Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Of all the mixes that I compile for this blog, I think doing the soul covers is my favourite. For one thing, as I go through my collection of music, I get to listen to some gorgeous soul albums I had badly neglected. For another, it”s great fun to hear how different artists, even contemporaries working in the same genre, arrive at very different interpretations of the same song. Some of the songs featured on this mix have appeared on the first three mixes.

But do compare the wonderful Zulema”s take on A Whiter Shade Of Pale with that of The Dells on Volume 2, or Vessie Simmons” lovely version of Dedicated To The One I Love to that of The Temprees on Volume 3,

My favourite on this lot probably is Anna King”s soul-storming James Brown-produced remake of the country song Tennessee Waltz, in which King shows just why she was a backing singer for JB. Though Laura Lee”s version of the standard Since I Fell For You is also quite astonishing (compare that to Mavis Staples rendition last time).

Soul fans will note the irony of Clarence Carter singing I’d Rather Go Blind…

TRACKLISTING
1.   Zulema – A Whiter Shade Of Pale (1972)
2.   Vessie Simmons – Dedicated To The One I Love (1971)
3.   Anna King – Tennessee Waltz (1964)
4.   Mary Wells – 500 Miles (1968)
5.   Clarence Carter – I’d Rather Go Blind (1969)
6.   Mavis Staples – Son Of A Preacher Man (1969)
7.   Freddie North – Rainy Night in Georgia (1975)
8.   Donny Hathaway – Misty (1970)
9.   Tyrone Davis – It’s All In The Game (1973)
10. Laura Lee – Since I Fell For You (1972)
11. Isaac Hayes – For The Good Times (1971)
12. Aretha Franklin – The Weight (1969)
13. Marsha Hunt – Keep The Customer Satisfied (1971)
14. Jerry Butler – Something In The Way (She Moves) (1970)
15. Roberta Flack – Just Like A Woman (1970)
16. Walter Jackson – Someone Saved My Life Today (1976)
17. Ronnie Dyson – Bridge Over Troubled Waters (1970)
18. Junior Parker – Tomorrow Never Knows (1971)

GET IT
(PW in comments)

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More Mixes

As before, this album refers to artists and songs featured on both 1940s compilations.

The importance to country music of Ernest Tubb“s Walking The Floor Over You cannot be underestimated. It was not the first honky tonk record, nor the first to use the new-fangled electric guitar. But it was the first really big hit to use electric guitar solos, performed by Fay “˜Smitty” Smith, and is considered the breakthrough record for honky tonk music, a label that was variously used for different genres, but now usually applied in country music. Read more…

To mark absolutely nothing, here is an intros quiz consisting of only ABBA songs. Most of them were hits; all of them were released as singles somewhere in the world, I think.

As always, each of the 20 intros is 5-7 seconds in length. I will post the answers in the comments section by Thursday, so please don”t post your answers. If you can”t wait till then to find out what the blasted number 6 is, please feel free to e-mail me or, better still, message me on Facebook. If you”re not my FB friend, go to www.facebook.com/amdwhah and become one.

Intros Quiz – ABBA edition

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More Intros Quizzes

The Grim Reaper evidently took it easy in September, at least by the standards of the last few months. One notable non-musician death last month was that on September 20 of one Leonard Skinner, the Florida gym coach whose insistence on cut hair inspired a group of future rock stars to name their group in ironic fashion after him “” Lynyrd Skynyrd. As before, all songs listed are compiled in one mix (and I’m afraid that the quality on some tracks isn’t great).

Mike Edwards, 62, cellist with the Electric Light Orchestra from 1972-75, on September 3
Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado (1973) Read more…