What a gloriously uplifting song this is. Except it isn’t. It’s anything but uplifting if you listen to the lyrics. In fact it’s as dark a song as you’ll ever hear. And it’s all autobiographical. (more…)

Another lost classic from the funk vaults, The Watts Breakaway is just one of many musical achievements of Johnny Otis. The singer is Delmar ‘Mighty Mouth’ Evans and the guitarist may well by Johnny’s equally well-known son Shuggie Otis. (more…)

Cliff Nobles is unique in the annals of one-hit wonders – he doesn’t appear at all on this his solitary hit. (more…)

I was going to post the gorgeous instrumental Walk In The Night, the only tune I knew growing up by Junior Walker & The All Stars. Then I stumbled upon Shotgun. (more…)

It’s only listening to this again now, 45 years later, that I realise it’s the best Four Tops song not actually by the Four Tops. (more…)

Here’s another very-oldie dating back to 1963 by The Drew-Vels – re-recorded four years later as a solo single by Patti Drew. (more…)

This may be the most extraordinary discovery I’ve stumbled upon.
It was recorded in 1963 but its psych-tinged blend of jazz, soul and blues is way ahead of its time. (more…)

I Feel Love is so obviously the greatest disco song of all time that no others need apply for the title. But spare a moment for the song that gave Donna Summer her first international hit a couple of years earlier. (more…)

Dyke & The Blazers are best known for the original – and best – version of Funky Broadway, which went on to be a hit for Wilson Pickett. This tune from 1969 is even funkier. (more…)

Betty Davis is the missing link between Tina Turner and Millie Jackson, her raw sex appeal proving too much for America in the early 1970s. (more…)