Spring in the air, filled with love, there’s magic everywhere. Okay, we’re not all young and in love as Van McCoy wrote, but we all like to be amorous, and there’s no season like the blossoms of Spring, and Venus in Taurus season to get us to want to make like the birds and bees and pollinate.

For me this has been joking with friends about playlists for sensual liaisons for a few weeks. Granted, The Hayes Code applied to music quite a bit in the mid century, so a lot of frank discussions around the pursuit and pleasures of sex weren’t explicitly laid bare for all to know about outside of some very raunchy and very very blue blues. For the keen ear thought, there’s plenty that goes on beyond the kissing, hugging and cuddling.

I’ve crafted a set that starts with Diana Ross cruising in a Bar, Dinah Washington as a size queen and quite a few people stepping out and lying down with new partners without negotiating whether they’re opening up their current or primary relationships or not. Nothing’s new where the libido is concerned, just the lubricants that we use.

So, as you get closer and warm up the world around you with your own carnal pursuits, I hope you can enjoy and learn some new techniques from some old old (albeit heteronormative,sigh) tunes.

Fuck responsibly!

1) The Supremes – Come On Boy
2) Jackie Hill – Come Closer
3) The Temptations – Baby, Baby I Need You
4) The Shirelles – Make The Night Last A Little Longer
5) Linda Carr – The Girl From 1A and The Boy From 1B
6) The Impressions – I Can’t Stay Away From You
7) The Cookies – Softly In The Night
8) Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells – After The Lights Go Down Low
9) Dinah Washington – Long John Blues
10) Ray Charles – Makin’ Whoopie
11) Barbara McNair – Steal Away Tonight
12) Dionne Warwick – In The Land Of Make Believe
13) Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown – Never Had It So Good
14) Chris Calloway – I Don’t Need Another Baby
15) Jimmy Bo Horne – I Can’t Speak
16) Dusty Springfield – Come For A Dream
17) Minnie Riperton – Come Into My Garden
18) Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – I’ll Take You Any Way That You Come
19) Evie Sands – Any Way That You Want Me
20) Clyde McPhatter – Baby, I Could Be So Good At Lovin’ You
21) Vivian Reed – Yours Until Tomorrow
22) Freda Payne – Love On Borrowed Time
23) Reparata & The Delrons – We’re Gonna Hold Back The Night
24) Ballin’ Jack – Come ‘Round Here (I’m The One You Need)
25) Bettye LaVette – He Made A Woman Out Of Me
26) The Four Tops – (It’s The Way) Nature Planned It
27) Marlena Shaw – Feel Like Makin’ Love
28) The Supremes – Touch
29) Jerry Butler – Baby I’ma Want You
30) The Marvelettes – So I Can Love You
31) The Royalettes – He Is My Man
32) Ben Aiken – Stay Together Young Lovers