With its slinky, sinuous groove and rattling percussion, Pusherman offers a fly-on-the-wall trip through the inner-city ghetto, guided by Curtis Mayfield’s inimitable falsetto. (more…)

New York vocal group The Persauders had their only UK hit with Thin Line Between Love And Hate long before before The Pretenders. (more…)

Undiscovered for decades, here is the full 33-minute version of Isaac Hayes’s psychedelic jam Do Your Thing. (more…)

James Brown channels his anger into a revenge fantasy in the influential funk classic The Payback, much sampled by hip-hop artists in later years. (more…)

This is probably the soppiest song I like. It’s the antithesis of the soul music I like best – the gritty, sweaty, southern soul of Stax and Muscle Shoals. And yet… (more…)

This is another long jam for a summer’s day, fusing an R&B groove with the flightier embellishments of jazz. (more…)

The Five Stairsteps were five teenage brothers and sisters nicknamed The First Family Of Soul – a title that would soon be passed on to The Jackson 5. (more…)

The Chambers Brothers blended their gospel roots with folk and West Coast rock to create a unique take on psychedelic soul in the first Summer of Love. (more…)

Whoever said white men can’t sing the blues (or play them) had clearly never heard this tune by Blood, Sweat & Tears. (more…)

Once in a while you come across an old tune you’ve never heard before by a musician you’ve never heard before and it’s so great you can’t believe you didn’t know it. Like this slice of psychedelic soul. (more…)