Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Soul music in 1966 “” throughout the 1960s “” was so rich in quality and diversity that one can cheerfully dispense with the year”s great hits of that genre. We need no Reach Out I”ll Be There, Hold On I”m Coming, Knock On Wood, Ain”t Too Proud To Beg, B-A-B-Y or When A Man Loves A Woman to serve a feast of mid-“60s soul.

Of course we have many well-known voices on this compilation: Eddie Floyd, Lou Rawls, The Isley Brothers (with their cover of The Supremes” I Hear A Symphony), Martha Reeves and the Vandellas (with my favourite song of theirs) or Major Lance.

One voice is familiar, but the name is not: Andrea Davis. It was the name under which Minnie Riperton briefly recorded after leaving The Gems (who have featured previously) and joining The Rotary Connection.

The Five Stairsteps appear here with their debut single, a great slice of Curtis Mayfield-penned Chicago soul that served as a double A-side with You Waited Too Long.

The Poets, not to be confused with the Scottish outfit by that name or the forerunners of the Main Ingredient, provide what might well be my favourite track on this mix, She Blew A Good Thing. It was the only hit for the Brooklyn band, reaching #2 R&B and the Top 40 pop charts.

Almost as good is Bobby Sheen“s Dr Love (with that great tempo change halfway through). Sheen never had much success under his own name; he was more famous as Bob B Soxx, the nominal leader of the Phil Spector-produced  Blue Jeans (who were Darlene Love and Fanita James). He also provided one of the voices on The Crystals” He”s A Rebel. Fans of Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You will know Sheen’s voice from the songs The Bells Of St Mary’s and Here Comes Santa Claus. Sheen died in 2000 at the age of 59.

Clarence Reid is better known as the sexually explicit novelty soul singer Blowfly, and as the co-writer of such soul classics as Betty Wright”s Clean Up Woman and Gwen McCrae”s Rockin” Chair. The Blowfly moniker reportedly had its origins with Reid”s granny. Mishearing Reid”s singing of Do the Twist as “Suck My Dick”, she berated him: “You is nastier than a blowfly.”

There are not many soul singers from a Jewish background (and even Sammy Davis Jr was a convert to Judaism); one of the few is featured here: Ruby Johnson, who recorded on Stax with Isaac Hayes and David Porter.

Darrell Banks is featured here with his sole hit single, Open Your Heart, for which he falsely claimed songwriting credit; after litigation, the real writer, Donnie Elbert, got 50% credit. The singer came to a tragic end in 1970 when he was shot dead when he pulled a gun on a policeman who was having an affair with Banks” girlfriend.

Fans of The Specials will know Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers” Sock It To “Em J.B., a clever song about one JB performed in the style of another JB “” it”s a tribute to James Bond as James Brown might have rendered it.

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

TRACKLISTING
1. Arthur Conley – Funky Street
2. Eddie Floyd – Things Get Better
3. William Bell – Never Like This Before
4. The Poets – She Blew A Good Thing
5. The Five Stairsteps – Don’t Waste Your Time
6. Bobby Sheen – Dr. Love
7. Fontella Bass – I Surrender
8. The Isley Brothers – I Hear A Symphony
9. Dee Dee Warwick – Lover’s Chant
10. Betty Harris – What’d I Do Wrong
11. Chris Clark – Love’s Gone Bad
12. Martha Reeves & the Vandellas – No More Tearstained Make Up
13. Mable John – Your Good Thing (Is About To End)
14. Jean Wells – If You’ve Ever Loved Someone
15. Lou Rawls – A Whole Lotta Love
16. Don Covay – I Never Get Enough Of Your Love
17. Andrea Davis – You Gave Me Soul
18. Clarence Reid – I Refuse To Give Up
19. Ruby Johnson – I’ll Run Your Hurt Away
20. Baby Washington – Either You’re With Me (Or Either You’re Not)
21. Darrell Banks – Open The Door To Your Heart
22. Major Lance – Investigate
23. Billy Thompson – Black Eyed Girl
24. Roy Hamilton – Crackin’ Up Over You
25. The Sapphires – Slow Fizz
26. The Capitols – Cool Jerk
27. Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers – Sock It To ‘Em J.B., Pt. 1
28. Brenda Holloway – Hurt A Little Everyday
29. Devotions – The Devil’s Gotten Into My Baby
30. The Royalettes – Baby Are You Putting Me On

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More Any Major Soul

Here is a mix of soul from 1965, though some tracks were released only in 1966. As before, there”s a mix of the well known and the forgotten and relatively obscure.

Cannibal and the Headhunters were the first Mexican-American R&B act to make a wider impression with their hit cover of Chris Kenner”s Land Of A Thousand Dances, to which lead singer Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia added the famous “na, na na na na” line when he forgot the lyrics. The group supported The Beatles during their second US tour.

