Cissy Houston: Midnight Train to Georgia - The Janus Years (1970-75)

A soul singer who is known primarily as Whitney Houston's mother rather than for her own considerable talents, Cissy Houston was born Emily Drinkard and began her career as a member of her family's gospel group, the Drinkards. In the early '60s, she joined forces with a floating group of singers known simply as the Group (including at various points Doris Troy and Dee Dee Warwick) to provide backup vocals on numerous soul, pop, and rock sessions. They contributed to many Atlantic sessions in particular, and Atlantic executive Jerry Wexler signed the act to the label in 1967. Named the Sweet Inspirations, they recorded some excellent gospel-flavored soul in the late '60s, managing a few hits before Houston left to go solo at the end of 1969. She recorded an impressive album for Commonwealth United in 1970, Presenting Cissy Houston, which yielded a couple of small R&B/pop hits: ‘I'll Be There’ and ‘Be My Baby.’ Much in the manner of the Sweet Inspirations, although the material consisted of fairly well-worn soul, rock, and pop tunes, the state-of-the-art arrangements and gospel-ish vocals made them sound fresh. Her contract was sold to Janus Records later in the year, and while she issued a few singles there until the middle of the '70s, she never received the support and promotion she deserved. A case in point was her little-known original version of ‘Midnight Train to Georgia,’ taken to the top of the charts about a year later by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Houston recorded several albums for Private Stock beginning in the late '70s, as well as continuing her regular work on sessions and commercial jingles. This superlative out-of-print compilation gathers almost everything Cissy recorded between 1970 and 1975, including most of her aforementioned 1970 album, ten songs that were previously available only on singles, and a couple that were previously unreleased in the U.S. Highlights include excellent interpretations of two Bacharach-David classics, 'I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself', ‘This Empty Place’ and Tim Hardin's ‘Hang On to a Dream.’ Needless to say, Cissy Houston is one of my all-time favourite singers. Listen to this and you’ll understand why! http://www.allmusic.com/.

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Cissy Houston performs her killer disco track 'Think It Over' on Soul Alive, 1978:

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Here's a rare gospel treat from Cissy, recorded on VHS tape via TV antenna in the late '80s:

Carla Whitney with Choker Campbell & the Super Sounds (1975)

Carla Whitney is an obscure soul singer from Canada who cut just one album, backed by Choker Campbell & the Super Sounds, for the Attic label. Arranged and produced by Campbell himself (a little known producer and artist who worked for Motown at one time), it is strung together beautifully throughout. The album was issued in 1975, a time when funk was no longer dominating and on the way out, and disco was wheedling its way onto the dance floors. What is heard on this album doesn't hint at that transition though, as what is to be found here is a no-nonsense, straight-ahead soul and funk record. The first song, ‘Questions’ starts off with an explosion of strings and then is kept chugging along with rich bass work, while ‘What Made You Change Your Mind’ is a wonderfully charming and melodic three-minute slice of soul. Another gem is the single ‘I've Been Hurt (So Many Times)’. Starting with a simple guitar melody, it slowly blooms into a full expression of itself with horns and strings adding to the mix. Complimenting the soul are the great funkin' tracks marching along side them. The cover of the Rolling Stones ‘Gimme Shelter’ is just sublime and the same can be said of the underground classic ‘War’ and the igneous funk smasher 'It's You for Me'. The songs are mainly original compositions, with the lyrics penned by Carla and Mr. Campbell. Not enough kudos can be given to the singer, the producer and the unlisted session musicians: the whole package it's just magnificent. Even if the album is not given an official title, the songs do sound great side-by-side and that's what really counts. I am sure you are going to love this! http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/.

