Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

I was not going to do an Any Major Soul 1986, given the absence of comments over the past few years. But at the end of the year, a reader asked that I continue the series. I’m glad he did, and I loved putting this mix together. 1986 was not a year of transition and innovation, but it was a fine vintage for soul music.

Maze, led by the late, great Frankie Beverley, released their second live double-album, Live In LA. It was every bit the equal of their classic Live In New Orleans set from 1981. The Manhattans, (featuring here in a duet with Regina Belle), The Temptations and George Benson were still around, as were Beau Williams (whose Elvina was a big soul hit in 1982), and the Crown Heights Affair, whose recording career was nearing its end.

Luther Vandross finally hit the big time with his glossily-produced Give Me The Reason album. Much of it was likable soul-pop and superb soul balladry; the featured track, See Me was a true soul groove number.

Freddie Jackson consolidated his success in 1985 with five consecutive US R&B #1 hits from his Just Like The First Time album, including his lovely duet with Melba Moore, A Little Bit More, which features here. In the UK, he had a breakthrough in 1986 with Rock Me Tonight, a US Top 20 hit the previous year.

The breakout star of 1986 was Anita Baker. Her sophomore album, Rapture, was flawless, with Baker fusing her naturally jazzy vocals with a soul sensibility. The other soul singer making it big in 1986 was Alexander O’Neal, but since his debut album was issued in 1985, as was his hit with Cherelle, Saturday Love, he doesn’t feature here (of course, he was on Any Major Soul 1985 as well as on Any Major Albums 1985). Well, he actually does feature here — unmistakably as a backing vocalist on The S.O.S. Band’s The Finest, produced by Jam & Lewis, who also produced O’Neal.

Other soul acts broke big in 1986, but few followed on from that success. Oran Jones, inevitably nicknamed “Juice”, turned out to be a one-hit wonder with his spectacularly misogynistic The Rain, which one must hope is a parody rather than an expression of Mr Jones’ character. Either way, it has a great groove, and some fabulous one-liners (“you without me is like corn flakes without the milk!”), delivered with relish (“You gotta get on outta here with that alley-cat-coat wearin’ Hush-Puppy-shoe-wearing crumb cake I saw you with”). Don’t touch that coat!

Gregory Abbot, ex-husband of soul legend Freda Payne, gave up a career as a professor in English at the University of Berkeley to pursue his vocation as a soul singer-songwriter. He had a huge hit in 1986 with Shake You Down, and his debut album of the same name was a best-seller. But after that, Abbot largely disappeared from the charts. Abbot’s last album, his fifth, came out in 2011.

Another soul act that broke through in 1986 was the trio Surface. Happy was their first pop hit, reaching #20 in the US (written by the members of Surface, it had first been recorded by UK funk group Hi-Tension in 1984). They went on to have more success, especially with the US #1 hit The First Time in 1990, and a #5 the previous year with Shower Me With Your Love, both sweetly-soppy ballads.

Two acts here represent UK soul. The wonderful Ruby Turner features with her magnificent cover of I’d Rather Go Blind, apparently issued on single “by popular demand”. Jaki Graham duets with Derek Bramble. Her partner was no lucky hanger-on. Bramble wrote all but one of the tracks on Jaki’s Breaking Free album, produced it, arranged it, co-engineered it, played bass on all tracks, and keyboards and guitar on some, and contributed vocals on two duets and backing vocals on most. Previously he had co-produced David Bowie’s Tonight album.

As always, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-raptured covers and the above text in PDF format. PW in Comments.

1. Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly – Happy Feelings (live)
2. Luther Vandross – See Me
3. Anita Baker – Same Ole Love
4. Freddie Jackson & Melba Moore – Just A Little Bit More
5. Gregory Abbot – I Got The Feelin’ (It’s Over)
6. The Manhattans feat. Regina Belle – Where Did We Go Wrong
7. The Temptations – Lady Soul
8. Surface – Happy
9. Oran ‘Juice’ Jones – The Rain
10. Epicenter feat. Sandra Feva – You Can’t Come Up In Here No More
11. Beau Williams – All Because You
12. Gwen Guthrie – You Touched My Life
13. Jaki Graham & Derek Bramble – Let’s Get Blue
14. Ruby Turner – I’d Rather Go Blind
15. George Benson – Kisses In The Moonlight
16. Crown Heights Affair – Make Me The One
17. S.O.S. Band – The Finest

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More Any Major Soul

Soul music by 1985 — 40 years ago — was finding its stride, after a couple of years of searching. The good years were beginning. That isn’t to say that there weren’t some songs and sounds that have aged poorly and weren’t that great to start with, much like episodes of The Apprentice. Those horrible synth stabs, drum-machines and basslines cut-and-pasted from every coke-fuelled mid-1980s Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack have aged as well as the ghost of Studio 54 in a polyester tracksuit.

But there was also some beautiful soul music being released, including what I would name the greatest soul song of the 1980s: If You Were Here Tonight by Alexander O’Neal. That one doesn’t feature here — you’re getting a fine O’Neal deep cut instead — because it’s on the Any Major Babymaking Music Vol. 2 mix, as is Cameo’s gorgeous I’ll Never Look For Love (Cameo are still represented on this mix, too).

O’Neal was produced by the up-and-coming Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis team, as was Atlantic Starr’s wonderful Silver Shadow, and Force M.D.’s Tender Love (a hit in 1986 but released in ’85). They cut their teeth with acts like Klymaxx, Cheryl Lynn, Cherelle, and The S.O.S. Band (whose Weekend Girl appeared on Any Major Soul 1984, as does Cherrelle’s Who’s It Gonna Be). Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to change soul music.

Another track here was produced by a team that would come to dominate pop music, at least in the UK. Princess’ Say I’m Your Number One was produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman, who started out making some high-class records before becoming cookie-cutter hitmakers. This was UK soul at its finest.

