Della Reese “Solitary Woman” (ABC 10841-B, 1966) In between the days of Dinah Washington and Dionne Warwick, there spans the remarkable career of Delloreese Early, someone that you definitely know better as Della Reese. In age she’s the perfect generation gap between two transition periods of African American Femme Fatales of song, and today, we…
Category: Soul Song Of The Day
Lorraine Ellison “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” (Mercury 72472-B, 1965)
Lorraine Ellison “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” (Mercury 72472-B, 1965) One of the more forgotten, if not prolific voices from the sweeter side of soul is Lorraine Ellison. Starting in Gospel as many do, she moved to R&B in 1964, and was picked up by Mercury. As a singer-songwriter, although she had some…
Betty Turner “Stand By And Cry” (Liberty 55861-B, 1966)
Betty Turner “Stand By And Cry” (Liberty 55861-B, 1966) Given the top flight production values all of her singles received, one would think that Betty Turner had a really big chance of breaking through to become an accomplished recording start of the West Coast recording scene. Of course, it’s another story of not exactly turning…
Valerie and Nick “Somebody’s Lying On Love” (Glover 3003-B, 1964)
Valerie and Nick “Somebody’s Lying On Love” (Glover 3003-B, 1964) Long before they were the very earthy (Valerie the Virgo, Nick the Taurus) duo reeling off smashes like “Solid” they were newlyweds on the New York recording scene. They were Valerie Simpson and Nickolas Ashford, fresh faced, optimistic and full of harmony and songwriting ideas….
Jackie Moore “Dear John” (Shout 232, 1968)
Jackie Moore “Dear John” (Shout 232, 1968) I’m delighted that the above linked clip gives us a look at a fresh faced 22 year old Jackie Moore debuting her fiery first single for Shout records in 1968. Although it would take her 2 more years to chart with her classic “Precious, Precious” all of the…
The Dells “Open Up My Heart” (Cadet 5657, R&B#5 Pop#51, 1970)
The Dells “Open Up My Heart” (Cadet 5657, R&B#5 Pop#51, 1970) Some of the most underrated men in Soul Music are The Dells. Even during their time of recording, it took them a long laboring 13 years before they scored a significant chart entry. But in that time they crafted some of the most rich…
Mitty Collier “Got To Get Away From It All” (Chess 2050, 1968)
Mitty Collier “Got To Get Away From It All” (Chess 2050, 1968) One of the points of me even writing about soul music is to expand the narrative beyond what is already known and cherished. Today’s post is brought to you by the weird fetish around Nina Simone, which tends to be something of the…
Tammi Terrell “My Heart” (1966 Unreleased, From Cellarful of Motown Volume 2, 2005)
Tammi Terrell “My Heart” (1966 Unreleased, From Cellarful of Motown Volume 2, 2005) It was a little hard to think of a choice for celebrating Tammi Terrell’s 70th Birthday. Surprisingly, although she didn’t have a super huge Solo catalog like a number of her contemporaries, she did record for a healthy portion of the 1960s…
Francine Barker “Don’t You Know Love When You See It” (Columbia 44614, 1968)
Francine Barker “Don’t You Know Love When You See It” (Columbia 44614, 1968) It shouldn’t be surprising that back to back are two birthdays of the two most prominent R&B Duet partners of the late 1960s. And, of course, chances are you know little about their own careers away from their duet partners. Francine Hurd…
Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown “Let’s Go Get Stoned” (From the LP Hold On, We’re Comin’, 1967)
Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown “Let’s Go Get Stoned” (From the LP Hold On, We’re Comin’, 1967) I guess sometimes it’s a bit too easy to come up with posts of the day. There’s a certain “holiday” of sorts being celebrated by a number of folks today, so I thought of some particular “relaxation” classics and…
DJ Larsupreme 