Album review: Aaron Neville, My True Story (Blue Note)

Sympathetically produced by Don Was and Keith Richards, My True Story is Aaron Neville's love-letter to the youthful R&B and doo-wop favourites that first drew him into music.

It's split roughly between the saucy panache of songs like "Money Honey" and "Work with Me Annie" – the kind of R&B that put the "roll" into rock'n'roll – and the more romantic glide of vocal gems like the Jive Five classic that gives the anthology its title, and Curtis Mayfield's "Gypsy Woman", where Neville's airy falsetto evokes the firelit gyrations of the eponymous dancer. It's a virtually faultless set, with plenty of neat touches personalising familiar material, not least the great baritone-sax swing of "Ruby Baby" decked out in Jordanaires-style backing vocals.

Download: My True Story; Be My Baby; Little Bitty Pretty One