This is the perfect soundtrack for a summer’s day, with the sun shining, and the perfect video for a summer night in the city. And today seems like it might (fingers crossed) be that day – and night – at last.

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This Northern Soul classic is, as far as I know, the only single ever released by Lester Tipton, a one-miss wonder who met a tragic fate. No wonder they call it Rare Groove.

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This song is such a masterpiece with which to launch a career. And Donny Hathaway is rightly regarded as one of the greatest of all soul singers.

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Cream’s original version of this song was played a lot when I was at school, driven along by a bassline Jack Bruce apparently inspired by seeing a Hendrix concert. It was only much later that I heard this funky soul version by Spanky Wilson, with its exuberant horns and serpentine basslines.

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There’s nothing like a Northern Soul stomper to start the day with a lift – and this is one of the best. Rita and the Tiaras do the trick better than a triple espresso.

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The moment you first hear Jordan Rakei’s stunning voice, you imagine you must be listening to some long-lost soul singer from the Sixties or Seventies.

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Not only is this a classic Northern Soul number but Jackie Shane is one of the earliest trans performers in pop history.

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Jackie Edwards has been called the Nat King Cole of Jamaica for the smooth sentimental singing style that earned him the nickname The Cool Ruler long before Gregory Isaacs inherited the mantle. But there was much more to him than that.

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Jackie Wilson was one of the first R&B superstars back in the ’50s but his music had a second lease of life thanks to Van Morrison and Dexys Midnight Runners in the ’70s and ’80s.

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Jackie Day’s obscure soul single Before It’s Too Late was a flop in 1966 but found a new lease of life as a popular Northern Soul floor filler.

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