Plenty of soul singers (Aretha, Otis, Whitney) had parents who were church ministers and plenty more began singing in church when they were young. A handful (Al Green, Eddie Holman) even went on to become ministers themselves. Only one earned the title “The Female Preacher” – Lyn Collins. (more…)

Everybody knows the Jackson brothers but not so many know their near-namesakes, the Brothers Johnson. (more…)

Geordie soul boy Eric Burdon teamed up with California funksters War to make this idiosyncratic cover of a Rolling Stones song. (more…)

Here’s a lost masterpiece blending jazz, funk, blues and soul – and psychedelia – by The Loading Zone, a long-forgotten late-1960s band from San Francisco. (more…)

Roogalator were more funk than punk, but they were one of the first bands to release a single on the fledgling Stiff Records in the summer of 1976. (more…)

The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.

(more…)

Here’s a confession. I only really knew Kool & The Gang for their party tunes and schmaltzy ballads in the Eighties.

(more…)

The exuberant brass motif that drives this swinging soul number sounds instantly familiar, perhaps because of the many lives this song has had since it was written by The Chi-Lites’ lead singer Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders.

(more…)

(more…)