This really is a spectacular find for fans of funk and soul. An obscure deep soul nugget, it lures you in with its slow-burning groove. Then, about 30 seconds in, the horns catch fire and the bass player lets loose with the musical equivalent of St Vitus Dance. (more…)

With its smooth groove and sweet vocal, sinuous sax and bubbling bassline, this is just the job for a hot summer day. (more…)

There have been plenty of crazy characters and egotists in the history of popular music, and Ernie K-Doe was one of them. A bit of a blues and soul legend in his native New Orleans, he performed in a cape and crown and billed himself as “Emperor of the Universe.” (more…)

Plenty of soul singers (Aretha, Otis, Whitney) had parents who were church ministers and plenty more began singing in church when they were young. A handful (Al Green, Eddie Holman) even went on to become ministers themselves. Only one earned the title “The Female Preacher” – Lyn Collins. (more…)

Geordie soul boy Eric Burdon teamed up with California funksters War to make this idiosyncratic cover of a Rolling Stones song. (more…)

Here’s a lost masterpiece blending jazz, funk, blues and soul – and psychedelia – by The Loading Zone, a long-forgotten late-1960s band from San Francisco. (more…)

In the pantheon of soul greats, Major Lance never got the name recognition of Curtis Mayfield, his mentor and collaborator on the Chicago soul scene in the Sixties.

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The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.

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The exuberant brass motif that drives this swinging soul number sounds instantly familiar, perhaps because of the many lives this song has had since it was written by The Chi-Lites’ lead singer Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders.

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