Another caucasian singer in this lot is Roy Head, who was actually a rockabilly singer. But just as soul singers could do country ““ think Brook Benton, Joe Tex, Arthur Alexander, even Solomon Burke “” so could some country singers do soul, as Charlie Rich proved in the 1960s. Roy Head”s Treat Her Right was a proper soul song; it was kept of the Billboard #1 spot by The Beatles” Yesterday.

Hollywood-born and Detroit-based Kris Peterson might be best known to Frank Zappa fans for her involvement in the Waka Ja Waka album of 1972. For contractual reasons she was prevented from joining Holand-Dozier-Holland”s Invictus label, which is a pity, because her Just As Much shows an affinity with the Motown sound.

The Astors recorded on Stax, but don”t really sound like it. They recorded only five singles for the label between 1961 and 1967. Candy, co-written by Steve Cropper and Isaac Hayes, was their biggest hit, reaching #12 in the R&B charts.

Betty Harris featured on Any Major Soul 1960-63. By 1965 she recorded on the New Orleans Sansu label, where she was produced by Allen Toussaint. She recorded a lot, and her output is loved by soul fans, though that has not translated to great fame.

Marlina Mars (also known as Marlene Mack) was a member of a few New York-based girl-groups, including The Jaynetts, who had a #2 hit in 1963 with Sally Go ‘Round the Roses. At one point she performed as Peaches in live shows of Peaches & Herb. She released a few solo singles in the mid-“˜60s on several labels, without much success.

Rozetta Johnson, who died last year at the age of 68, started out as a gospel singer, tried her hand at secular music, became disillusioned and returned to gospel and jazz. She was later inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

The Charts, a Harlem band, are said to be the only band to be booed off the stage at the Apollo”s amateur night and still go on to have some success. The gang members-turned-doo wop singers were freestyling vocally in ways the crowd did not appreciate that night in 1956, but a talent scout saw something in them and became their manager. They had a hit in the New York area with Everlast, which over the years sold more than a million copies.  Another of their songs, Deserie, was later covered by Laura Nyro as Desirée. A year after Everlast, in 1958, The Charts disbanded for the first time. A reformed version recorded several singles in the 1960s and beyond, but never bothered the hit parade again before disbanding again. In the 1970s they reformed as The Twelfth Of Never and in the “80s as The Charts again.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes homebrewed covers. Password in the comment section.

TRACKLISTING
1. The Impressions – Woman’s Got Soul
2. The Astors – Candy
3. Willie Tee – Teasin’ You
4. Don Covay – Mercy Mercy
5. Ben E. King – Cry No More
6. Lee Dorsey – Get Out Of My Life, Woman
7. Roy Head – Treat Her Right
8. Cannibal and the Headhunters – Land Of 1000 Dances
9. Joe Tex – Sweet Woman Like You
10. Sam & Dave – You Don’t Know Like I Know
11. Betty Harris – What A Sad Feeling
12. Barbara Mason – Yes I’m Ready
13. Mary Wells – Me And My Baby
14. Marlina Mars – Head And Shoulders
15. Jack Montgomery – Dearly Beloved
16. Dee Dee Sharp – There Ain’t Nothing That I Wouldn’t Do
17. The Contours – First I Look At The Purse
18. The Marvelettes – Don’t Mess With Bill
19. The Gems – He Makes Me Feel So Good
20. Brenda Holloway – I’ve Been Good To You
21. Dee Dee Warwick – We’re Doing Fine
22. Kris Peterson – Just As Much
23. Gerri Thomas – Look What I Got
24. The Sharpees – Tired Of Being Lonely
25. The Charts – Livin’ The Night Life
26. Kim Weston – Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)
27. The Supremes – My World is Empty Without You
28. Rozetta Johnson – That Hurts
29. Billy Prophet – What Can I Do
30. Baby Huey & the Babysitters – Monkey Man

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More Any Major Soul

In the past I spread my soul selections over two years, or in the last instalment over four. Frankly, by that method, there is too much great stuff that must be left off. So from here on in we’ll run through the 1960s year-by-year.

Many acts here are well-known, though not all were famous at the time the featured song was released. The Supremes’ Run Run Run, in which Holland-Dozier-Holland tried to go for the Phil Spector sound, tanked at #93 when it was released in February 1964. Their next single, Where Did Our Love Go, went to #1, as did the following four.

Lou Johnson’s song would become famous in versions by other singers, especially Britain’s Sandie Shaw; Lou’s was the original (and here a special shout-out to the late Hal David seems appropriate). Meanwhile Hal and Burt’s muse, Dionne Warwick, chips in here with a song that conforms more to the girl-band sound that was already becoming passé. Though it was produced by Bacharach and David, Get Rid Of Him was written by Brill Building team Helen Miller and Howard Greenfield. It was only an album track and therefore not well-known. And lovely as it is, how could it compete with orther siongs from the LP, such as Walk On By, A House Is Not A Home, They Long To Be Close To You or Reach Out For Me?

