The exhilarating melody of this tune has stayed with me since childhood.
I had not heard of Jr Walker & The All Stars when it was a modest hit in the summer of 1972 and I’m not sure I even thought of them as a soul group. (more…)

What was the first disco hit? The Trammps would define the genre with Disco Inferno. But before that came this old Broadway tune in 1972. (more…)

Nat Turner Rebellion: Laugh To Keep From Crying – album review

James Brown’s backing band The JB’s were pretty much in a class of their own when it came to funk. Pick Up The Pieces was one of their finest moments from 1972. (more…)

New World are the forgotten band of the early Seventies. Deservedly so, some might say, and they would be right, in musical terms anyway. In legal terms, not so much. (more…)

This is the third and final song in a trilogy that always come to my mind together: The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, Killing Me Softly With His Song and Help Me Make It Through The Night. (more…)

The history of this classic romantic ballad is a long and complicated one, involving two English folk singers, an American schoolteacher, a screen legend – and a dead cat. (more…)

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The loose ramshackle sound of this song can be attributed to one thing – they had never played it before the day they recorded it. And this was only the second take. (more…)