The Staple Singers

If you want to buy an album just to own Mavis gasping like she does on the radio, it's your money. Be hereby informed, however, that the forty-five version is eighty-four ugly seconds skinnier than the thirty-three. Other statistics: producer Curtis Mayfield included a total of about ten minutes of instrumentals on the classic Super Fly and Claudine soundtracks. This forty-minute (eight-cut) job includes only two real songs plus a lot of doo-doo-doo, and the orchestrations--by Richard Tufo (responsible for the waste cut on Claudine) and Gil Askey rather than Johnny Pate (who did Super Fly) are mush. (Grade - D)