Chris Clark: The Motown Collection (2005)

Chris Clark is one of a small number of white performers who recorded for the Motown imprint during the ‘60s. The United States' answer to Dusty Springfield, Clark is still acknowledged by Northern Soul fans for songs such as 1965's 'Do Right Baby, Do Right' and 1966's ‘Love's Gone Bad’. Another of her notable songs was the 1967 single ‘I Want to Go Back There Again’, also recorded by British singer Truly Smith. In 1967, Clark released an album called Soul Sounds on the Motown label. The LP featured twelve songs including a rare Motown ballad called ‘If You Should Walk Away’, which was slated for release as a single, but never was. Clark recorded one more album for Motown on its newly created rock label Weed called C.C. Rides Again (1969), but the album failed commercially because it was not properly promoted. This compilation offers a huge amount of Clark’s work for Motown: the complete contents of her two albums, plus non-LP singles, and a full bonus CD that includes 25 previously unissued tunes. Strangely enough, these unreleased recordings are much stronger than those on her albums, although from a commercial point of view were far removed from the pop orientated hits of 66-67. Opening with a version of ‘Ask Any Girl’, the song soon settles into an uptempo northern groove that will please the dancers, and it's followed by ‘Everything Is Good About You’, a true piece of Motown history. Chris' attempt at Kim Weston's ‘Take Me in Your Arms’ has the same feel as the Isley Brothers arrangement and her rendition of ‘Do Like I Do’ delivers a vocal version to equal Kim's. One song that stands out is her interpretation of Presley's hit single ‘Cryin' In The Chapel’ that just oozes class and has backing vocals to kill for. Other noteable tunes that will appeal to the dancefloor include ‘He's Good for Me’, ‘Bad Seed’ and ‘Something's Wrong’, on which Chris is amongst the best. This release is cause indeed to celebrate for a lady whose works have long been sought after by '60s soul fans. http://sixtiesmotown.co.uk/, http://en.wikipedia.org/
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Chris Clark performing 'Fever' at the Pelican Art Gallery in 2008:

Dorothy Morrison: Brand New Day (1970) ...plus

Dorothy Morrison was lead singer and co-author for the The Edwin Hawkins Singers' recording of ‘Oh, Happy Day’, a song that was a gospel music arrangement of an 18th century hymn and became an international hit in 1969, reaching US #4 and UK #2 on the pop charts. It has since become the National Anthem of all American Gospel Groups. As was common in gospel circles, they produced and distributed their own LP, ‘Let Us Go into The House of the Lord’, recorded live in church. The success of this first album helped spark a revolution that introduced gospel music to new listeners worldwide, selling seven million copies. Following that success, Dorothy Morrison performed live on stage with CSN&Y, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell at the Big Sur Folk Festival in 1970, and toured with Van Morrison. She also did some recordings with Boz Scaggs, Rita Coolidge and Ricardo Sands. The album I am posting today, recorded for Buddah in 1970, is full of heart felt and soulful tunes led by Dorothy Morrison’s fine vocals. She actually got her start singing pop tunes, but on Brand New Day she is doing gospel and very effectively. Besides her own lead, a strong female chorus backs her up and pushes the tunes along. That is heard on tracks like ‘Hi De Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)’, ‘Fire and Rain’, ‘The Border Song’, ‘Brand New Day’, ‘Peace Brother Peace’, ‘Can You Believe’, and ‘Get High on Jesus’. There’s also the great grooving soul tune ‘Top of the Mountain’, the uplifting ‘Black California’, and a good cover of ‘Spirit in the Sky’. I have also included three bonus tracks here: her 1975 hit ‘I Can't Go Without You’, the 1971 rousing gospel 'Rain' and the aforementioned Edwin Hawkins Singers' recording of ‘Oh, Happy Day’, from 1969. Thanks to EliotW for sharing this!http://soulstrut.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/

Dorothy Morrison & The Allen Temple BC Men's Chorus singing 'Oh, Happy Day':

Here Come the Girls, Vol. 9: Slow Fizz (1998)

