Ike & Tina Turner: The Kent Years (1964-1967)

It is difficult to understand why the music Ike & Tina Turner produced together in the 60s has been so completely overlooked for years, being excellent as it is. This compilation tries to make up for some of that by including many of their strongest numbers made for Kent and Modern Records in the period 1964-67, their most prolific and exciting period. In addition to 45s and album tracks that came out at that time, included are five cuts that are seeing the light of day for the first time for a total 26 songs. We can find here their popular upbeat singles outings such as 'I Can't Believe What You Say' (a Top 100 entry), 'Gonna Have Fun', 'Chicken Shack' and 'Flee Flee Fla', together with their flip sides and other important songs from their Kent albums. There are many other quite revealing sounds, too. Listen, for example, to the soulful strings on 'Makin' Plans Together' and the Mayfield-inspired vocals on 'I Don't Need'. It's not all dance music either - for bluesier numbers, there's Ike's guitar behind Tina on 'Give Me Your Love' and on Eddie Boyd's 'Five Long Years'. Virtually all tracks feature the wonderful Ikettes, horns are liberally sprinkled and Ike's distinctive guitar and piano are prominent. He also adds a few vocal moments on the ultra-fast 'Goodbye, So Long', and on ‘Something Came Over Me’, a sort of sequel to their most famous hit, ‘A Fool In Love’, which it references musically throughout just as ‘Hard Times’ harks back to ‘It's Gonna Work Out Fine’. Tina Turner's vocal style at this time was a world away from that with which she dominated the world in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but was aimed at a wholly different audience with whom she was highly successful, and it is excellent news that the confusing clutter of releases from this era are gradually being made sense of and becoming available on compilations such as this one. http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.acerecords.co.uk
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Ike & Tina Turner featuring 'Fool In Love' & 'It's Gonna Work Out Fine' medley on the TNT show, 1965:

Kiki Dee: Love Makes the World Go Round - The Motown Years (2005)

British singer Kiki Dee remained a music industry secret in the 1960s despite releasing numerous high-quality singles during that decade. She was even offered a contract with Motown in 1969, and it was no surprise that she jumped at the opportunity to record for the prestigious American label. ‘The day will come between Sunday and Monday’ was issued as her first US single, in 1970, and an album, Great expectations, followed. Kiki Dee looks young and innocent on this recording, and her voice is beautiful as she covers some classic Motown here: an up-tempo ‘I Second That Emotion,’ a unique ‘For Once in My Life.’ The late Jimmy Miller said that Dee and Dusty Springfield were good friends. Dee covers Springfield's ‘You Don't Have to Say You Love Me,’ and it is excellent, but what is more intriguing is how much she sounds like Dusty Springfield on the lesser-known ‘Johnny Raven.’ Tackling ‘Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing’ without the duet that Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's version enjoyed is commendable, the Motown sound making a transition to showcase a white soul singer works. ‘I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You’ is Kiki Dee working within the wonderful confines of Berry Gordy's hit machine, it's just too bad nothing here charted. This is a wonderful album with top-notch production, great vocal work, and a classic '60s sound: Kiki Dee before she found some fame, and often more appealing than what people recognized her for. Many have covered ‘More Today Than Yesterday,’ but few as perfectly as it is captured on this forgotten album. Sadly, its title proved prophetic for Kiki: if she had hoped Motown would make her a household name, she was mistaken. However, the connections she made at the label helped her landing a new contract with Elton John’s fledgling Rocket label in 1973, which eventually proved very fruitful for her. This 18-track compilation includes the whole Great Expectations album, as well as two additional tracks from her time with the label that surfaced on the rare budget Kiki Dee album in the mid-'70s, along with four previously unreleased 1969-1970 outtakes. http://www.answers.com/

Kiki Dee permorming 'You Made Me So Very Happy' on the Benny Hill Show, 1971:

Bettye LaVette: Souvenirs (2000)

