Lance Roberts Biography
Let’s start out with a simple point. “The Time Is Right” is almost a great song, a perfect example of that gospel-tinged Elvisy ballad that Memphis labels cranked out effortlessly in their heyday. Indeed, Lance Roberts seems to have had a knack for the genre and turns in a hell of a performance. Moreover, Charlie Rich, although uncredited in the session logs, seems to have been a dominant force at this session. Still, something keeps this from being one of Sun’s latter-day masterpieces. The most obvious problem is the chorus. Not their presence, per se, because this arrangement surely needed some vocal support, but rather “this” chorus. It is possible for a vocal group to take itself and its lines too seriously. These folks bring just a bit too much fervor to their reading, and the result is overblown, even comic, which is hardly the effect they were after. Wa ha ha hoo, indeed.
Things don’t improve much on the uptempo flipside. In fact, if you can get through the first four bars of “The Good Guy Always Wins” without losing your cookies, you’re made of sterner stuff than most Sun fans. Again, blame the chorus who must have thought they were accompanying a Wagnerian opera.
Roberts himself is another of the unknown artists who seemed to populate Sun’s 300 series. His contracts were mailed to a town called Norman Park, Georgia on May 12, 1960, but beyond that little is known.
