1967
Is it heresy to suggest that this is not only one of the best Velvets covers but arguably a better version than the original? Especially when you learn that it was recorded in a tent. By a bunch of GIs. In the middle of the jungle in Vietnam.
I don’t think I ever heard the name Levi Stubbs until Billy Bragg wrote and sang a song in the mid-Eighties called Levi Stubbs’ Tears. Even then I doubt I realised who he was.
How great is this soul ballad?! That organ! Those vocals! You can just picture a disco at the end of the night in the late Sixties with young men awkwardly trying to smooch embarrassed girls on the dance floor as the DJ drops this tune.
Inspired by my birthday trip back to Belfast – and today’s ambulance strike – here is what must surely be Van Morrison’s finest moment. It’s certainly his most emotionally intense.
If anyone were to tell me this is the greatest single song of all time, I would not dare to disagree. It’s flawless – perfect tune, perfect lyric, perfect voice, perfect arrangement – and filled with such emotion that it makes me cry almost every time I hear it.
(more…)
Here’s a slice of rare soul from Betty Moorer, finally finding some success in the Sixties, a decade after starting her first group. (more…)
One of the less well-known girl groups of the Sixties, The Fascinations are best known – if at all – for the fact that one of their founder members was Martha Reeves.
I was not sure which side to post of this Northern Soul favourite because both have their champions. I’m going with Under The Street Lamp because that was the A-side that gave them a minor hit in 1967. (more…)
There’s a long story behind this mid-Sixties song – the debut single by an obscure British freakbeat band called The Living Daylights. And an unlikely connection with both Elton John and Ian Dury. (more…)