This is Vol. 9 of the classic Sequel’s Here Come the Girls series, dedicated this time to Northern Soul girl groups courtesy of legendary producer and songwriter Jerry Ross. Ross – a key player on the Philly music scene – was able come up with credible and at the same time commercial productions on a host of acts including Jay & The Techniques, The Festivals, Candy & The Kisses, The Yum Yums, Virgil Henry, The Showstoppers, The Sapphires, Dee Dee Warwick and others. The Yum Yums (later renamed Honey & The Bees) are represented here with the effervescent ‘Gonna Be a Big Thing’, released on American ABC and as good an example of the uptempo girlie group sound as favoured by the Northern scene as you will ever come across. The Sapphires also recorded a version of ‘Gonna Be a Big Thing’ but it didn’t cut the mustard as much as The Yum Yums take. However, The Sapphires had the UK Soul crowd swooning with their glorious ‘Slow Fizz’, that tore the dancefloors apart at clubs like The Catacombs. ‘The 81’, by Candy & The Kisses (who also recorded under the alias of Honey Love & The Love Notes), was a massive hit on the scene too, as was ‘I'm Gonna Pick up My Toys (And Go Home)’, by The Devonnes. The Swans made some waves on the airwaves back in 1963 with ‘You Better Be a Good Girl Now’ and, a year after, with ‘Boy with the Beatle Hair’. Another less known girl group presented here is Devotion, whose only release, as far as I know, is this 1970 Colossus double-sider Dawning of Love / So Glad You're Home. I hope you enjoy this last (but one) volume of which is possibly one of the best series dedicated to girl groups (and specially Brit Girl sound) ever released. Once again, I must thank Lohmax for passing me this.a

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1. Slow Fizz - The Sapphires
2. The 81 - Candy & the Kisses
3. Baby, Baby, You - The Lovenotes
4. Gonna Be a Big Thing - The Yum Yums
5. We Belong Together - Honey Love & The Love Notes
6. You Better Be a Good Girl Now - The Swans
7. I've Got Mine, You Better Get Yours - The Sapphires
8. Two Happy People - Candy & the Kisses
9. Boy with the Beatle Hair - The Swans
10. He's Mine - The Swans
11. Soldier Baby (Of Mine) - Candy & the Kisses
12. Gee I'm Sorry Baby - The Sapphires
13. Let's Break Up for a While - The Sapphires
14. Looky Looky (What I Got) - The Yum Yums
15. Mary Ann - Honey Love & The Love Notes
16. Shakin' Time - Candy & the Kisses
17. Beg Me - The Lovenotes
18. I'm Gonna Pick up My Toys (And Go Home) - The Devonnes
19. Dawning of Love - Devotion
20. So Glad You're Home - Devotion

Melba Moore: Living to Give (1970) ...plus

Tony Award winning and two-time Grammy nominee, Melba Moore’s enduring talent has earned her a rewarding career in recording, theater, television, music and film. For over 30 years, her powerful and beautiful four-octave voice has endeared her to music lovers around the world as a great virtuoso singer on a variety of genres, including rhythm and blues, gospel, rock and roll, jazz and pop. She hit it big when she joined the cast of the Broadway musical ‘Hair’. One day while working in the studio, a barefoot gentleman asked her if she wanted to be in the play. Moore accepted and eventually won the lead role. It was the first time in history that a black actress replaced a white actress (Diane Keaton) for the lead role on Broadway. That followed with another Broadway hit, ‘Purlie’, which earned her a Tony Award and rave reviews. Moore also forged a successful singing career. Her very early experience in the industry saw her working as a singer/pianist with a group called Voices, Inc., and performing at clubs in New Jersey and the Catskills. In addition, she was able to supplement her income by doing background vocals for a whole host of names including Jerry Butler, Dionne Warwick, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis and Aretha Franklin. One of her colleagues at the time was none other than Valerie Simpson. She released her debut album, Living to Give, on Mercury Records in 1970, followed a year later by Look What You're Doing to the Man. She also had a UK Top 10 (and a minor US hit) in 1976 with ‘This Is It’, and although her pop chart placings were inconsistent, she remained a fixture on the R&B lists over the following decade. Moore has been and is currently focusing on gospel recordings while still appearing in an occasional Broadway show. Today I am posting that promising first album, Living to Give, augmented by 7 bonus tracks from her 1971 release Look What You're Doing to the Man. Enjoy! http://www.musicianguide.com/