For a couple of acts here, 1985 was the end of the road. Bill Withers retired after releasing his first album in seven years, Watching You Watching Me, which included the gorgeous Oh Yeah. And funk veterans Skool Boyz split after issuing their This Is The Real Thing LP.

Some other soul veterans were still making themselves relevant in 1985 — Bobby Womack, Timmy Thomas, Johnnie Taylor — while others were at the beginning of their careers. Although they had been around for a while, Alexander O’Neal and Freddie Jackson released their debut albums, and carried the baton forward.

But it was Whitney Houston who became a legend. Her eponymous album was a carefully calculated effort. It clearly was intended to appeal to both soul and pop crowds, with the soul sufficiently sanitised to appeal to the pop crowd.

Tracks like the upbeat How Will I Know and the ballad All At Once, both fine songs, were clearly aimed at the pop market. Songs like You Give Good Love (featured here) and the duets with Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass were directed at the soul listener. The breakthrough came with a cover of a soul number, Marilyn McCoo’s Saving All My Love For You (see Any Major Originals – Soul Vol. 1). The calculation worked out, and the well-crafted album stands up well even today — maybe because of the lack of those damn synth stabs.

As always, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-programmed covers and the above text in PDF format. PW in Comments.

1. Princess – Say I’m Your Number One
2. Atlantic Starr – Silver Shadow
3. Nicole with Timmy Thomas – New York Eyes
4. Cameo – A Good-Bye
5. Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly – Too Many Games
6. Bill Withers – Oh Yeah!
7. Freddie Jackson – You Are My Lady
8. Luther Vandross – Wait For Love
9. Whitney Houston – You Give Good Love
10. Alexander O’Neal – Look At Us Now
11. Eugene Wilde – Don’t Say No (Tonight)
12. Force M.D.’s – Tender Love
13. 9.9 – All Of Me For All Of You
14. Skool Boyz – You Are My Love
15. Bobby Womack – I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much
16. Johnnie Taylor – Just Because
17. George Benson & Roberta Flack – You Are The Love Of My Life
BONUS TRACKS
18. Con Funk Shun – I’m Leaving Baby
19. Loose Ends – Hangin’ On A String (Contemplating)
20. Starpoint – Object Of My Desire
21. Mary Jane Girls – In My House

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More Any Major Soul

At the beginning of the chronological Any Major Soul series, I lumped the years 1960–63 into one mix, the better to get quickly to the glory years of soul, starting with 1964. The reasoning was that during the first few years of the 1960s, soul was still establishing and defining itself. By 1964, it was a fully-fledged genre.

But fusing these first four years of the 1960s into one mix was doing the burgeoning genre an injustice which demands remedy. So, while there still will be an Any Major Soul 1985 to get your jheri curls swaying, here’s the first of four mixes to catch up with the early 1960s. Any Major Soul 1960-63 is still up, and I have tried not to repeat any of the tracks in that collection here.

The title Any Major Soul 1960 is a bit imprecise and ex post facto. In 1960, “soul music” wasn’t a thing yet. The first known use of the term was in 1961. But by now, the shape of soul was emerging.

In the 1950s, popular music became fluid and, to some extent, transcended race. Still, most black artists were labelled R&B, allocating them to a specific market. Meanwhile, many white artists were given R&B songs, recorded them (usually in inferior versions), and then had the bigger hits with them. The most absurd example of that was Pat Boone covering a sanitised version of Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti. Boone reached #12 on the pop chart; Little Richard only #21 (before that, Boone did the same to Fats Domino’s Ain’t That a Shame).

A turning point was Sam Cooke’s You Send Me, recorded in 1957. The Man tried to milquetoast Cooke’s already tame original with versions by Teresa Brewer and The Four Lads. This time, Cooke’s version was the bigger hit.

So as the 1950s turned into the ’60s, R&B drew from all those ingredients it had gifted rock & roll: the smooth harmonies of doo wop (which had emerged from urban Black communities, especially in the northeast of the US), blues, early jazz, sometimes a hint of country (especially what would be called southern soul) and — the key ingredient — gospel.

The song often regarded as the proto-soul song, Ray Charles’ 1954 hit I Got a Woman, was itself based on a gospel song, It Must Be Jesus by the Southern Tones (listen to it here).

The transition from R&B and doo wop to soul music around 1960 was both musical and cultural, influenced by evolving styles, changing audiences, urbanisation, and the momentum of the civil rights movement. Soul music was also a vehicle for black pride and the civil rights movement; it became a cultural identifier of black identity.

Labels like Motown in Detroit (founded in 1959), Stax in Memphis, Vee Jay and Chess in Chicago, Atlantic Records/Atco and Scepter/Wand in New York, King in Cincinnati, and Decca subsidiary Brunswick helped popularise soul in the early 1960s, also outside black communities and even across the Atlantic.

Tamla/Motown was still new in 1960, and Gordy and pals were still to hit on the familiar recipe for success. But here we already have The Miracles, whose Smokey Robinson was key to developing that famous sound, as well as Barrett Strong with his follow-up to Money, Herman Griffin (a singing acrobat who married Mary Wells that year), Sherri Taylor & Singin’ Sammy Ward, and Mable John, who was Tamla’s first female singer but later became better known as a Stax act. Marv Johnson, who had scored Motown’s first crossover hit in 1959, had by then moved to United Artists.

Some of the tracks on this mix obviously still recall the sound of the 1950s; some are giving us a glimpse into the future of soul. Some do both. Take Annie Laurie, who by 1960 had already enjoyed a long career going back to the 1940s and a few hits as an R&B singer. Her hit If You’re Lonely evokes that past but also anticipates the sound of Memphis soul.

This collection shows that soul did not appear spontaneously but evolved from R&B and what before that was called “race records”, so it provides a snapshot of where soul was coming from and where it was going.

