I’ve just heard this song for the first time – only half a century after it first came out. And… wow. It’s a spellbinding, heartbreaking account of a loveless marriage and the effect it’s had on the life of their unwanted child.

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When I get the urge to hear some soul music, I often go straight to Otis. And when I go to Otis, I tend to go straight to Try A Little Tenderness. It was only when this came on the radio the other day that I remembered what a highlight it is on the immortal album Otis Blue.

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You’ve got to feel sorry for Fred Neil. The obscure Canadian folkie recorded definitive versions of three great songs that went on to become standards – and all three were made famous in better versions by three other artists.

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Four 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.

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The mysterious Rubin only recorded a single side in his obscure music career – but it became a Northern Soul classic. (more…)

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.

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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.

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If you were a black kid growing up in postwar Detroit, there’s a good chance you would sing in the school choir and the church, and end up in a doo wop group before graduating to RnB and soul.

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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.

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She might not be a household name but Jean Shepard was a pioneer for women in country music, with a staggering 73 singles in the country chart between 1953 and 1981.

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