The Rolling Stones, recorded live at the BBC in 1965, just as they were transitioning from a band playing blues and R&B covers. (more…)

Here’s a classic example of country music’s breakaway Bakersfield Sound by Buck Rogers from 1965. (more…)

The night I saw the legendary bass man from the legendary MC5 – and he didn’t play their legendary song, Kick Out The Jams. (more…)

In the pantheon of soul greats, Major Lance never got the name recognition of Curtis Mayfield, his mentor and collaborator on the Chicago soul scene in the Sixties.

(more…)

The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.

(more…)

A teenage Lyn Collins sang lead vocals on this Northern Soul stomper in an obscure girl group called Charles Pikes & The Scholars.

(more…)

The exuberant brass motif that drives this swinging soul number sounds instantly familiar, perhaps because of the many lives this song has had since it was written by The Chi-Lites’ lead singer Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders.

(more…)

Here’s another Deep Soul deep cut from back in the Summer of Love, 1967 – the only hit for Helena Ferguson. And here’s a piece of pop trivia – the backing band is The Ohio Players.

(more…)

The first time I heard this was in the musical car chase movie Baby Driver, which I love.
(more…)

OK, this song is awful. But it’s a bit of pop history because even though it wasn’t Lou Reed’s first recording it was the catalyst for the creation of The Velvet Underground.

(more…)