As always, the mix is timed to for on a standard CD-R, includes home-callandresponded covers, and the present text in a PDF document. PW in comments.

1. Hank Ballard – Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go
2. Jimmy Jones – Good Timin’
3. Marv Johnson – I Love The Way You Love
4. Sam Cooke – Sad Mood
5. Brook Benton & Dinah Washington – Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)
6. Sugarpie Desanto – I Want To Know
7. Jackie Wilson – A Woman, A Lover, A Friend
8. Jerry Butler – He Will Break Your Heart
9. Mable John – You Made A Fool Out Of Me
10. Bobby Marchan – You’re Still My Baby
11. Annie Laurie – If You’re Lonely
12. James Brown and The Famous Flames feat. Bea Ford – You’ve Got The Power
13. Etta James – All I Could Do Was Cry
14. The Shirelles – Tonight’s The Night
15. The Drifters – Lonely Winds
16. LaVern Baker & Ben E. King – How Often
17. Sherri Taylor & Singin’ Sammy Ward – Lover
18. Barrett Strong – Whirlwind
19. Joe Jones – You Talk Too Much
20. Clyde McPhatter – Ta Ta
21. Carla & Rufus Thomas – ’Cause I Love You
22. Herman Griffin – True Love
23. Lloyd Price – Wont’cha Come Home
24. Rosco Gordon – Just A Little Bit
25. Ray Charles – Sticks And Stones
26. Ruth Brown – Don’t Deceive Me
27. Dee Clark – You’re Looking Good
28. Wade Flemons – Easy Lovin’
29. Sammy Turner – Paradise
30. The Miracles – Way Over There

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More Any Major Soul

In the mid-1980s, much of soul music sounded like action-comedy movie soundtrack fillers: stabbing synth, plastic funk bass, dull drum machines, and soulless electric guitars that tried to recreate the magic of Van Halen’s solo on Beat It and failing dismally in doing so. It was mostly horrible. Diana Ross’ Swept Away is a perfect example of that hideous kind of overproduced musical sterility, the sort of thing no baby was ever made to.

This mix of soul from 1984 avoids these abominations, and there may well be people in their late 30s in the world today who were conceived to one or the other track on this collection. The year 1984 was not a high-water mark for soul music. Perhaps it was its nadir. And yet, I felt compelled to add six bonus tracks, on top of the CD-R length mix. It can’t have been that bad.

By the mid-1980s, the social commentary songs and declarations by strong women telling their no-good men where to get off from the 1970s had made way for love-and-sex lyrics, some as greasy as jheri curls and as predictable as AI prose.

Words were secondary to the jam. And there were some solid jams. The best slow jam of 1984 might have been Eugene Wilde’s Gotta Get You Home Tonight, which featured on Any Major Soul 1984/85. Wilde, who was born as Ronald Eugene Broomfield, returns here with a deep cut from his most successful of the four albums he released between 1984 and 1991 (another one followed in 2011).  After his singing career had fizzled out, Wilde became a songwriter.

Like Wilde, O’Bryan had that jheri-curled look which might detract from his talent (incidentally, O’Bryan and Wilde were born a day apart in December 1961). The singer, whose full and magnificent name is O’Bryan McCoy Burnette II, was a prodigy of Don Cornelius, who used O’Bryan’s funky Soul Train’s A Comin’ as the theme of Soul Train from 1983-87. O’Bryan’s 1984 album Be My Lover was his most successful. By 1986, diminishing returns had set in.

This set opens with a couple of songs that became hits only in 1985. The Intruders’ Who Do You Love was a single release in 1984; a longer version appeared on their 1985 album. A few other acts from back when were still producing good things in 1984. Featured here are the Bar-Kays, Bobby Womack and Major Harris, the Delfonics alumnus whose I Believe In Love was an outstanding comeback, which sadly was not the commercial success it deserved to be.

1980s soul often shone brightest when great singers collaborated with jazz fusion artists (and when these jazz artists appeared on their records). We have two such collaborations here. Bill Withers guests on percussionist Ralph MacDonald’s album. The line-up of musicians on In The Name Of Love, co-written by Withers, is impressive: Steve Gadd on drums, Marcus Miller on bass, Eric Gale on guitar, Richard Tee on electric piano, and Randy Brecker on trumpet. If the sounds seem familiar, it is because you’ve heard these guys play on countless records. Just check out the series of Steve Gadd Collections (Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3).

My favourite track on this collection is Roberta Flack’s collaboration with veteran Japanese fusion saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, Here’s To Love. And guess who the session musicians on that track are: MacDonald, Miller, Gale and Tee, and the great Barry Eastmond on synth.

Among the bonus tracks is a version of I Feel For You by Rebbie Jackson. It was released at the same time as the lightning-in-a-bottle version by Chaka Khan (whose follow-up single, Eye To Eye, features here). The song was originally written in 1979 by Prince for Patrice Rushen — who turned it down. Of course, Rushen features here as well.

.All Any Major Soul mixes from 1964 onwards are up again. Like all of them, this mix  timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-jhericurled covers, and the above text in a PDF. PW in comments.

