This is probably the soppiest song I like. It’s the antithesis of the soul music I like best – the gritty, sweaty, southern soul of Stax and Muscle Shoals. And yet… (more…)

Headhunters served up this fat slice of funk in 1975, featuring a famous sample that’s formed the basis  of countless hip hop tunes ever since. (more…)

This is another long jam for a summer’s day, fusing an R&B groove with the flightier embellishments of jazz. (more…)

The Five Stairsteps were five teenage brothers and sisters nicknamed The First Family Of Soul – a title that would soon be passed on to The Jackson 5. (more…)

The Chambers Brothers blended their gospel roots with folk and West Coast rock to create a unique take on psychedelic soul in the first Summer of Love. (more…)

Whoever said white men can’t sing the blues (or play them) had clearly never heard this tune by Blood, Sweat & Tears. (more…)

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band created the template for Acid Rock with the sprawling title track of their second album East West in 1966. (more…)

Wanda Jackson exchanged country music for rock’n’roll on the advice of her teenage boyfriend Elvis Presley – and never looked back. (more…)

In 1963 my mother bought her first and, I’m fairly sure, last pop record. I was five – and this is it. 
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Back in 1966, while England were winning the World Cup at Wembley, the boogaloo came out of every window in Brooklyn and the Bronx. (more…)