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.

And here’s a funny thing: Rita Graham never actually met the Tiaras – the two studio singers who back her on her signature song, Gone With The Wind Is My Love. Such was studio life in 1967; it’s no better today.

Rita Graham was a hard-working jazz singer when Ray Charles recruited her as one of his Raelettes and jump-started her career by producing an album of standards for her – Rita Graham Vibrations – in 1969.

After a run of singles with TV composer Mike Post (Law And Order, Hill Street Blues and The A-Team) she spent time as featured vocalist with Oscar Peterson and the Harry James Orchestra, moving on to Mercer Ellington and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Rita had one more Northern Soul hit with a track from the Vibrations album called My Cup Runneth Over With Love and in the 21st century she became the house singer at a popular nightspot in Atlanta, Georgia.

More recently she turned her hand to literature, writing a suspense/murder mystery novel called Karma Rising that has been optioned for the big screen.