This is what used to be called a “Negro Spiritual” dating back to slavery days in the USA. It was first published in 1867 and I think the first recording was by Marian Anderson in 1925. (more…)

It’s not often in the internet age that you can’t find out a single thing about a record, or the people who made it. Until now. (more…)

Here’s a confession. I only really knew Kool & The Gang for their party tunes and schmaltzy ballads in the Eighties.

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I’m not the world’s biggest fan but there are at least a handful of essential Elton John songs lurking amid his vast catalogue, Including this rarity from the archives. (more…)

When it comes to Marvin Gaye, I have to confess that if I had to choose, I’m more of a What’s Going On guy than a Let’s Get It on guy. I’ll take social realism over romance and seduction every time. (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…)

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…)

Heard on its own, this melancholy ten-minute guitar apocalypse by Funkadlic would be impossible to categorise. (more…)