Bop Till You Drop

In their review of Bop Till You Drop, High Fidelity magazine said that Cooder had "taken the giant cohesive step merging his gospel-tinged vocals, Latin American guitar touches, and love of American r&b to form a new whole that's much more than the sum of its parts." DownBeat gave the album a five-star rating and felt that Cooder interpreted and blended the genres of rhythm and blues and gospel music with "near-scholarly dedication, though without the pretensions and/or cooption to which those lighter-skinned champions of ethnic musics sometimes fall prey." In a retrospective review of the album, Brett Hartenbach of AllMusic expressed some criticism regarding the digital recording: Cooder and his excellent band, which includes the rhythm section of Tim Drummond and Jim Keltner along with guitarist David Lindley, understand the material and are more than capable of laying down a decent groove, but something must have gotten lost in translation from what was played to what came across on the recording. There's a thinness to the tracks that undermines the performances, which according to Cooder is due to the digital recording. == Track listing ==

Musicians • Jimmy Adams – backing vocals (3, 7) • Ronnie Barron – organ (5), guitar (8) • Ry Cooder – guitars, mandolin, lead vocals, backing vocals, producer • Tim Drummond – bass guitar • Cliff Givens – backing vocals (3) • Rev. Patrick Henderson – organ (2) • Milt Holland – percussion, drums • Bill Johnson – backing vocals (3) • Herman Johnson – backing vocals (1, 9) • Jim Keltner – drums • Chaka Khan – vocals (5, 8) • Bobby King – vocals (5, 9), backing vocals (1, 2, 3, 7) • David Lindley – guitar, mandolin • Randy Lorenzo – backing vocals (2) • George "Biggie" McFadden – backing vocals (7) • Simon Pico Payne – backing vocals (3) • Greg Prestopino – backing vocals (3) Technical • Loyd Clifft – assistant engineer • David Alexander – photography • Vicki Fortson – production coordination • Lee Herschberg – engineer • David Kraai – technical support • Penny Ringwood – production coordination • Mike Salisbury – design ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==