1. The Intruders – Who Do You Love
2. The S.O.S. Band – Weekend Girl
3. Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King – Till Midnight
4. Patrice Rushen – High In Me
5. Bobby Womack & Patti LaBelle – Love Has Finally Come At Last
6. Loose Ends – Feel So Right Now
7. Ralph MacDonald feat. Bill Withers – In The Name Of Love
8. Sadao Watanabe feat. Roberta Flack – Here’s To Love
9. Chaka Khan – Eye To Eye
10. Amii Stewart – That Loving Feeling
11. Glenn Jones – Show Me
12. O’Bryan – Go On And Cry
13. Major Harris – Spend Some Time
14. Bar-Kays – Lovers Should Never Fall In Love
15. Mtume – You, Me And He
16. Jermaine Jackson – Do What You Do
17. Eugene Wilde – Rainbow
18. Teddy Pendergrass – This Time Is Ours
BONUS TRACKS
19. Peabo Bryson – If Ever You’re In My Arms Again
20. One Way – Lady You Are
21. Lenis Guess – Lay Your Head Down On Me
22. Cameo – She’s Strange
23. Cherrelle – Who’s It Gonna Be
24. Rebbie Jackson – I Feel For You

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More Any Major Soul

Coincidence can be a strange thing. A while ago, as I was leaving my house to do some shopping, I had an Amy Winehouse track playing (Love Is A Losing Game). As I got into the car, I switched on the radio, and another Amy Winehouse song was playing (Rehab, predictably). And I was thinking of a mix of soul women which I had posted alongside my reflections on her death in 2011, with the idea that I should repost the collection.

A day later, I received a request from regular reader and coffee-buyer rat-ta-tat for a few re-ups. One of them was the Soul Women mix on the Winehouse post. I happily obliged.

But here is the repost of the mix, separated from the Winehouse article (which today I might frame a little differently), because it really is a fine set of music.

In the 1960s and ’70s, rock music was still holding on to its patriarchal ways, even as strong women emerged from the singer-songwriter scene. Soul didn’t have that members-only Men’s Club mindset of rock music. Of course, female artists in soul music often faced challenges and barriers in a male-dominated industry. They had to navigate issues such as unequal pay, limited creative control, and stereotypes about women’s roles in music.Still, there were many women in soul music. Leading them were the legends, like Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross, who were so big that they crossed over with great success. But by the 1970s especially, there were many other strong women in soul: Millie Jackson, Gladys Knight, Betty Wright, Marlena Shaw, Jean Knight, Lyn Collins and so on.

They were singing of love and sex, and of empowerment and social justice. They embodied the strength and resilience of women, and the aspiration and/or declaration of emancipation.

Women also brought a diversity of styles and voices to the soul, ranging from the gritty, blues-inflected vocals of Etta James to the polished, poppy sound of Diana Ross

This mix covers 11 years of soul women, from Mitty Collier’s Little Miss Loneliness in 1963 to Sandra Wright’s Wounded Woman, which was recorded in 1974 but not released until many years later. It features a few quite well-known singers — Candi Staton, Tammi Terrell, Fontella Bass, Betty Everett, the recently late Marlena Shaw — who tend to be known widely for only a few songs, and some whom time has forgotten such as Lorraine Ellison, Ila Vann, Marie ‘Queenie’ Lyons, or Linda Jones, who died of diabetes-related causes in 1972 at the age of 27.

Most have featured in the Any Major Soul series at some point, but the idea is to highlight singers who ought to be better known than they are.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-emancipated covers. PW in comments.

1. Anna King – Sittin’ In The Dark (1964)
2. Baby Washington – You Are What You Are (1966)
3. Betty Everett – Until You Were Gone (1964)
4. Rhetta Hughes – Cry Myself To Sleep (1969)
5. Irma Thomas – She’ll Never Be Your Wife (1973)
6. Laura Lee – Mama’s Got A Good Thing (1972)
7. Ila Vann – Got To Get To Jim Johnson (1967)
8. Erma Franklin – You’ve Been Cancelled (1969)
9. Fontella Bass – I Surrender (1966)
10. Marlena Shaw – Go Away, Little Boy (1969)
11. Mitty Collier – Little Miss Loneliness (1963)
12. Tami Lynn – I’m Gonna Run Away From You (1972)
13. Candi Staton – I’ll Drop Everything And Come Running (1972)
14. Jean Knight – Pick Up The Pieces (1970)
15. Sandra Wright – Wounded Woman (1974)
16. Esther Phillips – I Don’t Want To Do Wrong (1972)
17. Margie Joseph – Sweeter Tomorrow (1971)
18. Lyn Collins – Take Me Just As I Am (1973)
19. Marie ‘Queenie’ Lyons – Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing (1970)
20. Linda Jones – Don’t Go (I Can’t Bear To Be Alone) (1972)
21. Barbara Mason – I Miss You Gordon (1973)
22. Rosetta Hightower – I Don’t Blame You At All (1971)
23. Tammi Terrell – That’s What Boys Are Made For (1968)
24. Brenda Holloway – I’ll Always Love You (1964)
25. Dee Dee Warwick – We’re Doing Fine (1965)
26. Jean Wells – Have A Little Mercy (1968)
27. Lorraine Ellison – Try (1969)
28. Ruby Andrews – Overdose Of Love (1972)

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More Soul Mixes
More CD-R Mixes

Nobody vaguely sane has ever claimed that 1983 represents a pinnacle in soul music. Still, there was enough good stuff around to produce a fine mix — one on which synth stabs and lazily programmed drum machines, which blighted so much soul in the ’80s, are in short supply. So the music on this mix is relatively timeless, rather than being a time capsule.

If Patti LaBelle’s Love, Need And Want You sounds vaguely familiar, then it is because it was prominently sampled by Nelly for his 2002 hit with Kelly Rowland, the superb Dilemma. In the video, LaBelle appeared as Kelly’s mother, which was a great touch.

The Mary Jane Girls’ All Night Long has also been liberally sampled, most famously by LL Cool J on his 1991 hit Around The Way Girl, and a few years later by Mary J Blige on Mary Jane (All Night Long), which was more tribute than sample. But in recording the Mary Jane Girls song, Rick James did a bit of copying themselves: the bassline borrows from Keni Burke’s song Risin’ To The Top from a year earlier.

Perhaps the most sampled song on this mix is Between The Sheets by the Isley Brothers. Wikipedia counts 50 samples, including on Da Brat’s Funkified, The Notorious B.I.G.’s Big Poppa, Doja Cat’s Like That, Gwen Stefani’s Luxurious, and Pretty Ricky’s On The Hotline.