Talking of girl bands, Earl-Jean used to be the singer of The Cookies, who featured twice in The Originals series, HERE and HERE, while Earl-Jean did the original of the Herman Hermits’ hit I’m Into Something Good. And talking of originals, the Bessie Banks’ song Go Now was later covered by the Moody Blues. Bessie’s version was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

The Radiants were a Chicago group which included Leonard Caston Jr, who not only wrote the Mitty Collier song that follows The Radiants’ wonderful Voice Your Choice, but also hits such as Eddie Kendricks’ Keep On Trucking and The Supremes’ Nathan Jones, and played the piano on Fontellas Bass Rescue Me. The Radiants were once produced by the legendary Billy Davis (who wrote Rescue Me). Davis also wrote the song that precedes that group’s song. Listen to the lead singer of The Gems, who recorded on Chess ““ it is a young Minnie Riperton.

Linda Carr would go on to become a popular singer in Britain in the 1970s as the frontwoman of Linda and the Funky Boys; featured here is the lovely b-side of her debut solo single Sweet Talk.

Anna King had the distinction of being the only one of James Brown’s backing singers to have an album produced by the self-proclaimed hardest-working man in show business, with his band doing backing duties. Titled Back To Soul, it was also her only one. Come On Home is credited to Ted Wright ““ one of Brown’s pseudonyms.

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

 TRACKLISTING:
1. Gene Chandler – A Song Called Soul
2. Little Milton – Who’s Cheatin’ Who
3. The Miracles – Baby Don’t You Go
4. The Gems – All Of It
5. The Radiants – Voice Your Choice
6. Mitty Collier – I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night
7. The Impressions – I’m So Proud
8. Lou Johnson – (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me
9. Jerry Butler – I Stand Accused
10. Lavern Baker – Go Away
11. Irma Thomas – I Wish Someone Would Care
12. Anna King – Come On Home
13. Betty Everett – It Hurts To Be In Love
14. The Velvelettes – He Was Really Saying Somethin’
15. Dionne Warwick – Get Rid Of Him
16. Earl-Jean – Randy
17. Solomon Burke – Stupidity
18. Sam Cooke – Ain’t That Good News
19. Baby Washington – Your Fool
20. Linda Carr – Jackie, Bobby, Sonny, Billy
21. Brenda Holloway – Sad Song
22. Gladys Knight & The Pips – Giving Up
23. Stevie Wonder – Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
24. The Marvelettes – Too Many Fish In The Sea
25. The Sapphires – Who Do You Love?
26. Bessie Banks – Go Now
27. Nina Simone – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
28. Arthur Alexander – Black Night
29. The Supremes – Run, Run, Run

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More Any Major Soul

A while ago I compiled a series of mixes covering soul music from 1970 to 1989, all the links of which I’ve updated. So it seems essential to also cover the 1960s — for many people the golden age of soul. We’ll start with 29 songs from 1960 to 1963. Some of them are classics, such as I’m Blue, It’s Raining, Ya Ya, Monkey Time or Fingertips (represented here in its full version). Others are lesser known, or album tracks or b-sides — but all, in my opinion, great songs.

Some of the names are well-known, and a few still at the beginning of great things, such as Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and Eddie Holland, who’d have much bigger success as a songwriter and producer at Motown, on which his Leaving Here appeared.

Others have been widely forgotten. Among them are The Sapphires, whose debut single Where Is Johnny Now is a firm favourite of mine. The Philadelphia group was among Gamble & Huff’s earliest protégés; the song features Leon Huff as well as Thom Bell on keyboards.

There is no name on this tracklist that sounds more ’60s than Doris Troy. Discovered in New York by James Brown (who doesn’t like his music to be featured on blogs, hence his absence), she had a couple of hits, including a Top 40 hit in the UK in 1964 which The Beatles liked so much that they later signed her to the Apple label.

The Butlers are so obscure that they are a trivia question on Northern Soul pub quiz nights. The group’s claim to fame, and this song’s, is that the lead vocalist is Frankie Beverley, who would become a soul legend as the frontman of Maze.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes front and back covers.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Ray Charles – Sticks And Stones
2. LaVern Baker – Bumble Bee
3. Mable John – You Made A Fool Out Of Me
4. The Ikettes – I’m Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)
5. Arthur Alexander – A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues
6. The Mar-Keys – Last Night
7. Gladys Knight and The Pips – Letter Full of Tears
8. Little Milton – Saving My Love For You
9. Lee Dorsey – Ya Ya
10. Irma Thomas – It’s Raining
11. Bettye Lavette – My Man, He’s A Lovin’ Man
12. Ann Cole – Have Fun
13. Marvin Gaye – Get My Hands On Some Lovin’
14. Aretha Franklin – I’m Wandering
15. Solomon Burke – Go On Back To Him
16. Sam Cooke – Nothing Can Change This Love
17. Dee Dee Sharp – Village Of Love
18. The Marvelettes – Playboy
19. Joe Henderson – Snap Your Fingers
20. Betty Harris – It’s Dark Outside
21. Baby Washington – Who’s Gonna Take Care Of Me
22. Eddie Holland – Leaving Here
23. Doris Troy – But I Love Him
24. The Sapphires – Where Is Johnny Now
25. Stevie Wonder – Fingertips (full version)
26. Major Lance – Monkey Time
27. Barbara Lewis – Hello Stranger
28. Betty Everett – Gonna Be Ready
29. The Butlers – She Tried To Kiss Me

