She started out singing Gospel, recorded everything from blues to soul to disco and ended up a Tony award winning star of musical theatre. In the course of a career that spanned eight decades and only ended with her death at the age of 92 in 2017, Linda Hopkins accomplished just about everything she ever set out to do. Few in her peer group could ever claim to have succeeded in so many ways as Linda. This new Jasmine compilation covers the first 12 years of Linda's discography and include all but a few of her recordings from 1950 to the end of 1962, with the only omissions being down to the finite running time of a CD. It starts with her first recordings as the replacement for Esther Phillips in Johnny Otis' band - and by the way, it was Esther who gave the former Helen Matthews her stage name - and ending with a few examples of her wholly successful attempts to come to terms with the new 60s sound of soul music. As you will hear, Linda took it all in her stride. Linda never had any hits in the period covered by this collection but that is no reflection on the quality of the music it contains, a chunk of which was written and/or produced by iconic R&B/R'n'R songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Although this is not the first compact disc to anthologise Linda, almost 20 years have gone by since the last one. Fans will be more than glad of the many additional tracks that this Jasmine collection contains, several of which are making their CD debut.