Some Sunday Soul...

Everyone should have an Overdose Of Joy at least once a week, so this week's comes from Chi-Lites lead singer Eugene Record. From 1977 this little gem is smoothness personified. I usually prefer my soul a little rougher round the edges but this appeared on the shuffle today and brightened up a dreary day in the cold, wet environs of Lanarkshire. Feel good music of the highest order. If this doesn't lift your spirits nothing will...

Hope you enjoy...

Overdose Of Joy

Some Sunday Soul...

Before "What's Going On" and the best of Curtis Mayfield's wonderful social commentary material in the 70's we had the debut album from the extremely gifted Donny Hathaway. Released in 1970, "Everything Is Everything" was one of the first albums to comment directly on what was really happening in inner city US cities in the early 70's.  His rich, emotive vocals on his debut introduced the world to one of the finest soul voices ever. Hathaway's background in gospel and classical music are both very much in evidence on an album that seems to have been forgotten about over the years. Shame really as it is the equal of 70's material from the likes of Marvin, Curtis and Gil Scott Heron.

For some top quality soul head over here where Mr Charity Chic has just finished his 50 week Southern Soul series with a couple of terrific songs from James Carr.

The Ghetto

Some Sunday Soul...

I believe, if my memory serves me well, I heard Ann Peebles for the first time many years ago on the Andy Peebles show on a Friday night on Radio 1. Some sort of symmetry there, Peebles plays Peebles. I think it was likely to have been "I Can't Stand The Rain" that I heard and was instantly hooked. The following day I made the trip into Glasgow to visit the Virgin Megastore on Union Street to buy something by this singer whose voice I had fallen in love with the previous night. I picked up some sort of "Best Of" type album and soon realised that there was much more than just the track from the night before.

Andy Peebles was my introduction to soul music, and although his show could be a bit hit or miss, you were always guaranteed to hear a few gems that would lead you to seek out their albums. When I listened to my coveted new purchase it sounded to my young uneducated soul ears similiar to some of the stuff I had heard previously like Al Green. I didn't instantly realise straight away that they were both the mainstays of the legendary Hi label, but, after reading up on the label in a book from my local library (pre-internet days!!) it soon became obvious what a hugely important soul label Hi was, with a roster that included not only Al Green and Ann Peebles but also had terrific soul singers like Otis Clay and Donald Bryant.

(You Keep Me) Hanging On

Some Sunday Soul...

Originally known as Little Esther, the supremely talented Esther Phillips started her career on the Savoy label in the early 50's and after a few label changes, and a break from the music industry due to her problems with heroin, she released, in the early 60's a crackin' version of "Release Me". Her career started to really take off when she signed to Atlantic Records where she expanded her style and adopted a more jazzy feel to her music. She continued to record well into the 70's and early 80's and recorded some of her best work, including a sadly prophetic cover of Gil Scott Heron's tale of heroin addiction, "Home Is Where The Hatred Is".

Home Is Where The Hatred Is
Try Me  

First Take...

Album number four in my Top Ten rundown comes courtesy of a singer whose voice is without comparison and is a thing of rare beauty. I first heard First Take about twenty years ago and twenty odd years later I still love the mesmeric, stunning vocals and songs on Roberta Flack's debut album. Hard to believe that it reached the top of the US charts, as it is not a hugely commercial album, although it did take almost three years after it's initial release to get there. Her seemingly effortless singing and piano playing throughout are just sublime, and like all the best vocalists, you believe every single word that comes out of her mouth. You feel like she is just performing for you, with wonderful, unerstated arrangements and a purity to the recordings that is nothing short of magical.

I still recall watching Play Misty For Me many years ago and hearing The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and then trying to find out as much about this amazing singer as I could. When I first listened to First Take I heard bits of Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan amongst others but ,above all else, I heard the emergence of a major new talent in the voice of the one and only Roberta Flack.

Tryin' Times

Some Sunday Soul...

 

Apart from "California Soul" I was not that aware of the music of Marlena Shaw until fairly recently. A few Sundays back during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the Merchant City was transformed for the annual Vintage Festival and one of the stalls was run by the wonderful Charity Shop DJ. At the stall you got a plain white cardboard 12" album sleeve and wrote your name and one of your fave songs on it. You then held it up in front of you and got your picture taken, before it appeared on a large screen alongside all the others who had done the same. A very special person who was there with me picked "California Soul" and it got me thinking that I hadn't really heard much of Shaw's work. After listening to her for the last few weeks I can't believe that I was not more aware of the sublime talent that is Marlena Shaw.