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Melba singing 'Purlie' on the Broadway musical of the same name:

Performing 'Lean on Me' on an episode of Soul Train, in 1976:

Nella Dodds: The Complete Wand Recordings (1964-1965)

The combination of her unusual, highly beguiling voice, some excellent songs and corking dance grooves make the recordings of Nella Dodds have charmed collectors of Northern Soul and girl groups for more than 35 years. Nella should, by rights, have had an album release in the mid-‘60s, when she was signed to New York’s Wand label via a production deal with Philadelphia’s Dyno-Dynamic Productions -essentially the precursor of what would eventually evolve into classic 1970s ‘Philly Sound’. She should also have had several major hits, rather than just the two fair to middling ones that she did have. But by the time that Philadelphia usurped Detroit as the epicentre of commercial Soul music, Nella Dodds had forsaken music for domesticity, destined to be regarded as another ‘great unknown’. Both sides of all six singles Dodds released on Wand between 1964 and 1965 are on this compilation, along with three outtakes from the same era, which have never been heard in public since the day they were recorded. Besides Nella, others who participated in these sessions include musicians who went on to form the core of MFSB, legendary Philly DJ/songwriter Jimmy Bishop (discoverer of and mentor to a host of other Philadelphia soul greats, most notably Barbara Mason) and Philadelphia International co-founder Kenneth Gamble, who wrote many of the songs. As well as Nella’s hit cover of the Supremes’ 'Come See About Me' (a song that made it up to number 74 in the charts) and its Top 100 follow-up 'Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers', this great collection features the Northern Soul favourites 'Come Back Baby', 'Honey Boy', 'First Date' and 'Maybe Baby'. It also includes what is probably the best cut on the set: Gamble’s moody ballad ‘You Don't Love Me Anymore’ which, sadly wasted on the B-side of ‘Come See About Me,’ sounds like a cross between Dionne Warwick and mid-'60s girl groups. All in all, this is a consistently enjoyable retrospective of an underrated singer who deserved more than she got. http://www.allmusic.com/, http://www.acerecords.co.uk, http://www.amazon.co.uk/

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Brenda & The Tabulations - Dry Your Eyes (1967) ...plus

Brenda and the Tabulations had an overnight success in early 1967 with the smooth, uptown ballad ‘Dry your eyes’. Like many overnight successes, Brenda Payton and the three Tabulations (Maurice Coates, co-writer with Brenda of many of their tracks, Eddie Jackson and James Rucker) never did re-achieve the same amount of success, but they did have a steady run of medium size chart hits that lasted until 1977; in all, 16 Top 50 R&B hits. This reissue of their Dionn LP Dry Your Eyes, contains all the A sides and B sides of the five 45 releases they had on Dionn in 1967, including ‘When You're Gone’, which is a bonus track, not included on the original album. Subsequent single releases on Dionn in 1968 and 1969 are not included here, though I have added two of them myself, ‘That's the Price You Have to Pay’ and ‘The Touch of You’, both from 1969. Brenda & the Tabulations later recorded chart hits for Top & Bottom, Epic, and Chocolate City. Did I mention they were from Philadelphia? I know you know, but just for the record. As for the music: what we have here is plenty of subtle, orchestrated Philly style ballads: the title track of course and, notably, a nice version of Smokey's ‘Who's Loving You’, ‘Stay Together Young Lovers’, and the LP only track ‘Oh Lord What Are You Doing To Me’. The cover of the Marvelettes' ‘Forever’, taken at a midtempo pace, may cater to northern soulies, as well as ‘Hey Boy’, which was used as a B side on no less than three 45's. The version of Gershwin's classic ‘Summertime’ is also interesting. This is the kind of work that we soul fans should be thankful for, and especially, of course, all you Brenda & the Tabulations fans out there. http://www.melingo.com/.