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(link updated on July 7, 2024)

More Any Major Soul

The cycle of soul compilations covering the 1970s and “80s is coming to an end with this mix, some 13 months after I posted the first (which drew a comment from Jerry Plunk, singer of the Flaming Ember). I have had feedback from a number of people who said they have collected the whole series. One reader told me that he burnt the compilations on CD, printed the covers and gave the set as a present to a soul-loving relative. It”s feedback like this that makes me not ditch this lonely blogging thing.

Of the lot here, I really like Keni Stevens, a British soulster of distinctive style and voice who never made it big. I previously posted my favourite song of his, 24-7-365 (download it here).  Somehow he was not marketable because he was not sufficiently upbeat. Soul lost a fine artist, who released only three albums.

A cursory listen to Charlie Singleton“s track will doubtless cause the savvy listener to call to mind Cameo”s 1985 hit Single Life. Singleton was the guitarist of Cameo until the Single Life album. So all he”s doing is to rip off himself. I hear that lately he”s been performing with Cameo again.

Three songs featured here have a tangential link: Mica Paris and Paul Johnson (the latter featured also on Any Major Soul 1986-87) perform a song from Mica”s 1988 debut album. Another singer who duetted with Paris on the album was the greatly gifted Will Downing, featured here with a track from his eponymously titled debut album. And the gorgeous song here by Al Jarrreau from 1989 originally appeared on Mica Paris” debut.

This mix features a slate of new artists, but also a few singers in the twilight of their careers. Shortly after releasing his Take It To The Streets album, on which the lovely Doo Be Down appeared, Curtis Mayfield suffered the accident that paralysed him. Johnnie Taylor had been a Stax headliner in the early 1970s and made the transition to disco. By the 1980s, he was on the fringes of soul music, though he made a brief comeback in 1996, four years before his death at 62.

New York-born Nicole McCloud never made it big, despite creating a minor soul classic with New York Eyes, her duet with Timmy Thomas (which featured on the New York City Mix Vol. 2). Her  1989 album Rock The House, a mostly poorly produced effort, was Nicole”s second. She released two more, in 1996 and 2002.

TRACKLISTING
1. Womack & Womack – Teardrops
2. Johnnie Taylor – You Knocked My Heart Out Of Line
3. Al Jarreau – So Good
4. Curtis Mayfield – Do Be Down
5. Teddy Pendergrass – 2 A.M.
6. Chuckii Booker – Turned Away
7. BeBe & CeCe Winans – Lost Without You
8. Mica Paris & Paul Johnson – Words Into Action
9. Keni Stevens – Hurt This Way
10. Maze featuring Frankie Beverley – Can’t Get Over You
11. Charlie Singleton – Good Bad Ugly
12. Will Downing – That Good Morning Love
13. Anita Baker – Lead Me Into Love
14. Regina Belle – It Doesn’t Hurt Anymore
15. Brenda Russell – Piano In The Dark
16. Narada Michael Walden – I Belong
17. Nicole – So Lost Without Your Love

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Any Major Soul 1970-71
Any Major Soul 1972-73
Any Major Soul 1974-75
Any Major Soul 1976-77
Any Major Soul 1978-79
Any Major Soul 1980-81
Any Major Soul 1982-83
Any Major Soul 1984-85
Any Major Soul 1986-87

As the mid-1980s turned into the late-“80s, the Quiet Storm sound, invented by Smokey Robinson and perfected by Luther Vandross, became the genre”s standard. When it was good, it really was good. People like Freddy Jackson, Anita Baker and Jeffrey Osborne were turning out some great music of that type (perhaps even the best); but when Michael Fucking Bolton started to muscle in on it, and Peabo Bryson sang MFB covers, Quiet Storm had to go (even if it had to be replaced by New Jack Swing and the soul-free wailers Boyz II Men). In any case, this mix represents much more than Quiet Storm material.

Southern Soul man Marvin Sease is in a rather restrained mood here. His surname rhymes with an adjective that would accurately describe the general gist of his lyrics (I certainly do endorse the title of his rather good 2001 album, A Woman Would Rather Be Licked). Here, however, he is not proposing the reciprocal performance of lewd acts, but old-fashioned marriage. Success took long to come to Sease: by the time he made his breakthrough as a solo artist in 1986, he already was 40.

