"This 23-song rarities compilation, which encompasses the final year of his recording career. This was a period in which he explored several promising musical directions. Listeners won't find his most popular songs here, a result of the split control of his catalog between RCA and ABKCO, but they will find his most important and influential songs. Represented here is his foray into a New Orleans sound, on "Basin Street Blues" etc., which he'd never explored before as well as his poignant recording of "The Riddle Song", which was a way of his coming to terms musically with the death of his son; and "Good Times", the somber-toned party song that the Rolling Stones chose to cover, and the equally pensive and compelling "Another Saturday Night". But they pale next to "Shake", which embodied a harder, more visceral soul sound than Cooke had ever embraced before; and "A Change Is Gonna Come". The latter, written by Cooke in the wake of his hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"." (Bruce Eder, Allmusic)
