1966
This Northern Soul classic is, as far as I know, the only single ever released by Lester Tipton, a one-miss wonder who met a tragic fate. No wonder they call it Rare Groove.
Phyllis Dillon’s rocksteady classic is a gem from Duke Reid’s legendary Treasure Isle studio. It’s been widely described as the greatest performance by a female singer in Jamaican music.
Jackie Edwards has been called the Nat King Cole of Jamaica for the smooth sentimental singing style that earned him the nickname The Cool Ruler long before Gregory Isaacs inherited the mantle. But there was much more to him than that.
Jackie Day’s obscure soul single Before It’s Too Late was a flop in 1966 but found a new lease of life as a popular Northern Soul floor filler.
There are two equally spellbinding versions of this haunting lament to lost love and innocence, by two different singers, and ever since I first heard them I’ve been unable to decide which is the best. The problem is that they’re not all that different, and of course there’s no need to pick one over the other.
Just as punk began to take over my musical life in 1976 this slice of smooth soul hit the UK charts. But this isn’t them… well, one of them is but the other one isn’t.
Once upon a time there was a band called Jefferson Airplane fronted by a former model called Grace Slick. But before that Grace was in a band called The Great Society and the Airplane had a singer called Signe Toly.
Norma Tanega’s song came out nearly 60 years ago but was given a new lease of life after half a century in obscurity as a TV theme as the theme music of What We Do In The Shadows.
Rudies don’t fear… This rude boy anthem is the first and best-known of all rocksteady tunes to come out of Jamaica when ska began its evolution towards reggae in the mid-1960s.
Looking at a list of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s string of hits in the mid-1960s, I find I only know one of them… this summertime classic.