One of my all-time favourite soul songs is on this mix, Tashan”s Ooh We Baby. Tashan (pronounced Tay-shon), who was signed on Def Jam, was received well critically, but never broke through commercially. It”s a pity; his 1986 album Chasing A Dream is one of the finest soul albums of the 1980s. The singer, born Thomas Jerome Pearse, is still performing, apparently releasing a new album this year.

Another unusually named singer here is Sherrick, who had a UK hit in 1987 with the excellent Just Call (which is on Any Major 80s Soul Vol 1) . The song featured here, Baby I”m Real, is a cover of the song by The Originals (I”ve always wanted to write that) and appeared on the same LP as Just Call. Sherrick evidently styled his look on DeBarge: dainty moustache and oiled hair just this side of the jheri curl. Like DeBarge, Sherrick (born Lamont Smith) had recorded on Motown, as the singer of the clumsily-named Kagny & the Dirty Rats; in fact, he was discovered by Berry Gordy”s wife Raynoma. His only solo LP, as far as I can ascertain, was released on Warner Brothers. Sadly, Sherrick died in 1999 at 41, just as he was beginning to record new songs.

It”s an injustice that English soul singer Paul Johnson did not have much success. His song When Love Comes Calling should be a soul classic. That and Half A World Away were produced by fellow UK soulster Junior Giscombe (Mama Used To Say). Johnson, who had a mean falsetto, had previously been a singer with the group Paradise. He later duetted with Mica Paris on her debut LP and released a second album in 1989. He has a Facegroup group, on which he writes: “My life is now somewhat removed from the music industry. I am head of a department in an inner city college where I work with young people and adults who despite very difficult circumstances are attempting to improve their lives through accessing education.”

I trust that nobody is going to confuse Shirley Jones with the mom of the Partridge Family. This Shirley Jones was one of the fabulous Jones Girls (who featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79 and 1980-81). I think that Shirley”s 1986 album, Always In The Mood, was her only solo effort. Do You Get Enough Love is the LP”s stand-out track, and topped the R&B charts. Apparently Jones took an extended break from recording after that to raise her son. She still performs on stage (find her on MySpace)

Shirley Jones” MySpace page reveals that she has lately shared a stage with fellow Philly star Jean Carne (who added the “˜e” to her name for reasons of numerology in the 1980s). Born in 1947 as Sarah Jean Perkins (Carne is her married name), she has had a long career, starting in the early 1970s “” including a stint as female lead on Earth Wind & Fire”s first two albums “” and reaching its zenith on Gamble & Huff”s Philadelphia International label (she featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79). Closer Than Close topped the R&B charts, but further commercial success eluded her. Carne is probably one of very few soul singers fluent in Russian.

Chicago-born Miki Howard launched her career with her Come Share My Love album, which included the hit Imagination. The daughter of gospel singers stepped out with the late Gerald Levert for a while, and played Billie Holiday in Spike Lee”s film Malcolm X. She had some success until the mid-1990s, when she retired from recording and became a radio DJ in Atlanta instead. She came out of retirement in the early 2000s and now performs as a jazz singer.

Prince Phillip Mitchell is better known as a successful songwriter than as a singer. He started his career as a teenage member of The Premiers and The Checkmates in the late 1950s. Like Jean Carn, in the “70s he sang on Norman Connors records. His solo LPs made little impact, and in 1979 he withdrew from recording, reappearing briefly in 1986 with the rather good Devastation LP. He seems like a great guy with a good story. Check out this 2001 interview.

TRACKLISTING
1. Maze featuring Frankie Beverley – Before I Let Go (live)
2. Alexander O’Neal & Cherelle – Never Knew Love Like This
3. Force M.D.’s – Love Is A House
4. Sherrick – Baby I’m For Real
5. Marvin Sease – Let’s Get Married Today
6. Jean Carne – Closer Than Close
7. Tashan – Ooh We Baby
8. Freddie Jackson – Have You Ever Loved Somebody
9. Shirley Jones – Do You Get Enough Love
10. Kashif & Meli’sa Morgan – Love Changes
11. Jeffrey Osborne – You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song)
12. Luther Vandross feat Gregory Hines – There’s Nothing Better Than Love
13. Miki Howard – Come Share My Love
14. Paul Johnson – Half A World Away
15. The Winans feat Anita Baker – Ain’t No Need To Worry (12″ version)
16. Prince Phillip Mitchell – I Taught Her Everything

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More “70s Soul

…

This mix should persuade those who believe that soul music was dying by the mid-1980s of their error. There is much that”s great on this mix, and among tracks that did not make the cut.

