I’m familiar with Odetta as the voice of the Civil Rights Movement back in the ’50s and ’60s and I know Martin Luther King called her the Queen of American folk music. But I’d never heard this ’til now.

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Here’s another Northern Soul classic, courtesy of The Younghearts from Los Angeles,  California. This was their debut single in 1967, with a falsetto vocal that calls to mind Smokey Robinson.

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It’s not often you hear people describe a guitarist who doesn’t generally do solos as one of the all-time greats. But countless other guitar greats gave that accolade to Steve Cropper.

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I have to confess I didn’t know the singer of this Northern Soul favourite, Bobby Garrett, was the same ‘Bob’ in Bob & Earl, who sang the mega-hit Harlem Shuffle.

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Frank Wilson’s addictive stomper Do I Love You (Yes I Do) is considered an all-time Northern Soul classic today. But it remained unreleased for 14 years after it was recorded.

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Run For Cover was one of first minor hits for The Dells, one of the finest and longest-lasting vocal groups in R&B history – and it’s a Northern Soul classic.

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Spencer Wiggins had no success even at the height of his career in the ’60s, but this song has since become a Northern Soul classic.

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Tom Misch’s jazzy house update on Roberta Flack’s 50-year-old chart topper Feel Like Makin’ Love is the kind of thing you might hear at a beach bar in Ibiza. 

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Still digging into early-Seventies soul, I have to admit I’d never heard of Brick and consequently I’d never heard of their disco and jazz hybrid that they called “dazz.”

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Everybody knows Aretha Franklin. Few apart from hardcore soul fans remember the Queen of Soul’s big sister Erma. (more…)