Bettye LaVette is one of the greatest soul singers in music history, possessed of an incredibly expressive voice that one moment will exude a formidable level of strength and intensity and the next will appear vulnerable, reflective, reeking of heartbreak. Unfortunately, it says much about the vagaries of the popular music industry that, although LaVette has been recording for over four decades, up to this point she has remained criminally unknown. Despite the wealth of quality recordings that Bettye cut over the years, only six of her forty-fives managed to chart R&B and none of them broke into the pop Top 100. That is something unbelievable for a singer of her stature. Rather than enjoying the sustained success that by right should have been hers, her career has been haunted by what she refers to as “buzzard luck.” In 1972, on her second go round with Atlantic Records, LaVette headed down to Muscle Shoals with the Memphis Horns and producer Brad Shapiro to cut her first full-length album. The recordings were mastered and readied for release under the title Child of the Seventies before the powers-at-be at Atlantic mysteriously pulled the plug, unconscionably shelving the record for nearly thirty years before it was released in 2000 on Art and Soul under the new title Souvenirs. Soul fans the world over were stunned by what was clearly a heretofore unknown masterpiece. The backing is classic Muscle Shoals, in this case rather guitar-based, with additional arrangements, such as strings, applied tastefully. It is a truly classic Southern Soul record made for grownups, with very little filler. ‘It Ain’t Easy,’ ‘Our Own Love Song’, ‘Ain’t Nothing Gonna Change Me,’ ‘If I Can’t Be Your Woman’ and ‘Souvenirs’ are simply superb and her interpretations of Kenny Rogers' ‘What Condition My Condition Is In’, Neil Young's ‘Heart of Gold’ and Free's ‘The Stealer’ clearly beat the original. Both sides of her first two singles, from 1962, are also included. Obviously, these tracks represent a major shift in mood, but are welcome nonetheless. http://www.amazon.com/

Oh, by the way, Bettye is NUMBER 1 on my list…

Bettye's stunning take on The Who classic, 'Love Reign O'er Me' at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors, with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey as part of the audience. Watching their expressions during this video is as moving as the performance by Bettye LaVette:

Yvonne Baker and The Sensations: Let Me In - The Complete Collection (1955-1968)

The Sensations, a quartet from Philadelphia, PA, were one of the first groups of the rock and roll era with an all male background and a female lead. They formed in Philadelphia in 1954, with Yvonne Mills lead, Tommy Wicks tenor, Alphonso Howell bass, and one other forgotten member. In 1955, the unique makeup of the group caught the attention of Atlantic Records and the Sensations began a three year association with Atlantic's Atco subsidiary. They had a couple of R&B chart entries on the label between 1955 and 1956, but that was all. After the three-year Atco contract expired, the group decided to disband as Yvonne became Mrs. Yvonne Baker and started raising a family. In 1961, Howell, feeling that vocal groups were once again in demand, convinced Baker to re-form the Sensations. Tenor Richard Curtain and baritone Sam Armstrong were added and new manager Kae Williams arranged a record deal with Chess Record's Argo subsidiary. The Sensations recorded ‘Music, Music, Music’ which reached #54 Pop and #12 R&B in the summer of 1961. It was their first R&B hit in five years and first Pop hit ever. Later that year, the Sensations came out with ‘Let Me In’, which became their biggest hit reaching #2 Pop and #2 R&B in early 1962. As so often happens after a major hit, the Sensations couldn't record any follow up hits to sustain their momentum. ‘That's My Desire’ made it to #69 in 1962 and there were two more Argo releases along with several on William's own Junior label. But nothing could bring the group back. Yvonne Baker latter attempted a solo career, recording a number of cuts that sustain longstanding cult status among Northern Soul aficionados; I added four of these, ‘I Can’t Change’ and ‘You Didn’t Say a Word’ from 1966 and ‘A Woman Needs A Man’ and ‘My Baby Needs Me’, from 1968, as bonus tracks. As far as I know this is The Sensations’ most comprehensive collection ever released: 32 tracks including all of her Arco, Argo & Junior hits, plus numerous rarities. http://www.history-of-rock.com/

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Denise Lasalle: Here I Am Again (1975) ... Plus

The "Queen of Soul Blues" is a title that rightly belongs to this survivor who has been recording for over three decades. Not only does she have a phat, supple blues voice but she's a great songwriter and even a producer. Having moved to Chicago in 1954 to pursue a career as a fiction writer, Denise LaSalle turned to songwriting and, by the late 60s, had begun to record for Billy "The Kid" Emerson's Tarpon label, on which she achieved a sizeable local hit, ‘A Love Reputation’, in 1967. In 1969, she formed Crajon productions with her husband, Bill Jones, and also began working with producer Willie Mitchell in Memphis. After a period writing and producing for other artists, LaSalle returned to recording her own compositions, and one of the first results, ‘Trapped By a Thing Called Love’, released on Westbound in 1971, reached number 1 in the US R&B charts and climbed to the US pop Top 20. After that, other excellent, sometimes uncompromising singles followed, plus three fantastic albums for Westbound released between 1972 and 1975. A stylist in the mould of Laura Lee, Ann Peebles and Millie Jackson, LaSalle continued to enjoy hits during the late-‘70s (for ABC), ‘80s and ‘90s (MCA & Malaco). Denise LaSalle cut this album, her third, ‘Here I Am Again’ in 1975, utilizing Bowlegs Miller's top-notch charts and the backing of the Memphis Horns and Muscle Shoals for some Southern Soul ala Stax and Hi Records. LaSalle displays power and flexibility throughout, whether bouncing atop a cool-breeze groove (‘Stay With Me Awhile’), digging into a bit of shuffle-bump salaciousness (‘I Wanna Do What's on Your Mind’), or hitting the vocal heights on a rootsy ballad (‘Don't Nobody Live Here (By the Name of Fool)’). She also invades Barry White territory on the sultry title track ‘Here I Am Again’. There are also 4 bonus tracks added to the original 1975 release. http://bluescritic.com, http://www.oldies.com/