Although still recording and performing today, her best material are the tracks she recorded for Cadet in the 60's and Blue Note in the 70's. Real music, sung from the heart. Incredible voice that just seems perfect for a chilled out, relaxing Sunday. By equal measures versatile, unique and oozing soul, Marlena Shaw is so much more than just "California Soul".

A good starting place for anyone, like me, who hasn't heard much of her material is her Anthology album, released on the Soul Brother label back in 2010.

Loving You Was Like A Party

Some Sunday Soul...

Taken from his seventh studio album, "So In Love" from Curtis Mayfield is quite simply one of my all time fave tunes. There is a purity and honesty about it that would just melt the coldest of hearts. I could quite happily just sit back and listen to Curtis' vocals all day long on a lazy Sunday, maybe with a touch of Marvin, Aretha and Al Green thrown in the mix also. The aforementioned album, "There's No Place Like America Today" is up there with the best of Curtis' work, with a combination of beautiful tracks such as "Love To The People", sitting alongside harder edged numbers like the wonderful "Billy Jack". Only seven tracks on the album but it doesn't need anymore, it is just right the way it is. It hasn't quite made it into my Top 10 album rundown but is not far off it...

So In Love

Some Sunday Soul...

Being a cousin of Percy Sledge and living close to the Muscle Shoals studio, it was almost inevitable that  Jimmy Hughes would become a soul singer. He began singing in a gospel quartet, The Singing Clouds, while still at high school before auditioning for Rick Hall' s Fame label in the early 60's. It would be another couple of years before he had a bona fide hit with the majestic "Steal Away". By the mid 60's, Hall's Fame label had a distribution deal with Atlantic Records, where Hughes had his greatest success with "Neighbor, Neighbor" and "Why Not Tonight". He then moved onto the Atlantic label itself and then onto the legendary Stax label, where due to a lack of promotion his career started to wane and he retired from the music industry in 1970.

Why Not Tonight

Some Sunday Soul...

 

1984 saw the first chart foray in the UK for Cecil and Linda Womack, with the sublime "Love Wars". Totally out of sync with what was passing for "soul" music at the time, "Love Wars" was a welcome blast from the past, seeming to come from the golden era of early 70's soul, rather than the vapid, synth led soul that was in the charts in '84. Looking back it would be hard for the brother of soul legend, Bobby Womack, and the daughter of Sam Cooke not to make great music together. Before I played this last night I had forgotten how good this track is, especially the full 12" version that awaits your listening pleasure today.

Hope you enjoy...

Love Wars

Some Sunday Soul...

 

Hard to believe it is almost four years since the passing of one of the great soul vocalists, Mr Solomon Burke. Often referred to as "King Solomon" he possessed one of the most recognisable and warm soul voices of all. He was marketed in '62 by Atlantic Records as the first "soul singer" but was soon surpassed in the public eye by label mates such as Aretha and Otis, although Jerry Wexler always considered Solomon to be the best of all them. Looking at his biog it is hard to believe he had the time to record for over forty years as he had 21 children and more than 80 grandchildren !!

Unbelievably he never had a Top 20 hit but will always be remembered for the lasting contribution he made to soul music. There is so much more to this great singer than "Everybody Needs Somebody". Towards the end of his career he recorded an album of tracks written by the likes of Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Nick Lowe and Tom Waits that is up there with the latter albums by the late, great Johnny Cash.

Don't Give Up On Me

Some Sunday Soul...

Starting off her career in the Chicago clubs in the 1940's, as "Little Miss Sharecropper", it wasn't until the mid 1950's that Lavern Baker became better known after signing to Atlantic Records and releasing the likes of "Tweedle Dee".

In the mid 1960's she switched labels to Brunswick but by then her fifteen minutes of fame were largely over. Shame as she was an extremely versatile singer with a big voice but, as with so many other great vocalists of that era, she has largely been forgotten about in the sands of time.

I'm The One To Do It

Some Sunday Soul...

 

Some Sunday Soul today from Chicago vocal group, The Chi-Lites, featuring the exquisite vocals of Eugene Record.

Originally called the The Hi-Lites, then Marshall and the Chi-Lites and finally opting for simply The Chi-Lites after the departure of Marshall Thompson, they racked up many hits in the early 70's, most famously "Oh Girl". If you ever want an example of perfect vocal harmonies look no further than "Oh Girl". You could just melt into those harmonies...smooth as a smooth thing can be...

On their early singles the influence of one and only Smokey Robinson shone heavily through their music, but they quickly developed their own sound based around the writing and production of the vastly underappreciated Eugene Record, who gave the band songs that distinguished them from the other silky, smooth vocal groups of the time, ranging from chart topping ballads to funky little numbers that spoke out about the social injustice and race relations that were so prevalent in the States at the time, just like the wonderful track below...