Some of the songs are surprising. Cameo are more usually associated with funk and camp codpieces, not deep soul music as this duet between Larry Blackmon and Barbara Mitchell of Hi Inergy (who featured on Any Major Soul 1976-77). Denise LaSalle, during the time covered by this mix, had a hit with the awful Don”t Mess With My Toot Toot; the song here, an old-fashioned southern soul number, preceded that atrocity  by a year. And those who associate Amii Stewart only with thumping Euro disco will hear another side to the long-legged Washington-born and Italy-based singer. And if there has been a perception that Deniece Williams had sold out to pop with Johnny Mathis duets and Let”s Hear It For The Boy, Black Butterfly (from the same album on which the latter appeared on) will dispel that notion.

The 1980s saw much collaboration and crossing over between jazz fusion and soul. We saw this on the Any Major Soul 1980-81 mix, on which the great Grady Tate provided vocals for Grover Washington. Likewise, here Roberta Flack guests with Japanese saxman Sadao Watanabe on the very lovely Here”s To Love. Likewise Bobby Womack guests on Crusaders” saxophonist Wilton Felder“s cumbersomely titled but gorgeous (No Matter How High I Get) I”ll Still Be Looking Up You. Womack, who had previously sung on Felder”s Inherit The Wind, was accompanied by Alltrinna Grayson. Grayson was discovered by Womack while singing in a burger joint; when Patti LaBelle dropped out of Womack”s tour, he roped in Grayson (her vocals here suggest that she was an astute replacement for LaBelle).

Bernard Wright, like his childhood friend Tom Browne, had a jazz-funk background and recorded on Dave Grusin”s GRP label, though Mr Wright, on which the featured song appeared, was released on EMI subsidiary Manhattan.

Paris L. Holley is the son of a bandleader for Billie Holliday, and recorded in Chicago, apparently only this one single “” but what a magnificent single! Google reveals that there is a music producer and web developer of that name, but I have no idea if that”s the same person.

A few veterans from the 1970s were making comebacks: The Intruders had been recording since 1961, though their breakthrough came only in 1968. After success through the 1970s, two of the trio left to become Jehovah”s Witnesses, and the other member, Eugene Daugherty, became a truck driver. In 1984, he left the road to reform The Intruders with a new line-up, and scored a hit with Who Do You Love. The Spinners went back even further, when as the Domingos they shared the stage with the Four Ames, who”d become the Four Tops. After a stint with Motown and various personnel changes, the Spinners enjoyed their most successful period in the 1970s. Their last big chart hit was in 1980.

And Teddy Pendergrass made his comeback with Love Language in 1984, two years after the car crash that left him paralysed. Truth be told, Love Language was mostly inferior by TP”s standards (he”d hit a final high in 1988 with his Joy LP). In My Time is standard ’80s soul crooning fare, but I think TP’s understated vocals are rather touching.

If I had to choose favourites from this set, the contenders would certainly include the two opening tracks, and the Cameo song and Patrice Rushen“s High In Me from her Now album, the tape of which I wore out driving on the Autobahn in 1984. Hear a podcast interview with Rushen at the fine jazz blog Straight No Chaser.

PW is amdwhah.

1. Sadao Watanabe & Roberta Flack – Here’s To Love
2. Bill Withers – Oh Yeah
3. Paris – I Choose You
4. Amii Stewart – Friends
5. Alexander O’Neal – A Broken Heart Can Mend
6. Bernard Wright – Just When I Thought You Were Mine
7. Denise LaSalle & Latimore – Right Place Right Time
8. Wilton Felder feat. Bobby Womack & Alltinna Grayson – (No Matter How High I Get) I’ll Still Be Looking Up To You
9. Deniece Williams – Black Butterfly
10. Cameo – I’ll Never Look For Love
11. Patrice Rushen – High In Me
12. The Intruders – Who Do You Love?
13. S.O.S. Band – Just The Way You Like It
14. DeBarge – Time Will Reveal
15. The Spinners – Love Don’t Love Nobody
16. Teddy Pendergrass – In My Time

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“70s Soul

The 1982/83 season saw the continued rise of the Quiet Storm, corporate smooth soul stuff which would eventually choke the genre. There isn”t much of that on this collection (and where there is, such as Beau Williams” Elvina, it”s great).

Opening track Time Is appeared on veteran funk group New Birth“s swansong album, I”m Back, a title that proved terminally temporary. Put together in the late 1960s by Harvey Fuqua, New Birth scored a number of R&B hits throughout the “70s.

The LIVE Band, from New York City, released only one album (on The Sound of Brooklyn label). The title feature here sounds a lot like a Maze song, especially Joy And Pain, with the vocalist doing his best to emulate Frankie Beverley”s phrasing. It would be horribly unfair to call this a pastiche, though. It”s a great track from a fine album.
Gayle Adams represents the Washington D.C. soul scene here. Like so many other artists on this set, her career was relatively short-lived. Perhaps best-known for her cover of the Four Tops” Baby I Need Your Loving or possibly the dance hit Love Fever, both from the album featuring Don”t Jump To Conclusion, the sets one mid-tempo number, with a rather nice guitar solo.