Sharon Cash: He Lives Within My Soul (1970)

Sharon Cash is best known for replacing Edna Wright in the 1976/77 edition of female soul group Honey Cone. With this new line-up fronted by Cash, they released the single 'Somebody's Always Messing Up a Good Thing', backed by 'The Truth Will Come Out'. But Sharon Cash also recorded a couple of albums as a solo artist in the early-70s. The first one, which I am posting today, was called ‘He Lives Within My Soul’. It was arranged by H.B. Barnum and appeared on Mothers, in 1970. Her rendition of the classic 'Fever', considered by many as one of the best versions ever released of that song, is one of the highlights of the album. This track can also be found on some compilations such as ‘Soul Sides Volume Two: The Covers’, ‘Living in the Streets 2’ and ‘Even Mo' Mod Jazz’. There are also great versions of other soul hits like Sam Cooke’s ‘Change Gonna Come’ and ‘Shake’ and Otis Redding’s ‘Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)’ and ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. Her second album ‘Sharon Cash’, was released on Playboy, in 1973, and is one of those hot items on my Wishlist! I hope you enjoy this classic soul rarity.

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Tracks:

01. Change Gonna Come

02. Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)

03. Guess Who

04. Fever

05. Never Let Me Go

06. Nature Boy

07. Shake

08. Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

09. Pledging My Love

10. Sufferin’ With the Blues

11. What Am I Living For

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The Flirtations: Sounds Like the Flirtations (1969) ... plus

Although they never recorded for Motown Records, the Flirtations should have, because they sounded like nothing so much as a more energetic version of the Supremes, and by all rights, this exciting vocal trio should have been continually at the top of the pop charts during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They did have a big hit with 1969's ‘Nothing But a Heartache,’ a record that has had an enduring shelf life and actually might be better known now in the 21st century than it was 40-some years ago. Originally formed in 1962 in Alabama, the three-vocalist line up (Ernestine Pearce, Shirley Pearce, Vie Billups) relocated to the UK in 1968 where they picked up with producer Wayne Bickerton and writer Tony Waddington, and a deal with Decca. They recorded the album Sounds Like the Flirtations in 1969 plus six singles released through the Deram imprint between 1968 and 1971, before leaving for Polydor Records in 1972. This set collects the Deram album and adds in four additional tracks from the same time period to make an ideal introduction to this fun group. Among the gems here are the undeniably classic ‘Nothing But a Heartache,’ the bursting-with-energy ‘Need Your Loving,’ the autobiographical ‘South Carolina’ and the why-wasn't-this-a-hit ‘What's Good About Goodbye My Love,’ but everything here falls into the same groove, with upbeat arrangements, spirited singing and insistent, racing and almost unhinged horn arrangements. I added 8 bonus tracks, consisting on three songs recorded for Josie and Festival between 1966 and 1967, two more on Polydor and RCA in the early ‘70s, plus their late disco hits, the 2008 recording of ‘Run for the Exit’ included. 27 songs in total. It's fun stuff, and fans of Motown and Northern Soul are going to love this. The Flirtations are one of my favorite ‘60s girl groups. ~ http://www.cherryred.co.uk, http://www.answers.com/

I have three rounds of video clips from this great soul trio for you today. First of all, a rare performance of the Northen Soul classic 'Nothing But a Heartache', filmed in colour at Tintern Abbey at Monmouthshire, South Wales:

Second, a performance of 'Someone Out There' on a Spanish TV Show conducted by Joaquin Prat, who embarrass the girls asking them about their marital status and the name of the boys they have in mind (being one of The Fantastics and Steve Wonder for the Pearce sisters). This was the third time they visited Spain and, after that, probably the last one!:

And last, but not least, a clip of 1972 Polydor single 'Hold on to Me Babe'. It's anyone's guess what the girls are doing in a sawmill, but it's pretty safe to assume that health and safety regulations wouldn't enable this clip to be made these days!:

Ann Peebles: This Is Ann Peebles (1969)