One place you probably would not begin a search for soul music is Sweden. And yet, our Scandinavian friends are represented here in the form of the band Shine. The band’s creative main man was the Ghanaian/Dutch jazz funk musician Kofi Bentsi-Enchill, who also takes lead vocals on So Into You, along with Swedish-French jazz singer Babette Kontomanou. Shine released one album, and then faded away. Babette went on to have a good solo career.

Joyce Lawson has three albums to her credit. Her eponymous 1983 debut was followed by an album in 1987, and a third set 14 years after that. Her career took off after winning the US talent programme The Gong Show. I have found no further biographical info on Lawson, except that she appears to be no longer with us.

I think I ought to issue an earworm warning in regard to Baby I’m Scared Of You by Womack & Womack. That line, “Houdini, was great magician, he could crack a lock [dut dut] from any position”, has kept me awake as it refused to leave my ear. And once I succeeded to dispel it, there was Cecil Womack sitting in my ear: “Oh, like Rudolph Valentino, I can fall down on my knees…” You’ve been warned!

The great cover version of Superstar by Luther Vandross was one of the first tracks on my shortlist, but at nine minutes it’s rather too long to be included on a CD-R length mix. It’s included as a bonus track. Superstar is the redeeming feature of the album it closes, Busy Body, which I regard as Luther Vandross’ weakest effort.

By the way, all Any Major Soul mixes from 1964 onwards are up again.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-houdinied covers. PW in comments.

1. Rufus & Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody
2. Lionel Richie – Love Will Find A Way
3. Isley Brothers – Between The Sheets
4. The Manhattans – Forever By Your Side
5. Womack & Womack – Baby I’m Scared Of You Baby
6. Patti LaBelle – Love, Need And Want You
7. Al Jarreau – I Will Be Here For You (Nitakungodea Milele)
8. Randy Crawford – Why?
9. Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson – Maybe
10. Enchantment – Don’t Fight The Feeling
11. Gwen Guthrie – Oh What A Life
12. Shine – So Into You
13. Joyce Lawson – Try Me Tonight
14. Sister Sledge – Gotta Get Back To Love
15. Atlantic Starr – Touch A Four Leaf Clover
16. Mtume – Juicy Fruit
17. Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long
Bonus Track:
Luther Vandross – Superstar

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More Any Major Soul

(This post is recycled from February 2019)

The term commonly used for white people doing R&B, or music influenced by the genre, is “blue-eyed soul”. I’m not sure I like the term much, because it suggests that only black people are able to produce authentic soul music. This mix shows that this notion is nonsense.

This lot of songs draws from, the period 1964-73, the prime of soul music. For the challenge of it, I’ve even left out some obvious choices, such as the Righteous Brothers, The Four Seasons or Motown’s Chris Clark. And not all of the acts here were strictly or always soul, but they all produced records that nonetheless merit inclusion in the genre. Including the effort by a future country superstar.

Linda Lyndell, targetted by racist assholes for singing soul music.

One of the artists here had her career destroyed by the Ku Klax Klan. Linda Lyndell was beginning to enjoy some success on Stax records with the original version of the Salt N Pepa hit What A Man when death threats by the KKK, which objected to a white woman singing black music on a black label, persuaded her to go into retirement. She made a comeback much later, and still performs occasionally.

Another white singer, from a country background, once recorded soul music before selling records by the shedload to audiences which included KKK types. Charlie Rich started his career in the late 1950s as a rock & roll singer. In the mid-1960s he branched out into soul, recording with Willie Mitchell at Hi Records, including the original recording of the Sam & Dave classic When Something Is Wrong With My Baby (which went unreleased until 1988). The Silver Fox escaped commercial success as a soul singer and the wrath of racists, and went on to become the self-appointed guardian of pure country.

Another exponent of blue-eyed soul who went country was Roy Head, whose Treat Her Right is something of a blue-eyed soul anthem, having been kept off the US #1 by The Beatles’ Yesterday.

On December 9, 1967, Mitch Ryder played with Otis Redding on a Cleveland TV station (the song was Knock On Wood.) The following day, Otis Redding died in a plane crash. Had Otis lived, he might well have made a star of a white teenage kid with a real soul voice whom he had discovered in Pittsburgh, Johnny Daye. In the event, Daye released just a few singles on Stax before retiring from music in 1968. The featured song is the flip side of his best-known song, What’ll I Do for Satisfaction (which Janet Jackson covered in 1993 as What’ll I Do).

Bob Kuban & The In-Men, with the ill-fated lead singer Walter Scott in front.

Bob Kuban & The In-Men occupy a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s one-hit wonder exhibit for their 1966 #12 hit The Cheater, which features here. The eponymous Bob Kuban was the bandleader and drummer. The singer on The Cheater was Walter Scott. In a cruel twist of irony, Scott was murdered with premeditation in 1983 by his wife’s lover, who had also killed his own wife. There’s another murder coming up later.

We know Robert John better for his 1979 hit Sad Eyes (which featured on Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 1). He had enjoyed his first chart action as a 12-year-old in 1958 under his birth-name, Bobby Pedrick Jr. His claim to blue-eyed soulness dates to his short-lived time at A&M records, which saw the release of only two singles.

Jimmy Beaumont was the lead singer of the doo wop band The Skyliners – who had hits with their superb Since I Don’t Have You and Pennies Of Heaven – before he tried his hand as a soul singer. Commercial success eluded him, but soul aficionados know to appreciate his vocal stylings. Later life Beaumont returned to The Skyliners, whom he fronted until his death in 2017.

