Like so many Sixties soul singers, Northern soul favourite Jackie Ross started singing in church, though her first performance was at the age of three, on the radio show of her preacher parents.

She might have been a star at the age of 16 when she was taken under the wing of Sam Cooke, a friend of her mother, who signed her to his SAR record label and wrote her a great song – Hold Me – that swings to the same rhythm as Chain Gang.

It wasn’t a hit, mostly because her mother thought Jackie – then billed as ‘Jacki’ Ross – was too young to go out and promote the tune. And within two years Cooke had died.

That could have ended her career but it got another boost after she entered a talent contest and won the prize of a weekend singing (and being paid) in Syl Johnson’s band. Which is where she was discovered by another mentor, DJ Bill Lee.

Lee worked for a gospel radio station part owned by Leonard Chess and, thanks to his encouragement, Ross was signed to the legendary label. This was her first single for Chess – Selfish One – and it became her biggest hit in 1964.

Co-written by Carl Smith, who would later write the soul classics Rescue Me for Fontella Bass and (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher for Jackie Wilson, it made Ross an overnight star, reaching number 11 in the US singles chart.

You can immediately hear why – it’s got a similar feel to Mary Wells’s My Guy (and may have been a deliberate attempt to mimic its appeal), the production is immaculate, and Ross’s voice is elastic and emotive.

Sadly, Ross never managed to repeat its success – or get paid her due – despite joining a Chess Records package tour with Fontella Bass and Little Milton.

But her Sixties singles – songs like Trust In Me, Don’t Change Your Mind and Dynamite Lovin’ – were rediscovered a decade later by Northern Soul fans.

As a result, today her 1964 debut LP Full Bloom and its very belated 1980 follow-up, A New Beginning, have become sought-after rarities among collectors. She also released two split LPs with bluesmen Little Milton and Bobby Rush after leaving Chess.

Ross has recently returned to singing gospel in Chicago churches when she’s not working at her day job – as a nutritionist.