Among the bonus tracks for Any Major Soul 1978-79 were Switch, which included two brothers of the DeBarge clan, Bobby and Tommy. Through their good office the younger siblings, led by El DeBarge, landed a contract with Motown subsidiary Gordy. It would be an injustice if the group”s reputation were to hinge on the chart-fodder Rhythm Of The Night; the group produced some excellent soul music. Check out the acoustic guitar solo on All This Love.

I have been unable to find out anything about Lenard Lidell, or even if he ever released anything else but his 1983 four-track EP, Afternoon Affair, from which the lovely Sweetie Pie comes. It was released by the L.A.-based Jara Records. Likewise, I have no information on The Vosonics, other than that they apparently recorded in Oakland, California.
Beau Williams was going to become a replacement member of the Temptations, but was rejected because at 5″8″ he was considered too short. In reparation, of sorts, the Temps appeared on George Benson protégé Williams” 1983 debut album Stay With Me, on which Elvina appeared. The song is a classic in some Cape Town karaoke bars, invariably causing much distress to singer and listeners when it comes to the high note at 4:20.
Fred Parris was one of doo wop group Five Satins, who recorded the original version of In The Still Of The Night, and he still tours with an incarnation of the group. In the 1980s, he led the now unnumbered Satins on a very nice soul album. Homepage here.
Windjammer, from New Orleans, are probably best remembered for the 1984 hit Tossin” And Turnin”. Stay is from their self-titled debut, released 1982. Five years earlier, guitarist Ken McLin had ambushed Tito Jackson on a hotel escalator with a Windjammer demo. To his credit, Tito listened to the tape, and two years later that charming man Joe Jackson became their manager.

Like Windjammer, Atlantic Starr were for a while produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a period that produced gems like Silver Shadow and Let The Sun In as well as MOR ballads like Always. Circles preceded that period, with James Anthony Carmichael doing producing duty, with Sharon Bryant still with the Lewis brothers before leaving and replaced with Barbara Weathers.

PW is amdwhah.

TRACKLISTING
1. The New Birth – Time Is
2. Vernon Burch – Simply Love
3. The LIVE Band – A Chance For Hope
4. O.T. Sykes – Lonelines Inside Of Me
5. Roberta Flack – I’m The One
6. Gayle Adams – Don’t Jump To Conclusions
7. DeBarge – All This Love
8. Lenard Lidell – Sweetie Pie
9. Beau Williams – Elvina
10. Bloodstone – Go On And Cry
11. Fred Parris and the Satins – Let Me Be The Last One
12. Windjammer – Stay
13. Randy Crawford – In Real Life
14. The Vosonics – Set My Soul On Fire
15. Gwen Guthrie – It Should Have Been You
16. Atlantic Starr – Circles
17. Mtume – Would You Like To Fool Around

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The two opening tracks, by Clyde Milton and Sam Butler, are apparently quite difficult to find. Both are excellent, and would merit being regarded as “80s soul classics ““ if they were more widely known outside the Northern Soul scene. Milton”s single sold on eBay for $199 last month; a promo copy of Butler”s single was going for $500 last week. I have not been able to find out anything about either singer.

Ruby Wilson has had a prolific if not necessarily high profile recording career, releasing ten albums. She has performed with the likes of Isaac Hayes and B.B. King, and apparently is a hugely popular on the Memphis circuit. She suffered a mild stroke in June last year, and has recently taken to the stage again. Check her out on Facebook, where visitors can learn how to donate towards her medical bills and order her greatest hits CD.

The Movers provide a fix of South African soul-funk. I can”t recall from which excellent site I got this track from, but I ought to express my appreciation for it.

The late Grover Washington Jr is not an obvious choice for a soul compilation, but Be Mine (Tonight) from the excellent Come Morning album does fit the bill. Grady Tate, a terribly under-appreciated singer, delivers the cool and very sexy vocals. The smash of the cymbal in the midst of the instrumental break at 5:45 is one of my favourite moment in popular music.

Con Funk Shun were founded in 1968 and after 1972 worked as a backing band at Stax. During that time they released a few albums on a local Memphis label. Their breakthrough came when they were signed by Mercury where they released a string of albums of varying quality.

Odyssey are better known for their great disco numbers, such as Native New Yorker and Going Back To My Roots. If You”re Looking For A Way Out is a slow soul song that will melt your heart, telling the story of a break-up from the point of view from a woman who still loves her man but has given up.