We have a few UK artists doing their soulful thing; Dusty Springfield‘s meddling in the genre is well-known, especially her Dusty In Memphis album, whence the featured track comes. Kiki Dee is less celebrated for her soul exploits (and internationally most famous for her 1976 duet with Elton John, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart). Early in her career, Kiki Dee was styled as a Spectoresque girl singer. She also did backing vocals for Dusty Springfield. She was doing well enough as a soul singer to become the first white British artist to be signed by Motown in 1970. Other UK acts featured here are the Spencer Davis Group and Junior Campbell, whom I introduced in the Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 9 post.

South African soul singer Una Valli, pictured in 1964.

Geographically most remote is South Africa’s Una Valli, who as a white woman singing black music probably did not earn the love of the apartheid regime. Valli performed almost exclusively cover versions of soul and pop songs. In any other world, she might have become a stone-cold soul legend (she previously featured on Covered With Soul Vol. 6 and Vol. 11 and Covered With Soul: Beatles Edition). Stop Thief is one of her more obscure covers, a Carla Thomas b-side written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Half of Valli’s 1968 album Soul Meeting was recorded with the backing of a pop group called The Peanut Butter Conspiracy; the other half (including Stop Thief) with a soul-funk band called The Flames, whose Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin later joined the Beach Boys on three albums.

Two years after the featured song by Bill Deal and the Rhondels was released, saxophonist Freddy Owens joined the group. In 1979 the band was playing in Richmond, Virginia, when Owens was shot dead in the pursuit of a man who had raped his wife. Bill Deal never really got over that and four years later quit the music industry. He died in 2003.

Several of the songs featured here were favourites on England’s Northern Soul scene, in which DJs would compete to find the most obscure 1960s soul records to be played in specialist clubs which were located mostly in northern England. The most famous venue in this sub-culture, which had its own dress codes and dancing styles, was the Wigan Casino. When the venue closed in 1981, Dean Parrish‘s I’m On My Way was the last record to be played there. Six years earlier, the popularity of the 1967 tune on the Northern Soul scene had led to its re-release, selling a million copies in the UK – and Parrish earned no money from it.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-irised covers, and the above text in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. The O’Kaysions – The Soul Clap (1968)
2. Soul Survivors – Expressway To Your Heart (1967)
3. The Young Rascals – A Girl Like You (1967)
4. Robert John – Raindrops, Love And Sunshine (1970)
5. Bill Deal and the Rhondels – What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am (1969)
6. Charlie Rich – Don’t Tear Me Down (1966)
7. Johnny Daye – I Need Somebody (1968)
8. Linda Lyndell – What A Man (1969)
9. Roy Head – Treat Her Right (1965)
10. Sunday Funnies – Whatcha Gonna Do (When The Dance Is Over) (1967)
11. Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels – Sock It To Me Baby (1967)
12. Bob Kuban & The In-Men – The Cheater (1966)
13. Jimmy Beaumont – I Never Loved Her Anyway (1966)
14. Flaming Ember – The Empty Crowded Room (1971)
15. The Box Tops – Turn On A Dream (1967)
16. Kiki Dee – On A Magic Carpet Ride (1968)
17. Laura Nyro – Stoned Soul Picnic (1968)
18. Dusty Springfield – Just A Little Lovin’ (1969)
19. The Illusion – Falling In Love (1969)
20. Una Valli and The Flames – Stop Thief (1968)
21. The Monzas – Instant Love (1964)
22. Len Barry – 1-2-3 (1965)
23. The Grass Roots – Midnight Confessions (1967)
24. Junior Campbell – Sweet Illusion (1973)
25. Dean Parrish – I’m On My Way (1967)
26. The Spencer Davis Group – I’m A Man (1967)
27. Chi Coltrane – Thunder And Lightning (1971)
28. Tommy James & The Shondells – Crystal Blue Persuasion (1969)

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The alert follower of this corner of the Internet will have spotted that the Any Major Soul series now runs only once a year, to mark the 40^th anniversary of the featured year. And when I contemplate that 1982 is now equidistant to 1942, I feel quite dizzy. But somehow, I don’t think the distance between now and 1982 is as culturally, socially or politically big as that between 1982 and 1942.

That, I think, applies to music as well. In fact, today’s R&B artists especially have an affinity for the stuff that was big four decades ago.

Before the ‘Betrayal’
The opening track on this mix shows how quick things can go downhill. In 1982, Stevie Wonder was still in best form, with songs like That Girl and the majestic Do I Do. By 1984, Stevie issued that song which for once confirms received wisdom, the shameful I Just Called To Say I Love You; a song I could not hate more if it was sung by Michael F Bolton. I had anticipated the new Stevie song with such anticipation that September day in 1984, and felt betrayed when I heard it on the radio. To wash the grease of I Just Called… out of my ears, I put on the Original Musiquarium album. On that “Best Of” type double-LP set, every side ended with a previously unreleased track. All of these would have merited a place on any of the great Stevie Wonder albums of the 1970s.

Knitted Jersey Soul
For those who lived through the ’80s, it is tempting to dismiss Lionel Richie as a somewhat naff pop singer of syrupy ballads and party tunes, whose sartorial style was like a parody of 1980s fashion when 1980s fashion was still happening. And fair enough, I don’t like Dancing On The Ceiling or Hello or Ballerina Girl. But Richie, we must never forget, was also the man from The Commodores, whose place in the pantheon of soul acts is unassailable. And that Richie was also present on his solo albums. The featured track, Round And Round, is a delightfully upbeat song from his eponymous 1982 album.

Not a Smith
I recall arriving in London in 1984 and seeing concert listings announcing gigs by Morrissey-Mullen. I had no ideas what music I might hear at such gigs, and I never sought to find out. But since I loved The Smiths, the name stuck in my mind. Later I learnt that this lot had no truck with the pretentious lyrics and nasty bigotry of their part-namesake. Morrissey-Mullen were a pretty funky jazz fusion act, with Dick Morrissey on saxophones and flute, and Jim Mullen on guitar. Morrissey left us in 2000 at the age of 60.

