1968
Here’s a strange slice of ’60s psych, with fuzz guitars and synthesised strings, from the strangely named and even more strangely (mis-)spelt Hooterville Trolly.
Blue Cheer was never been anything more than a name to me – a late-Sixties band that I’d never actually heard. Now that I finally have… well, fucking hell!
Here’s a sultry slice of Southern soul from The Ohio Players’ debut album, long before they became disco-funkateers with a string of hits.
This sweaty, soulful, stripped-back take on one of Jimi’s biggest tunes is by his first group – a few years after he left.
The Epitome Of Sound – You Don’t Love Me / Where Were You
25th August 2023 · 1960s, 1968, Music, SoulFour white men in black suits and white shirts. One black man in a shiny gold suit. And two classic Northern Soul tunes. That’s The Epitome Of Sound.
Glenda Collins slipped through the cracks of UK pop in the Sixties, leaving a slender legacy of obscure singles recorded with Joe Meek – until releasing her debut album more than 60 years later.
Before they became The Carpenters, the clean-cut California siblings were called The Dick Carpenter Trio. And this was their first TV appearance in 1968.
Soul singer Al Wilson had a hit with this anti-racist allegory before Donald Trump appropriated it 50 years later as an anti-immigration parable. Because he’s an idiot.
Who was the first white artist signed to Motown? Well I always thought it was R.Dean Taylor, the Canadian who sang the great Indiana Wants Me (and Gotta See Jane and There’s A Ghost In My House). It wasn’t. I’m not sure who it was but Debbie Dean was their first female solo artist back in 1960.
Here’s another rare groove, this time by The Constellations, released in 1968. Despite their starry name, they never hit the heights but they left their mark with this Northern Soul classic.