PW is amdwhah.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Clyde Milton – I’d Rather Leave On My Feet
2. Sam Butler – I Can’t Get Over Loving You
3. Grover Washington Jr feat Grady Tate – Be Mine (Tonight)
4. Maze feat Frankie Beverly – The Look In Your Eyes
5. The Dramatics – You’re The Best Thing In My Life
6. Ruby Wilson – Seeing You Again
7. Lou Rawls – I Go Crazy
8. Odyssey – If You’re Looking For A Way Out
9. The Jones Girls – At Peace With Woman
10. The Movers – Give Me A Day
11. Chaka Khan – Heed The Warning
12. Mtume – So You Wanna Be A Star
13. Tavares – I Don’t Want You Anymore
14. Patrice Rushen – Message In The Music
15. Ebonee Webb – Do Me Right (Everybody Needs A Little Love)
16. Con Funk Shun – All Up To You
17. Peaches & Herb – I Pledge My Love To You
18. Commodores – Lucy

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More Any Major Soul

It”s tempting to dismiss the soul music produced in the disco era. I think this mix shows that it was still a golden era for soul, if not of quite the incredible standards a few years earlier when there was the happy confluence of the influences exerted by the likes of Philly, Motown, Hi, Muscle Shoals, Atlantic, and the Chicago scene.

If I was asked which of these tracks in this mix I”d take with me to a desert island, I would be hard pressed to choose between Bill Withers” Love Is and Minnie Riperton“s Never Existed Before. I think the latter would win. Released after her death from cancer, Minnie”s vocals are equally cute and sexy (nobody has done cute and sexy as well as Minnie did). It”s not the best-known track from the Minnie LP, but it is my favourite Riperton song.

Several of the songs here are touched by disco golddust. The Gary Toms Empire are perhaps more disco than soul. Former Motown writers Ashford & Simpson certainly were in their disco groove, and You Know How To Love Me by Phyllis Hyman (another wonderful soul singer who died too young, in 1995, the same year Bobby DeBarge, featured in the bonus tracks, died) is the sort of mid-tempo song one can dance or chill to.

Cheryl Lynn is better remembered for one of the great dance tracks, Got To Be Real. The track featured here, You”re The One, comes from the same eponymous 1978 album, one of the few ballads on the LP on which the 21-year-old Lynn delivered a fine, octave-traversing vocal performance. Signed by CBS on strength of her winning performance on the TV talent programme The Gong Show, Cheryl Lynn was a prodigious session singer too. It”s her soaring voice on Toto”s excellent Georgy Porgy, and she also backed Lenny Williams, whom we encounter in the bonus tracks.

Peabo Bryson does not have a good reputation among soul fans (with that name, it”s surprising he ever enjoyed any credibility), while Natalie Cole“s soul credentials have taken a knock with her endeavours to become her father. Don”t let such perceptions worry you as you hear their excellent jazzy cover of Bobby Caldwell”s What You Won”t Do For Love.

Jean Carn (later rendered as Carne, for “numerological” reasons) sang with Duke Ellington”s orchestra just before his death. Through her stint as a regular on US TV shows she was picked up by Gamble & Huff for their Philadelphia International Records label.

The Jones Girls also found success with Gamble & Huff, via two soul legends. The Chicago sisters were first 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 “” Shirley, Brenda and Valerie “” came to Gamble & Huff”s attention. Besides releasing their own albums, they also provided backing vocals for the PIR roster.

Johnny “˜Guitar” Watson was cited by Jimi Hendrix as a major influence. He might also have been nicknamed “Organ”, for he played keyboard for Herb Alpert during the 1960s, reuniting with Alpert for his 1979 hit Rise [EDIT: Apparently he didn’t. See comments]. Before that, the man known as “Elvis” private guitar player” had toured with Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Here he gets seriously funky, providing one of the few instances of snoring released on vinyl. Another legend, Wilson Pickett, made a brief comeback fusing the funk with old school soul, creating a sound which Tom Jones has tried to emulate for years, but never coming near his ambition.

The “Pops” in the title of the penultimate track is, of course, Berry Gordy, paid tribute here by four of the greatest stars in music history. I”d not have included it was it not for this year being Motown”s 50th birthday.

PW is amdwhah.

1. Gary Toms Empire – Welcome To Harlem
2. Ashford & Simpson – It Seems To Hang On
3. Jean Carn – Don’t Let It Get To Your Head
4. Bill Withers – Love Is
5. Rufus and Chaka Khan – Stay
6. Cheryl Lynn – You’re The One
7. Denise LaSalle – A Miracle You And Me
8. Neville Brothers – Washable Ink
9. Minnie Riperton – Never Existed Before
10. Natalie Cole & Peabo Bryson – What You Won’t Do For Love
11. Phyllis Hyman – You Know How To Love Me
12. The Jones Girls – You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else
13. Johnny Guitar Watson – It’s A Damn Shame
14. Wilson Pickett – Lay Me Like You Hate Me
15. The Whispers – Let’s Go All The Way
16. Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder – Pops, We Love You
17. Roberta Flack – And The Feeling’s Good

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