On the featured track, their groove is given life by the vocals by British singer Carol Kenyon, whose voice you may well know from Heaven 17’s 1983 hit Temptation (featured on A Life in Vinyl 1983), or from Paul Hardcastle’s 1986 hit Don’t Waste My Time. She was a prolific backing singer.

Fifth Stairstep
Keni Burke started his career as a kid in the Five Stairsteps, and wrote the group’s first successful single, You Waited Too Long, in 1966, before he was even 13. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he backed some of the biggest names in soul music while also pursuing a solo career that yielded three albums between 1977 and 1982, followed by another in 1998.

Short Careers
It is a little sad to know that Mighty Fire released only two albums, in 1981 and ’82, before they split. Member Darryl K. Roberts, a singer, bassist and keyboardist, went on to write the Anita Baker song Same Ole Love. Mel Bolton, who also produced the Mighty Fire, had been an arranger for Motown, including the tribute to Berry Gordy, Pops, We Love You, which was recorded by two acts that also feature on this mix: Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder (along with Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson).

Even fewer releases were issued by Wisconsin soul acts Majestics: one single, the featured The Key To Love Is Understanding. The song must have sounded dated in 1982. Today, it is a gorgeous slow burner that really belongs in the 1970s.

Was he?
You may recognise Sweet Pea Atkinson’s voice from Was (Not Was) hits like Spy In The House Of Love and Walk The Dinosaur. On his own Atkinson, who died in 2020, released only two albums, one in 1982 and the other in 2017. Who knows, maybe I’ll feature a track from the latter on this blog in 2057.

A Original?
On the Originals of 1990s hits I included Linda Clifford’s first version 1990 Whitney Houston hit All The Man I Need. It is actually not clear whether Clifford’s version or that by Sister Sledge was the original version. Both were released in 1980, and if Discogs and Wikipedia are correct, the Sister Sledge version came out a month before Clifford’s (other sources date the release of the former to four months later). If Secondhandsongs.com and Whosampledwho.com have it right, Clifford’s recording precedes that of the sisters. Whatever the case, the Sister Sledge version is included here. The uncredited male vocals on what is really Kathy Sledge’s song, by what sounds like Barry White’s kid brother, are those of Philadelphia singer David Simmons.

Long Note
Finally, Melba Moore needs no introduction. But do listen to that absurdly long note she holds at the end of The Other Side Of The Rainbow. That’s no saxophone; it’s Melba!

A companion mix to this collection is Any Major Soul 1982/83, which I posted — gulp — 12 years ago. The Zippy link is still live.

As always, CD-R length, covers, text above in PDF, PW in comments…

1. Stevie Wonder – That Girl
2. Junior – Mama Used To Say
3. Mighty Fire – Just A Little Bit
4. Marvin Gaye – My Love Is Waiting
5. Lionel Richie – Round And Round
6. Luther Vandross – Once You Know How
7. Morrissey-Mullen feat. Carol Kenyon – Ships That Pass In The Night
8. Marlena Shaw – Next Time I Fall In Love
9. Syl Johnson – They Can’t See Your Good Side
10. Majestics – Key To Love Is Understanding
11. Melba Moore – The Other Side Of The Rainbow
12. Patrice Rushen – Where There Is Love
13. Howard Johnson – Take Me Through The Night
14. Mike & Brenda Sutton – All Worth Loving For
15. Sweet Pea Atkinson – Don’t Walk Away
16. Z.Z. Hill – Cheating In The Next Room
17. Keni Burke – One Minute More
18. Sister Sledge feat. David Simmons – All The Man I Need

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There was still a lot of great soul in the early 1980s. In fact, there was a lot of great soul throughout the decade; it’s just the famous hits that got worse.

Dimples
One of the better hits of the mid-1980s was the rather misogynist Oran ‘Juice’ Jones hit The Rain, in which the singer delivers a spoken diatribe to effect a break-up with his cheating girlfriend (“Don’t touch that coat!”). On this mix, the roles are reversed as Betty Wright cuts down the hapless Richard ‘Dimples’ Fields, on whom she has served divorce papers. And with good reason, for he is seeking to get his jollies elsewhere. Her rap as she cuts the cad down to size is quite spectacular. Fields, who begins the track by framing himself as a victim, merits our applause for setting himself up in this song as a target for a woman’s righteous fury.

Fields went on to have an R&B hit in 1982 with If It Ain’t One Thing, It’s Another (a re-recording of a track he had originally released in 1975), and a number of low-charting releases, but he enjoyed less success than he deserved. Dimples, his nickname by which he went on his later recordings (given to him for his ready smile), died at only 57 in 2000.

Jones Girls
His She’s Got Papers On Me is one of two tracks here which I might have held back for a mix I’m plotting of songs with spoken words; the other is The Jones Girls I Just Love The Man, in which the girl’s take issue with the quality of a sister’s no-good boyfriend. In some families, I suspect, this song could be the national anthem.

The sisters — Shirley, Brenda and Valerie  — found success with Gamble & Huff, having first been mentored by Curtis Mayfield, through whom they got to work with Aretha Franklin. It was as a support act for Diana Ross that the Jones Girls came to Gamble & Huff’s attention. Besides releasing their own albums, they also provided backing vocals for the PIR roster. Of the three sisters, only lead singer Shirley (who in the featured song is the no-good man’s girlfriend) is still alive. Valorie died in 2001; Brenda in 2017. The Jones Girls previously featured on Any Major Soul 1980/81 and Any Major Soul 1978/79.

Apollo Creed sings!
One singer here is more famous as a movie star, or even as an American football player than as a soul crooner. In 1981, Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed in Rocky). You Ought To Be With Me, on which the actor has a writing credit, was his single foray into recording music. Which is a pity: Weathers is doing a creditable job of it.

