When it comes to emotionally intense vocal performances, you don’t need to look much further than James Brown singing The Bells.

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Who was the first white artist signed to Motown? Well I always thought it was R.Dean Taylor, the Canadian who sang the great Indiana Wants Me (and Gotta See Jane and There’s A Ghost In My House). It wasn’t. I’m not sure who it was but Debbie Dean was their first female solo artist back in 1960.

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This has to be one of the best Motown deep cuts – the solitary single released on Motown by Linda Griner. The schoolgirl singer from Washington D.C. was spotted by Smokey Robinson, who also wrote the song (with The Miracles on backing vocals).

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Growing up, I knew this song as a hit single for The Carpenters in 1975. For older pop fans, it’s Motown’s first number one single by one of the first girl groups, The Marvelettes, from 1961.

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When I first heard The Allergies I assumed they must be some long-lost American band from the early seventies. In fact they are a white duo from Bristol.

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Not only is this one of the catchiest songs of all time but the story behind the song is remarkable… and lives up to the title.

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It wouldn’t take long to write down everything I know about this song, or the girl who sang it. At the height of punk, Stiff Records had a hit single with B-A-B-Y, sung by a 15-year-old girl from Akron, Ohio called Rachel Sweet.

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The rarest of rare grooves, T’Ain’t No Big Thing was the only single by The Jovialetts. Who were they? A vocal girl group of the mid-1960s. Beyond that… who knows.

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Here’s another sweet slice of Northern Soul from the vaults – a smooth ballad that introduced The Montclairs in 1969.

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I don’t know much about Dee Edwards, who sang this Northern Soul gem. It’s a B-side but I prefer it to the A-side, Tired Of Staying Home.

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