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Sandra Feva: The Need to Be (1979) ... plus

Detroit vocalist Sandra Feva may be an unfamiliar name to those who didn't follow indie soul scene in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s, but she certainly was not unknown to real soul enthusiasts at the time. On the contrary, it seemed that every connoisseur rated her very high, and compared her to Gladys Knight, Betty Wright, Margie Joseph and other songstresses of the same calibre. Soul Express scribe Heikki Suosalo wrote in early 1983 that he "hasn't heard a better album by a female singer this decade", John Abbey in Blues & Soul considered Sandra on a par with Gladys, and Clive Richardson cites in the liner notes of this reissue release that "here was a new voice to match the newly-solo Gladys Knight and the vibrant Patti LaBelle". Feva earned a good local reputation, but gained more national notoriety as a background vocalist with Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, and Prince than on her own as a solo act. Husky-voiced and with enough lung capacity to cause a minor windstorm, she occasionally stepped out of the shadows to show off her own vocal prowess, although she didn’t get much chart success. Sandra recorded for a variety of labels, including Venture, Krisma, Catawba, Grandstand, and Robbins. She also released on the Buddah label what would be her first single (as Sandra Richardson, her then-married name): the original version of ‘I Feel a Song (in My Heart)’, from 1973. But the two solo singles that came closest to making an impact for her were 1979's ‘The Need to Be’ and 1981's ‘Tell 'Em That I Heard It,’ the latter of which was produced by Tony Camillo (renowned writer of ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’) on his Venture label, and peaked at #33 on the R&B charts (I added both sides of this 1981 single as bonus tracks). Her 'Savoir Faire' LP, from that same year, has been an acclaimed “must have” item for soul collectors ever since. One note for those who stop listening to music from the late-'70s on (and most of the time I am one of them!): don’t let the release date discorauge you. This is PURE DEEP SOUL at its best, with touches of modern soul on the uptempo tracks. The balance is great, and really makes the album a fresh one: hardly the usual soul set from the time, and a record that really holds up over the years! Trust me, if you are a real soul fan, you don’t want to miss this. http://www.soulexpress.net, http://www.allmusic.com/.

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Faye Adams: Shake a Hand - 30 of Her Greatest Hits (2007)

Called by Alan Freed "the little gal with the big voice", R&B pioneer Faye Adams brought a fiery gospel passion and an instinctive toughness to the songs she sang in the ‘50s, paving the way for the great soul singers of the following decade. She was discovered by singer Ruth Brown, who won her an audition with bandleader Joe Morris of Atlantic Records. Changing her name to Faye Adams, Morris recruited her as a singer in 1952, and signed her to Herald Records. Her first release was Morris' ‘Shake a Hand’, (B-side ‘I've Gotta Leave You’), which topped the R&B charts for ten weeks in 1953 and also made # 22 on the pop charts. The song was later covered by many others including Little Richard, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and Jackie Wilson. In 1954, Faye had two more R&B chart toppers with ‘I'll Be True’ and ‘Hurts Me to My Heart’. During this period, she left the Morris band and was billed as "Atomic Adams", a tribute to her showmanship on stage. In 1955 she appeared in the movie Rhythm & Blues Revue and in 1957 moved to Imperial Records, but althought she had a minor R&B chart hit with ‘Keeper of My Heart’, her commercial success diminished. By the late 1950s she was seen as an older recording artist whose time had come and gone and, although she continued to record for various smaller labels until the early ‘60s, by 1963 she had retired from the popular music scene. She returned to her gospel roots and family life in New Jersey, and was reportedly unwilling to discuss her classic secular R&B recordings. Faye was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1998. This 30 song anthology collects her earliest recordings with Joe Morris and his orchestra, including 1952's sarcastic and sassy ‘That's What Makes My Baby Fat’ (which was recorded for Atlantic Records when Adams was being billed as Fay Scruggs) and all of her hits for Herald and Imperial. http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://secure.swapacd.com/, http://www.billboard.com/

Faye Adams' performance of 'Everyday', taken from Rhythm & Blues Revue, 1955: