Ella Washington: He Called Me Baby (1967-1972)

An outstanding Southern soul vocalist, Ella Washington was another performer whose style was so raw and intense that it had little chance of attracting any attention outside the R&B world. She also recorded for various small labels which were never able to break her songs, even within the soul arena. Her best material was done in the late '60s and early ‘70s; much of it produced by legendary disc jockey John Richbourg, for Monument's Sound Stage 7 label. Washington had one single, ‘The Grass Is Greener,’ leased to Atlantic from Octavia, but her 1969 self-titled LP didn't fare well, although she got good response from the single ‘He Called Me Baby / Stop Giving Your Man Away.’ Washington's work is impeccable throughout, far beyond the simple southern soul cliches that were coming to be common in the generation of Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, and instead, very much in her own space. It was recorded with sophistication and emotion that so many other singers would not tap this well until a few years later. The themes of the tunes are great, heartfelt, but still with an emotional inner strength that really matches Ella's vocals. This compilation features almost all of those historic recordings which were cut in Memphis, Nashville and Muscle Shoals from 1967-1972, including her few Sound Stage 7 singles, her rare full album, and a number of unreleased recordings from the time. Get ready to open up your heart to the mindblowing work from Ella Washington in 28 tracks that include ‘I Can't Afford to Lose Him’, ‘The Affair’, ‘He Called Me Baby’, ‘Doing the Best That I Can’, ‘It Just Be Love’, 'If Time Could Stand Still', ‘Nobody But Me’, ‘Sit Down & Cry’, ‘Sweeter & Sweeter’, ‘Fragile (Handle With Care)’, ‘He'll Be Back’, ‘You Got It’, ‘We Paid the Price’, and ‘Deeper’. http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/.

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Marlena Shaw: Out of Different Bags / Spice of Life (1967-69) ... plus

This amazing set contains two of the best Marlena Shaw albums packaged together, with 10 extra bonus tracks. All the material here was recorded during Marlena's years at Cadet Records, when she was turning out some of the hippest soul of the late ‘60s. Marlena's roots were in jazz, and she sings these songs in a sophisticated style that pushes way past many of her chart-bound contemporaries. Being her first-ever album, Out of Different Bags (1967) is a mix of jazzy vocal numbers and heavier soul tunes arranged by Richard Evans with a hiply swinging sound that bridges modes nicely. The tunes are a real mix of material, but all transformed in a way where standout session tunes like ‘Ahmad's Blues’, ‘I've Gotten Over You’, and ‘Nothing But Tears’ sit very perfectly well next to more familiar numbers like ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’, ‘Alone Together’, and ‘The Eyes of Love’. Even better is her second release, Spice of Life (1969), an undercurrent of politics, feminism, and social commentary delivered with surprising intensity. Marlena Shaw shines throughout, showing her power on Aretha-styled cuts like ‘Woman of the Ghetto’ and ‘Liberation Conversation,’ while also delivering supple interpretations of such traditional jazz fare as ‘Go Away Little Boy’. Across this sound spectrum, Richard Evans and Charles Stepney arrangements envelope Shaw in unobtrusive yet exciting pop-soul environs, throwing kalimba runs, psych guitar accents, and bongo-fueled organ riffs into the mix. Their widescreen touch is particularly well essayed on strings-and-brass standouts like the Bacharach-inspired Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil composition ‘Looking Through the Eyes of Love’ and Ashford & Simpson's ‘California Soul’ (a classic reading heavily favoured by the crate-digging set). A perfect way to get familiar with Shaw's impressive early work. http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/

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Marlena Shaw in a recent live show in Barcelona:

Annie Laurie: Best of (Deluxe & Regal Singles & Palace LP)

"The Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond" are not the only place to find an Annie Laurie. If the New Orleans' music scene and the early days of doo wop and rhythm and blues are more to a listener's taste than folk from the British Isles, then the Annie Laurie of choice would be the female vocalist who made her recording debut in the mid-'40s and later enjoyed a string of hits including a cover version of 'Since I Fell for You,' created with the Paul Gayten band. Laurie's influence on her fellow singers seems to run hot and cold, ranging from the often-repeated rumor that she was Dinah Washington's favorite to the following, much cooler appraisal from Irma Thomas: "Annie Laurie? She was okay." Laurie first chimed in professionally within territory bands helmed by leaders such as Snookum Russell and Dallas Bartley. The singer established her knack for personable cover versions with her very first side, W.C. Handy's famed 'St. Louis Blues,' cut in 1945 with the Bartley outfit. Shortly after that she arrived in New Orleans and was hired by Gayten, whose activities in the music business included working as a bandleader, producer, and label owner. As a performer he had his own string of hit records for the Regal and DeLuxe outfits between 1947 and 1950, some of which featured vocal performances by Laurie. Gayten's knack may have been matching up available song material for cover versions with the various singers he was affiliated with. For Laurie, this included the previously mentioned 'Since I Fell for You,' which had been a blockbuster for Buddy Johnson and has endured dozens of powerhouse cover versions, as well as a less than liberating 'I'll Never Be Free,' originally associated with Lucky Millinder (I am afraid neither of the two songs are included here). Regal had done well with Laurie, but when the crown toppled off that label's head in 1951, the singer began working as a soloist on the newly reorganized Okeh imprint, moving over to Savoy by the middle of that decade. In the late '50s, she returned to the DeLuxe outfit, moaning through her biggest hit ever in 1957, 'It Hurts to Be in Love.' She was in the studios for the Ritz label in the early '60s, but began devoting herself entirely to church music just in time to miss the rock & roll invasion. http://www.answers.com/