Give More Power To The People

Some Sunday Soul...

There was only one artist that could conceivably feature on Soul Sunday and that is the incomparable Bobby Womack. From starting out as a backing vocalist for Sam Cooke, through his incredible solo work, to recording latterly with Gorillaz, the man was a true legend.

Rest in peace, Bobby.

Looking For A Love
Harry Hippie

Some Sunday Soul...

One of the most distinctive of all soul singers is the incomparable Irma Thomas. Understated and bereft of any vocal stylings, Irma just has an honesty to her voice that just makes you believe every lyric that she sings. There is a very good reason why she is known as "The Soul Queen Of New Orleans".

Although still recording and performing today, for me, her best work are the tracks she recorded for the Kent label  in  the 60's. There is a terrific compilation of her Kent recordings available that showcases what a truly great singer she is. I could easily have picked any of the 24 tracks to post today but have opted for these two that may not be as well known as classics like "Time Is On My Side".

Somebody Told You
Times Have Changed

Some Soul Sunday...

I have featured the great William Bell a couple of times previously, back here in 2011 and more recently with his 1972 classic "Fifty Dollar Habit", but I feel you can never get too much of a good thing so today's post features another classic Bell track.

When you have written and recorded a track that has been recorded by the likes of Otis Redding, The Wailers, The Byrds and The Triffids you know you must have done something right. "You Don't Miss Your Water" was originally released on the Stax label back in 1961, and like many songs of that era, started life as a B side, before some DJ's realising the potential of the track, flipped it over and started playing it instead of the A side, "Formula Of Love".

He may not be the first name that springs to mind when people consider legendary soul singers from the 60's but William Bell, for me, is one of the great singer/songwriters whose best work on Stax ranks alongside the label's finest.

You Don't Miss Your Water

Stopped In My Tracks...

Sometimes when you have the MP3 player on shuffle a song comes along that just stops you in your tracks and stops you doing what you are doing. It quite often happens to me when Etta James comes on. I was thinking how best to define Etta's unique voice to the few uninitited few who may not know her, but don't think I could sum it up better than Bonnie Raitt when she said "There's a lot going on in Etta James' voice, a lot of pain, a lot of life but, most of all, a lot of strength." Beautifully put.

All the pain and heartbreak that beset Etta's life is conveyed in every note of that raw, emotional, vocal style that could only be Etta.

All I Can Do Was Cry

Comin' Down...

Jackie Shane was a gay black cross-dressing androgynous rhythm and blues singer who rose to fame in the early 1960’s mainly in the more liberal environs of Toronto. I recently saw an article on the web that described him as a cross between Little Richard, Prince and Eartha Kitt. That gives a flavour of his appearance but what is more important is the prodigious talent of the man, originally from Nashville

Beyond his strong Toronto following Jackie never achieved commercial success with only one hit record to his name in 1963 with his cover of William Bell's "Any Other Way which showcases his deeply emotive and powerful voice beautifully. Follow up single "In My Tenement" did not have the same impact but did contain this superb Bobby Darin cover on the flip side..

Comin' Down

Some Sunday Soul...

A little bit of Sunday Motown from 1962 from the supremely talented Mary Wells. Written and produced by Smokey, on first listen "Two Lovers" appears to be about having your cake and eating it but listen closer and the song cleverly reveals the "Two Lovers" to be one and the same person. There is a very good reason why Bob Dylan once described Smokey as "America's greatest living poet".

All the more remarkable is that the girl with the golden voice recorded this track when she was only 19 years old. Mary will be forever remembered for the wonderful "My Guy", but there was so much more to her music than that, as this track shows.

Two Lovers

Sometimes Less Is More

Toussaint McCall may be remembered by some for his appearance in the John Water's movie Hairspary miming to his own song, and only hit, "Nothing Takes The Place Of You". As well as being a great, timeless soul balladeer Toussaint played a mean Hammond organ as you will hear on this great,understated track on Ronn Records from way back in 1967. Sometimes less really is more.

Nothing Takes The Place Of You

Can I Change My Mind...

Today's post was going to be Tyrone Davis' excellent "Turn Back the Hands of Time" but George at the ever excellent Jim McLean's Rabbit beat me to it by a few hours. However, as Tyrone was born on this very day back in 1938, I feel that a second helping of his smooth, poignant vocals would be appropriate. Just listen to the wonderful horns at the start before we even get to the vocals. I believe that today's tune, "Can I Change My Mind"  knocked "I Heard It through The Grapevine" off the Number 1 spot in the Billboard R'n'B chart upon its release back in '69 and, in my humble opinion, is as good a track as the classic Marvin Gaye tune it replaced at the top of the chart.

Can I Change My Mind