A diminutive singer with a powerful voice and an even stronger attitude, Ann Peebles was one of the artists who defined Willie Mitchell's legendary Memphis soul label Hi Records, along with Al Green and O.V. Wright. Easily the best female singer in the Hi stable, Peebles ranked among the finest deep Southern soul singers of the decade and her recordings, although not always appreciated on the charts as they often merited, hold up among the best of their era. She released her debut single ‘Walk Away’ in 1969, which shot to an impressive number 22 on the Billboard Top 100 R&B singles chart in April. Following a second single, ‘Give Me Some Credit,’ Hi issued Peebles' debut LP, This Is Ann Peebles. Unlike her subsequent albums, Peebles' first release did not contain any of her own original material, but featured great covers of Otis Redding's ‘Respect,’ Aretha Franklin's ‘Chain of Fools,’ and Fontella Bass's ‘Rescue Me,’ It also included the Club Rosewood song ‘Steal Away’ and the "Bowlegs" Miller composition ‘Won't You Try Me.’ I added five bonus tracks to the original release, 'Part Time Love', 'I'll Get Along', 'I Still Love You', 'Generation Gap' and 'I Can't Let You Go', 17 tracks in total. The greatest Peebles' albums were produced later, in a burst of collective creativity between 1972 and 1976, but this 1969 fantastic debut was a perfect first taste of what was to come. Ann Peebles has always been her own person, known as a real "singers' singer" and a "musicians' musician”. Perhaps this explains, at least in part, why she has had such an influence on real soul music since her big time in the early ‘70s. Needless to say, she is one of my favorite soul sisters. http://www.artistdirect.com, http://www.musicianguide.com/

Ann Peebles Live at The Montreux Jazz Festival with Paul Brown on Keyboards, Malcolm Cullen on Guitar, Curtis Steele on Drums and Randy Middleton on Bass:

Margie Joseph: Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression/Phase II (1971)

Frequently compared to Aretha Franklin, singer Margie Joseph earned neither the fame nor the critical success lavished upon the Queen of Soul, but a series of excellent records during the ‘70s nevertheless won her a spot in the pantheon of soul cult favorites. In 1969 Joseph signed with the Stax subsidiary Volt, and with New Orleans soul legend Willie Tee assuming production duties, she released the underground favorite ‘One More Chance.’ Producer Freddy Briggs took the helm for Joseph's next effort, ‘Your Sweet Loving’; released in the summer of 1970, the single proved a minor R&B chart hit. The following year, she cracked the R&B Top 40 with a cover of the Supremes' classic ‘Stop! In the Name of Love,’ boosting sales of her fine debut LP, Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression, in the process. This was Joseph's most successful and aesthetically pleasing album. Like some of Stax's product from this era, there's a Stax-meets-Motown air to much of the material. Although it was cut in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, some orchestral and vocal overdubs were done in Detroit, perhaps accounting for some of that Motown feel. ‘Punish Me,’ ‘Sweeter Tomorrow,’ and ‘Temptation's About to Take Your Love’ are prime examples of this. Much the same approach was used on her 1972 follow-up Phase II, right down to another drawn-out Supremes cover (of ‘My World Is Empty Without You’), but the album sold poorly. Both records are agreeably competent, intelligently varied mainstream soul. If one had to choose only one of Margie Joseph's albums & comps, this two-fer would be it; her later sides on Atlantic, and other labels are slicker and not as raw as these great tracks. I added as bonus tracks three of her previous singles, 'One More Chance', 'Your Sweet Loving' and 'What You Gonna Do', which were not originally included on this set. http://www.allmusic.com

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Loleatta Holloway: The Hotlanta Soul of Loleatta Holloway (1971-1975)

With her full-bodied gospelized vocals, Loleatta Holloway epitomized like no other singer of her day the transition of African-American popular music from soul to disco. Years before becoming the hot club queen with ‘Love Sensation’ and other 12-inch cuts, Loleatta Holloway laid down some of the most fantastic female southern soul of the early ‘70s, an early example of the growing strength of the Hotlanta scene, quite different from Memphis' and Miami's. Her double-sided hit 'Our Love' / 'Mother of Shame' charted in 1973 and were included on her debut album, ‘Loleatta’, which also featured a cover of Syl Johnson’s Memphis groover ‘We Did It’, Sam Dee's typically heartfelt 'So Can I' and the magnificent cheating opus 'Part Time Lover, Full Time Fool'. Two years after, ‘Cry to Me’ gave Holloway her highest charting solo single on the R&B and pop charts and it is now acknowledged as a deep soul classic. The album of the same name, which followed, maintained that quality threshold. This early work has wonderful arrangements, excellent production, and some really top-shelf songwriting that already shows a really sophisticated side of Holloway's talents. The set not only brings together the cream of her first releases, there are also five previously unissued cuts which confirm her premium status at that time. Although it is the stone ballads which have stood the test of time the best, this is by no means a collection only for deep soul freaks. There are some first class finger-snappers (listen to the track below) and one or two funky offerings as well. Partially taken from John Ridley’s original liner notes.