alicia Keys to the Neptunes, as well as his knack for finding a great band. The luxurious, previously unreleased rendition of "Someday We'll All Be Free" brims with electrifying piano runs; his take on "A Song for You" is shiver-inducing; and the casual seduction of "You've Got a Friend" turns into a joyous singalong. There are some missteps: The instrumental "Valdez in the Country" is inexplicably placed as the disc's second song, and Hathaway's version of Stevie Wonder's "Superwoman" sounds rootless. But what emerges most is Hathaway's irrepressible charisma and talent; in his hands, even "Yesterday" became a blues lament nonpareil.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"