McDaniels—who died in 2011—had his greatest success as a songwriter, as Robert Flack took his “Feel Like Makin’ Love” to number one on Billboard, and his “Compared to What” became a much-covered civil rights anthem. In the early-'60s, before his songwriting success, he was another solid R&B singer clad in sweaters on his album covers and made to cover the normal teeny-bopper R&B of the day that would play well in the supper clubs that paid the best in those early days.

But after McDaniels got involved in the fight for civil rights, his music took an interesting stylistic left turn, particularly with 1970’s Outlaw, back on vinyl in the U.S. for the first time for 50 years, thanks to this release from Real Gone. You’d be hard pressed to find an R&B album, from ...