R&B and Soul Classics (1945-1975 or so)

[Satchmo Distel]

I will try and do one of these per day. The dating is quite flexible because there's no consensus on where 'classic' in these genres starts and ends.

Brook Benton and Dinah Washington - 'Baby (You've Got What It Takes)'. No. 1 on the R&B chart for 10 weeks in 1960. The bassline on this was copied on many later records but I can't quite place it.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Shake a Hand, Jackie Wilson and Linda Hopkins (1963)

Jackie Wilson is well known, Linda Hopkins, these days, less so but she is at least as significant both as a vocalist and and an actor. A New Orleans girl, she saw Bessie Smith perform Empty Bed Blues at the Palace Theatre in 1936. She later played Bessie in Jazz Train and Me and Bessie. In 1950s LA she performed with Johnny Otis and Esther Phillips, in Honolulu she was a regular with Louis Armstrong. She sang at Jimmy Carter's inaugural ball, and won a Tony Award for her performance in Black and Blue on Broadway. She died in 2017 at the age of 92.

A life well lived for sure.

[Satchmo Distel]

"All I Could Do Was Cry" - Etta James, apparently about Harvey Fuqua, who dumped her and married Gwen Gordy, sister of Berry, who co-wrote the song, during a period when Chess was distributing tracks written and/or recorded by the Gordys (Berry had 4 sisters, and the first Motown label was named after one of them, Anna, who later married Marvin Gaye, who was discovered and mentored by Fuqua):

[Etienne]

The Originals - Suspicion

I still find it amazing that songs of this quality are, if not totally unknown, not ones known to everyone. Possibly if The Originals had gone on to more success then it would have been.

[Sporting]

The Originals - Suspicion

I still find it amazing that songs of this quality are, if not totally unknown, not ones known to everyone. Possibly if The Originals had gone on to more success then it would have been.

Very good. I'd never heard of the group nor heard the song.

[Satchmo Distel]

The original Motown backing group was The Voice Masters, when the label was Anna Records. The Originals evolved from that base, I think.

http://www.uncamarvy.com/Thrillers/thrillers.html

Very early releases:

[Come along, Min]

https://youtu.be/2YzNAKP1gnw

The Jackson Five - Ooh, I'd Love To Be With You. (1973)

A Mizell Brothers production

[Amor de Cosmos]

Maintaining the duet theme. Brother and sister Inez and Charlie Foxx with the, much covered, original version of Mockingbird, their own composition.

Inez went on to have a modestly successful solo career, and married producer/writer Luther Dixon who was Florence Greenberg's main man at Scepter Records. Charlie also became a producer, but died of Leukemia in his 50s.

[Etienne]

Another duet - Marvin Gaye gaslighting Mary Wells. What's The Matter With You Baby. In fact it's such a good example of gaslighting that it is my go to example if someone asks me what gaslighting is. Really good song though.

[Tony C]

If you can extend the “or so” time limit on the thread title to 1979 then indulge yourself in one of most beautiful pieces of music imaginable. The Defaulters remain something of a mystery.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cRE_0kUud0

[matt j]

Greatest span of music ever?

Donny Hathaway - Magnificent Sanctuary Band

[matt j]

Self-explanatory. Hard not to just post every song from Young, Gifted and Black. Almost at the 50(!) year anniversary by the way.

[Etienne]

The Contours (of Do You Love Me? fame) - Just A Little Misunderstanding

I really struggle to get into the smooth 70s soul. Both Luke and Tony's songs do nothing for me.

[Tony C]

Over the years on OTF I have on several occasions alluded to the time before the Chi-Lites donned their tuxedos and accepted a role of dinner party soul crooners they made some wonderful, vital records. Nothing more wonderful or vital than this. It was a chart hit, it’s in no way obscure (in fact it received some resurgent interest when it was used on The Wire) so this is not a case of unearthing a hidden gem. It’s just a great record.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=25apx_nF_pw

[Amor de Cosmos]

Continuing the duet boogie, Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford with I Need Your Lovin'

Don Gardner was mainly a session drummer, but with a great raucous voice as you can tell. Not sure what became of Dee Dee though. The track features a "fake fade-out" ending, like The Contours Do You Love Me, clearly a bit of a fad at the time.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I really struggle to get into the smooth 70s soul. Both Luke and Tony's songs do nothing for me.

I'm somewhat the same. I think the death of Otis Redding affected me much like Buddy Holly's did my immediate elders. Bereft. I certainly felt that way about soul music for a few years:

I mean how could you beat this?

[Satchmo Distel]

Amazing to think that Otis only got signed because he drove another singer to a Stax session and begged them to hear him sing for them.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yeah. Fate works both ways huh?

An other instance was the career of Percy Mayfield. Huge on the West Coast R&B scene in the early 1950s. He had his own orchestra, wrote songs for other performers as well as himself. Then, one night his chauffeur drove into the back of an unseen parked truck. Mayfield was pronounced dead at the scene but was badly injured. He spent two years convalescing but his facial disfigurement was so bad he never appeared appeared in public again. He continued to write though (Hit the Road Jack, for Ray Charles) and record. Here's The Voice Within (1955). I adore the smoke and whiskey texture of his voice.

[multipleman78]

There is a video on YouTube that has a performance on Soul Train by Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson doing a small cover of Ooh Baby Baby. As you can imagine, it's beautiful.

https://youtu.be/UVliVMQDs7I

[Cal Alamein]

The Brothers Two - You Got It

My brother made me a soul compilation many years ago. He led w/ this very catchy instrumental. Can't tell you much about the Two Brothers. Definitely not a classic, but catchy as hell.

[Satchmo Distel]

Wilson Pickett's breakthrough was with the vocal group The Falcons, who subsequently signed for Atlantic, which led to Jerry Wexler arranging for Pickett to record at Stax, whose distribution would then go through Atlantic:

[Satchmo Distel]

Otis Redding - Down In The Valley, a Solomon Burke cover (written by Burke and Bert Berns):

[Amor de Cosmos]

Wilson Pickett's breakthrough was with the vocal group The Falcons, who subsequently signed for Atlantic, which led to Jerry Wexler arranging for Pickett to record at Stax, whose distribution would then go through Atlantic:

I think The Wicked Pickett only did a couple of sessions at Stax. The company owners then banned outside productions. Most of his catalog was produced at Muscle Shoals

[Satchmo Distel]

He Will Break Your Heart - Jerry Butler

[Jon]

Maintaining the duet theme. Brother and sister Inez and Charlie Foxx with the, much covered, original version of Mockingbird, their own composition.

I know the Aretha Franklin version and may have also heard this one. But in my head, I've always thought it was a cover of an old traditional US folk tune which I swear I heard a few times as a kid. Looks like I was mistaken.

Anyway, The Sapphires had some great pop/soul songs in the Motown mould but didn't achieve the same chart success in the 60s. They were from Philadelphia and Thom Bell, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff were all involved in at least some of their records, in differing capacities.