Betty Everett: It's in His Kiss - The Very Best of the Vee-Jay Years (1962-1965)

Having moved to Chicago in the late ‘50s, Betty Everett recorded unsuccessfully for several local labels, including Cobra, C.J. and One-derful, and briefly sang lead with the all-male group the Daylighters. Her hits came soon after signing to Vee-Jay Records, where ‘You're No Good’ (1963) and ‘The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)’ (1964) established her pop/soul style. A duet with Jerry Butler, ‘Let It Be Me’ (1964), consolidated this position, but her finest moment came with ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’, a punchy Van McCoy song. Her influence spread to the beat groups in the UK and groups such as the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Spencer Davis Group and the Hollies all covered songs she recorded. Her career faltered on Vee-Jay's collapse in 1966, and an ensuing interlude at ABC Records was unproductive. However, in 1969, ‘There'll Come a Time’ reached number 2 in the R&B charts, a momentum that continued into the early ‘70s with further releases on Uni and Fantasy Records. Everett's last chart entry was in 1978 with ‘True Love (You Took My Heart)’, on the United Artists Records label. The Very Best of Betty Everett offers a nice overview of the Mississippi native's emotive blend of soul-pop material from 1962 to 1965, including all the aforementioned Vee-Jay hits. With her powerful and at times vulnerable-sounding vocal delivery, Everett also takes in the '50s nostalgia cut ‘It Hurts to Be in Love,’ and a few more duets with Butler, including fine covers of ‘Smile’ and Curtis Mayfield's ‘Just Be True.’ Showing her versatility, Everett even offers up the straight pop ballad ‘Coming From You’ and the big-band swinger ‘June Night’; considering her tenure in gospel choirs as a kid, and the time spent in Chicago honing her soul skills, this seamlessly wide-ranging approach really comes as no surprise. A fine collection of songs, all unified by Everett's incredible voice. http://www.answers.com/, http://www.oldies.com/

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Janet Helms: Ship On (1974)

Virtually nothing is known about this rare funk/soul sister, Janet Helms. She did recorded a 45 'Sad Sad Lover / I Love, I Love You Baby' in 1972, on Washington DC label Stone Groove. This LP, 'Ship On', arranged and conducted by Fernando Cumbs, Roger Hogan and Lloyd Smith, was also issued two years later. As far as I know, that is basically all this obscure artist has ever released. I wouldn't say the album is fantastic or anything like that - the production is low budget at the most and, honestly, Helms' voice is nothing special - but, being a rare record as it is, I believe it's still worth posting.

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A1 Ship On
A2 Surer Than Yesterday
A3 Ode to Freddie Harris
A4 I Love You Baby
A5 Can’t Get Over You
B1 Our Sweet Refrain
B2 Sad Man
B3 Bird Song
B4 The Sweetest Life’s The Life of a Lover
B5 Time Rolls On

Barbara Randolph: The Collection (2002)...plus

One of the most under-recognized Motown singers of the ‘60s, Barbara Randolph became a firm favourite on the UK Northern Soul scene for years with her single 'I Got a Feeling', from 1967, which was also one of the most in demand songs on the label. Not a great deal is written about Ms Randolph as she only released two singles during her stint at Hitsville, including the aforementioned '45' coupled with the excellent 'You've Got Me Hurtin' All Over', which was released in the US as a single in its own right coupled with a cover version of Marvin Gaye's 1964 hit 'Can I Get a Witness'. All three titles open this set, the rest are seeing the light of day for the very first time since they were recorded in 1969. Barbara sang vocals with the legendary Platters at one stage before moving to Hitsville, where she recorded these songs which are equally as good as anything that can be heard from other Motown divas such as Barbara McNair, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Brenda Holloway. She was even considered by Berry Gordy Jr. as a replacement for Florence Ballard of the Supremes, but legend has it that Diana Ross (jealous of her looks) rejected the idea. Barbara's vocals are incredible, a bit rougher than the usual Motown female singer, with a style that is more in keeping with the Detroit indie mode of the Northern Soul scene and that occasionally reminds a little of Barbara Lewis. Most of the unissued tracks were recorded in 1969, and honestly, they're so great, it’s difficult to figure out why Motown never put them out back in the ‘60s. Titles include '(I'm a) Roadrunner', ‘Bah Bah Bah’, ‘I'm So Thankful’, ‘I'll Turn To Stone’, ‘When It Rains It Pours’, ‘Baby Don't You Do It’, ‘You Finally Outdone Yourself’, ‘Chained’, and ‘Why Fight It’. I have enlarged the collection adding four tracks from her 1992 album Breaking into My Heart, plus an alternate take of 'When It Rains It Pours'. http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://sixtiesmotown.co.uk/

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Barbara Randolph appears with her husband Eddie Singleton in this clip capturing the recording session of 'Mister Wonderful', one of the songs I included as bonus track, and which was apparently written about Barbara's love for him. Years later, she suddenly and without warning left Eddie, and told him she had fallen out of love with him, something he couldn't come to terms with, so he moved to South Africa. It transpired that she knew she was wasting away from cancer, and didn't want him to see her die slowly. That is why she left him and lied to him, just to spare him the agony. He only found this out after her death, in 2002. Knowing this tragedy makes this video so poignant:

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Barbara Acklin: A Place in the Sun (1975)

In 1974, and after cutting some of the finest records to come out of the Windy City in the late '60s, Barbara Acklin departed Brunswick Records and signed with Capitol. Her first single for the label was ‘Raindrops’ - a R&B hit (#14) in June of that year - and a subsequent album, A Place in the Sun, was released on May 1975. Produced by Chicago soul mainstay Willie Henderson, who was also at Brunswick, it contained two more singles: ‘Special Loving’ and ‘Give Me Some of Your Sweet Love.’ While A Place in the Sun updated their classic Chicago soul sound for the disco era, the slicker approach served Acklin's sweet, heartfelt vocals rather well, even if the album's commercial failure spelled the end of her brief tenure with Capitol. Acklin's songwriting is typically top-notch here, encompassing an impressively wide span of moods and rhythms, and Henderson's signature production blends seamlessly with the era's prevailing sensibilities. The overall vibe is a bit more open, and a bit more modern than her previous work for Brunswick, with a really unified batch of material that shows Barbara in many moods, working together to craft a totally solid LP. There is an even greater sophistication here than before, a style that makes wonder why Barbara faded from view so quickly after this record, and didn't grow into a more dominant soul force in the late ‘70s. But that mystery is only one of a number of aspects that make this album even more compelling, with titles that include ‘Give Me, Lend Me’, ‘Special Loving’, ‘Fire Love’, ‘Give Me Some of Your Sweet Love’ and 'You Don't Have to Beg Me to Stay'. Despite a promising start and critical acclaim, Capitol dropped Acklin from their artist roster. After joining her husband's own label, Chi-Sound, Barbara continued to tour as both a solo artist and as a background singer with the Chi-Lites and other acts. In 1980 she recorded further tracks with Gene Chandler. In short, this is an underrated effort from another underrated talent. http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.dustygroove.com/

VA: The Girls Got Soul (1960-1969)

With the dawning of the ‘60s, the strongly R&B-oriented diskerie became a hot bed for a diverse range of female stars. As the decade continued, Atlantic Records and its various imprints (such as Atco and Cotillion) could justifiably lay claim to being the premier outlet for some of the most soulful women to ever hit the recording studios. And so it is that The Girls Got Soul attempts to provide a selection of some of the best female soul recorded for Atlantic during the ‘60s. Ranging from firm UK favourites such as Betty Lavette and Doris Troy, through stalwarts such as Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker, onto soul superstars such as Aretha Franklin, Mary Wells, The Sweet Inspirations, Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles and Barbara Lynn, the 25 tracks in this compilation feature 15 different acts. So there is room as well for the relatively obscure and a touch of unreleased material too. In the former category there are both sides of the sought-after Rozetta Johnson Atlantic single as well as Ann Mason's answer record to Wilson Pickett's ‘In the Midnight Hour’. In the latter there's a Barbara Lynn track from the vaults ‘Unloved, Unwanted Me’ and the little-heard Doris Troy track ‘But I Love Him’. Atlantic Records used a rich selection of arrangers and producers during this period and we get to hear a number of their efforts. Bert Berns was responsible for Little Esther's ‘Hello Walls’ and LaVern Baker's ‘Here He Comes’. Carl Davis along with Sonny Sanders for Mary Wells' fantastic ‘Dear Lover’ and ‘Me and My Baby’, whilst Tom Dowd and Tommy Cogbill are behind the Sweet Inspirations tracks. I-T-T Production stands, of course, for Ike & Tina Turner and they were behind the Ikettes' ‘I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)’; indeed that's Tina singing with them. Representing her successful four year stint on Atlantic, Barbara Lynn's sides include the soulful ‘(Until Then) I'll Suffer’, the up-tempo classic ‘Take Your Love and Run’, and there's a remake of her Jamie hit ‘You'll Lose a Good Thing’. As on Jamie, her material was produced by Huey Meaux. It's true that if you've been collecting soul records diligently for more than a decade, you might have a good deal of this. Even if that's the case, this is a tremendous listen, just below the top cut of Soul anthologies of any sort, and certainly one of the very best various-artist collections of obscure '60s Soul. http://www.acerecords.co.uk/, http://www.allmusic.com/

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Aretha Franklin (and some really good backing singers) in a live performance of one of the songs featured on this compilation, 'Ain't No Way':

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The Fuzz: The Fuzz (1971) ... plus

Three Afro-wearing girls from Washington DC who recorded in Philadelphia, The Fuzz started out in 1970 as The Passionettes and managed to record a one-off single for the small Path Records label ('My Plea' b/w 'My Fault'), before being picked up by Uni Records, where they released a second 45: 'Sister Watch Yourself' b/w 'Stand By Your Man'. They got off to a strong start on Calla in 1971 with the single ‘I Love You for All Seasons.’ Written by their lead singer, Seila Young, who teamed with Barbara Gilliam and Val Williams, the sentimental number went Top 10 R&B and peaked at #21 on the US Billboard Pop Singles chart. The follow-up single, ‘Like an Open Door’ reached #14 R&B, #77 Pop. In a rather daring marketing move their self-titled debut album was a concept piece. Well, the first half of the LP was apparently built around a concept. Written by Young and arranger Joe Tate, the eight 'A' side tracks were built around a theme comparing love to the four seasons, mixing a series of spoken word narratives with some catchy ballads and mid-tempo numbers. The two singles served as a nice showcase for Young's songwriting skills and the trio's lovely harmony work – much in the manner of groups like Honey Cone. The album made #196 in 1972, and it is now a very expensive item on the collectors' circuit when found in mint condition. One final non-LP single ('Do Just What You Can Do' b/w 'Mr. Heartaches and Miss Tears') had no success and the group split up that same year. I added as a bonus track to the album their first single as The Passionettes, ‘My Fault’. Thanks once more, Martin, for passing me this rarity! http://www.allmusic.com, http://www.geocities.com/
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A1. I Think I Got the Making of a True Love Affair (prelude) (J.Tate/S. Young)
A2. I Think I Got the Making of a True Love Affair (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A3. I'm So Glad (prelude) (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A4. I'm So Glad (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A5. All About Love (prelude) (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A6. All About Love (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A7. It's All Over (prelude) (Joe Tate/Sheila Young)
A8. It's All Over (Sheila Young)
B1. Like an Open Door (Sheila Young)
B2. Search Your Mind (Matthew Allen)
B3. Leave It All Behind Me (Sheila Young)
B4. Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson/Warren Moore)
B5. I Love You for All Seasons (Sheila Young)

Gloria Edwards: The Soul Queen of Texas - The Crazy Cajun Recordings (1999)

When this Houston-born soul and blues singer visited her grandmother, she would sneak down to the juke joint to watch her mother sing with pianist “Big Walter the Thunderbird.” Calvin Owens, a trumpeter and future B.B. King band leader, was another early influence and father figure of Gloria Edwards. She is often affectionately referred to as “the Soul Queen of Texas”, a title she secured on the strength of her powerful pipes and iconic presence on Houston's live music scene for more than 40 years. This compilation is a much-needed look at the deep deep deep soul talents of the very hip Texas singer. Gloria is great in just about any setting here, from southern funk, to sad ballad material, to some of the set's more straight soul numbers, and the package offers a whopping 21 tracks of Gloria's work for the Crazy Cajun label, more than enough to get you started dipping into her rich bag of talents. Titles include ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’, ‘Oh Me, Oh My (I’m a Fool for You, Baby)’, ‘Settled for Less’, 'My Love Keeps Getting Stronger', ‘Tell You About A Feeling’, ‘Lonely Girl’, ‘Don't Mess With My Man’, ‘I Don't Need Nobody (To Help Me Keep Up With My Man)', ‘Anything You Want’, ‘You Ain't Enough Woman to Take My Man’ and ‘Come on Over’. It also includes a nice shuffling arrangement of Etta James' ‘Pushover,’ and an alternate take of ‘Blues Part 2.’ http://www.daedalusbooks.com/, http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://souledonmusic.blogspot.com/