Street of Dreams was designed as a project for Patti Austin to sing her favorite songs, regardless of genre. True, there are a couple of later songs here, usually including two co-written by Vaneese Thomas, but the heart of the album is in interpretations of "The Look of Love," "Street of Dreams," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "'Till There Was You," "I Only Have Eyes for You," "For Once in My Life," and "IGY (What a Beautiful World)." Although the arrangements can get a little too clean and synthesized (much of the album sounds as if it was recorded with DX-7s), Austin is in terrific form throughout, breathing life into songs that have been recorded numerous times. It's a fine latter-day effort from a fine singer.

"I believe that Richard Elliot is one of the most under appreciated artists around! This CD, "The Power of Suggestion", is a fusion of bluesy-funky rhythms (a`la Tower of Power) and smooth jazz with just a hint of tropical breeze thrown in. From the title track, (which makes you move) to [on some CD's] the last track, "Michele" (which, without words, makes your heart ache) and all of the tracks in between (in particular "St. Croix", "Hearts On Fire" w/Phillip Ingram and "Neon Nights") stories are told; some sad, some raucous, some tell of love lost and some of happiness found. All of them are told from the heart, most without words. If you buy only one Richard Elliot CD, make it this one."

Following the success of the Tabu individual expanded editions, we have subsequently received enquiries about putting some packages together on Alexander O’Neal and The S.O.S. Band which encompass all of the original albums together with the 7” versions of the singles plus some of the 12” mixes we were unable to feature on the individual expanded editions. So who better to curate these packages than Ralph Tee, curator of the Philadelphia International Box Set and all-round Soul Music expert. So here are all 6 of Alexander O’Neal’s original Tabu albums as they were originally released together with 2 bonus CDs, one of which contains of all the key 7” singles and the other which contains the 12” versions which were not included on the recent expanded editions.