Blues ‘n’ Soul
Another act is not really known as a soul singer. Bobby Rush was a veteran blues singer by the time Talk To Your Daughter came out. As a young man, he was friends with blues legends like Elmore James and Pinetop Perkins, and with Ike Turner. The featured track is from the period in his long career when Rush was produced by Philly soul pioneer Kenny Gamble. Rush, who veers into the fields of soul, funk and even hip hop, won his first Grammy in 2017, at the age of 87.

Tutored by B.B.
And a nephew of Rush’s old pal Emore James features here, too. L.V. Johnson was better known as a session guitarist — he was taught to play that instrument by B.B. King — for acts like the Bar-Kays, Johnnie Taylor, and the Soul Children. After strumming and also writing for other acts, and releasing a few singles in the 1970s, he released his debut album in 1981 (it also included a soul version of Danny Boy, featured on Covered With Soul Vol. 22). Several albums followed, none particularly successful. L.V. Johnson died in 1994 at the age of 48.

Feva
Sandra Feva released three LPs and a succession of singles, under her stage name and real name, Sandra Richardson. The breakthrough never came, but in the 1980s Feva was also a session singer, backing he likes of Aretha Franklin (including on Who’s Zooming Who), Prince, George Clinton/Paliament/Funkadelic, and others. Feva died at 73 in 2020.

As always, CD-R length, covers, text above in PDF, PW in comments…

1. The Whispers – Love Is Where You Find It
2. Luther Vandross – Sugar And Spice
3. Ray Parker Jr. – A Woman Needs Love
4. Sandra Feva – Tell ’Em That I Heard It
5. Tyrone Davis – Love (Ain’t Over There)
6. Chaka Khan – Any Old Sunday
7. The Jones Girls – I Just Love The Man
8. Richard ‘Dimples’ Fields feat. Betty Wright – She’s Got Papers On Me
9. Al Jarreau – Breakin’ Away
10. Debra Laws feat. Ronnie Laws – Very Special
11. Bobby Womack – Where Do We Go From Here?
12. Thelma Houston – There’s No Running Away From Love
13. Carl Weathers – You Ought To Be With Me
14. Yvonne Gage – Tonight (I Wanna Love You)
15. Earth, Wind & Fire – Wanna Be With You
16. L.V. Johnson – We Belong Together
17. Bobby Rush – Talk To Your Daughter
Bonus track: Fifth Avenue – Miracles

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After last week’s (pleasingly popular) freebirding mix of Southern Rock, it seems right to follow that up with a dose of soul music. I had two concepts in mind: keeping it geographically consistent with a set of Southern Soul, or congratulating Philadelphia for pushing President-elect Joe Biden over the needed 270 electorate votes. Well, there will be a Philly soul mix before too long, but here we are keeping it south.

Southern Soul is not an easy thing to define, less so because migration north saw similar sounds being created in places like Chicago. There isn’t really one Southern soul sound, though when you hear it, you usually can place it. When you hear horns, especially those striking jubilant tones followed soon by mournful minor notes (or vice versa) by the Memphis Horns, you might have a Southern Soul record. If it features a funky bass even on ballads, you might have a Southern Soul record. If the singer sounds like he or she is shouting, even when they aren’t, you might have a Southern Soul record. And so on…

Or use King Curtis’ recipe for Memphis Soul Stew: half a teacup of bass, a pound of fatback drums, four tablespoons of boiling Memphis guitars, just a little pinch of organ, and half a pint of horn…

For the purposes of this mix, all artists were born in the south, and their songs were recorded in the south, for labels such as Stax, Hi, Goldwax, Murco or Atlantic. I didn’t investigate whether every song here satisfies these criteria (Mitty Collier, for example recorded on Chess in Chicago, but came from the south); if they don’t, return to the previous paragraph.

Some obvious acts are missing — notably Aretha Franklin and Sam & Dave. But Aretha’s sister Erma is represented. And two singers here are cousins: Percy Sledge and Jimmy Hughes.

As always, CD-R length, homestewed covers, PW in comments.

1. The Soul Children – Super Soul (1969)
2. Wilson Pickett – Don’t Fight It (1965)
3. Brenton Wood – Baby You Got It (1967)
4. Clarence Carter – Getting The Bills (But No Merchandise) (1970)
5. Spencer Wiggins – The Power Of A Woman (1967)
6. Bettye Swann – Tell It Like It Is (1968)
7. James Carr – A Lucky Loser (1967)
8. Syl Johnson – That’s Just My Luck (1975)
9. Phillip Mitchell – Turning Over The Ground (1973)
10. Jackie Moore – Precious Precious (1970)
11. Al Green – What a Wonderful Thing Love Is (1972)
12. Erma Coffee – You Made Me What I Am (1973)
13. Eddy ‘G’ Giles – Happy Man (1967)
14. Otis Redding – You Don’t Miss Your Water (1965)
15. Percy Sledge – The Dark End of the Street (1967)
16. Carla Thomas – A Woman’s Love (1964)
17. Don Covay – Everything Gonna Be Everything (1966)
18. Johnnie Taylor – Who’s Making Love (1968)
19. Bobby Rush – Bowlegged Woman, Knock-Kneed Man (1972)
20. Eddie Floyd – Things Get Better (1966)
21. Otis Clay – Brand New Thing (1971)
22. Marion Ester – Not Guilty (1969)
23. O.V. Wright – You’re Gonna Make Me Cry (1965)
24. Mitty Collier – It Looks Like Rain (1965)
25. Reuben Bell & The Casanovas – It’s Not That Easy (1968)
26. Erma Franklin – You’ve Been Cancelled (1969)
27. Jimmy Hughes – Neighbour Neighbour (1964)
28. King Curtis – Memphis Soul Stew (1967)

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