Today I’m feeling a little bit country and a little bit rock’n’roll, just like Donny and Marie once did. So here’s a bit of Buck Owens. This song never fails to put a big fat smile on my face. It just swings, and rocks, and twangs in all the right places.

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Here’s a sweet slice of Sixties psychedelia by a bunch of British teenagers, released in February 1968 to a chorus of indifference. Who would have expected it to launch a multi-million-selling band on a stellar career?

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It’s no exaggeration to say John Mayall is the most important figure in the development of rock music in Britain. 

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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.

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This song is such a masterpiece with which to launch a career. And Donny Hathaway is rightly regarded as one of the greatest of all soul singers.

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Cream’s original version of this song was played a lot when I was at school, driven along by a bassline Jack Bruce apparently inspired by seeing a Hendrix concert. It was only much later that I heard this funky soul version by Spanky Wilson, with its exuberant horns and serpentine basslines.

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There’s nothing like a Northern Soul stomper to start the day with a lift – and this is one of the best. Rita and the Tiaras do the trick better than a triple espresso.

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I’ve never heard of Sugar Pie DeSanto before, and I’ll be surprised if anyone here has come across her music. But she deserves wider appreciation.

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Not only is this a classic Northern Soul number but Jackie Shane is one of the earliest trans performers in pop history.

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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.

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