Comments (0)

By Larry, October 18, 2015 10:42 am

Bessie Banks

Listen/Download – Bessie Banks – Go Now MP3

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The record I bring you today is one of those 45s that haunted my want list for years (maybe decades) before I finally bagged a copy.

It’s not that ‘Go Now’ by Bessie Banks is an incredibly expensive record (probably grab-able for around 50 bucks on a good day) but thanks to the fact that it was later made into a hit (their first) by the Moody Blues, and its status as a mod soul classic, there is a high level of competition when copies do come on the market.

I probably could have had myself a copy sooner, had I been willing to throw a pile of money at it, but I don’t always have a pile of money ready to throw (or I may have already thrown it elsewhere…).

That said, the record you see above is proof that me and my money finally found ourselves a copy of this most excellent 45, which is why I can bring it to you fine people today.

Bessie Banks had been performing and recording for a few years before she found herself in a New York studio with none other than the mighty Leiber and Stoller working the board.

The song was written by Larry Banks (Bessie’s husband) and Milton Bennett, and though it is taken at a slightly slower pace, it is immediately evident that the Moody Blues (the early Denny Laine version of the band, not the psychedelic Justin Hayward version) didn’t change much at all.

Banks’ original garnered some airplay and made a small dent on the R&B charts, but was pretty much a done deal (having been released in January 1964) when the Moody Blues cover was released in the US a full year later.

Their version was a much bigger hit, making it into the US Top 20 early in 1965.

Banks’ version was released on two Leiber/Stoller imprints, Tiger and Blue Cat, both with the same excellent flipside, the slow-burning R&B of ‘Sounds Like My Baby’.

Bessie Banks would go on to record a few more 45s during the 60s (for Wand and Verve), and then a few more in the 70s for Volt and Quality.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, October 15, 2015 12:02 pm

The Younghearts

Listen/Download – New Young Hearts – A Little Togetherness MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is finally here, and so then is the Funky16Corners Radio Show. We come to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you can’t be there at airtime you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app or grab yourself an MP3 right here at the blog.

I wanted to close out the week with a bang, so I dipped into my Northern box and pulled out one of my all-time favorites.

The Young Hearts (Younghearts, New Young Hearts) were together for about a decade, releasing records from 1967 to 1977 for a variety of labels like Canterbury, Pick A Hit, Minit, Zea and 20th Century.

The LA-based group, which recorded under the aegis of songwriter/producer Bobby Sanders, hit the R&B charts a number of times between 1968 and 1975, but they are best remembered for their 1967 record, ‘A Little Togetherness’ which became a Northern Soul classic.

The song/record has an interesting history. It was originally recorded and released on the Canterbury label in 1967. The Younghearts went on to record several singles and an album for Minit in 1968, which included a re-recorded, slowed down version of ‘A Little Togetherness’ (as well as a new version of the other big Northern 45 on Canterbury, the Tempos ‘Countdown (Here I Come)’).

Sometime after the Minit recordings, Sanders and the original Younghearts split, with the producer putting together a new group, the New Young Hearts. It was under this name that the 45 you see before you today was released, the catch being, that even though Sanders was using a new name, the version of ‘A Little Togetherness’ was the exact same version that was released on Canterbury three years before!

There’s even another New Young Hearts 45 of ‘A Little Togetherness’, released on the Zea label in 1971, but I can’t say for sure if it’s the same track or a rerecording.

That said, one listen to ‘A Little Togetherness’ will instantly reveal why it became an anthem on the Northern scene.

Opening with chiming guitar and piano, the song soon takes off into the stratosphere with soaring lead and backing vocals and a relentless four-on-the-floor dance beat. The falsetto lead vocal floats along on a brilliant, hook-filled melody, and the when the chorus hits the record shoots to another level entirely.

Like the best Northern Soul, ‘A Little Togetherness’ is packed with drama and dynamic tension that lifts the dancers.

It’s one of those records that I want to play over and over again.

As it is, if you want to get yourself a copy of this work of soulful genius, the Soultown version of ‘A Little Togetherness’ isn’t cheap, but it is usually cheaper than the Canterbury issue, which can go for a couple of hundred dollars.

Until you get that lucky, you can grab yourself this recording and put it on repeat.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, October 13, 2015 1:17 pm

ZZ Hill

Listen/Download – ZZ Hill – Don’t Make Promises (You Can’t Keep) MP3

Greetings all.

There are few things better (for me anyway) than finding a new version of one of my favorite songs.

I have always been a big fan of Tim Hardin’s first few Verve albums, which yielded a number of folk rock standards, like ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, ‘Reason to Believe’ and the original version of today’s selection, ‘Don’t Make Promises (You Can’t Keep)’.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t Hardin’s original that introduced me to the song, but rather a cover version by Rick Nelson.

Then, last year a friend posted the version you see before you today, by southern soul legend Z.Z. Hill, on Facebook, and as is often the case, I set out immediately in search of a copy for my playbox.

Hill is one of those guys that I knew of for years, but never really dug down into his music because he was best known for a kind of blues-inflected soul that was never really my speed.

As it turns out, I should have kept digging.

Hill’s recording of ‘Don’t Make Promises (You Can’t Keep)’ is from 1968, and it features his warm, slightly raspy voice, female backing singers, and a really nice arrangement with enough kick that this record has become a favorite on soul dance floors in the decades since it was first released.

The bass and drums are tight and crisp, pushed along by rhythm guitar, handclaps and just enough strings to give the record a touch of uptown class.

Despite the fact that Hill had been recording for Kent since 1964, he didn’t really start hitting the R&B charts until 1971, after which he had a steady string of hits that lasted until his untimely passing in April of 1984, from injuries suffered in a car accident a few months earlier.

I will certainly be exploring the Z.Z. Hill discography in more depth.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, October 11, 2015 10:23 am

Ladies and Gentlemen, once again, Wayne Cochran!

Listen/Download – Wayne Cochran- Harlem Shuffle MP3

Greetings all.

What say we light us a fire under this week?

Repeated appearances of the mighty (and mightily quoiffed) Wayne Cochran here on the blog, and on the Funky16Corners Radio Show will attest to my admiration for the man and his music.

Cochran was in the first rank of white soul men in the 1960s, making some absolute killers for labels like Mercury, Chess and King, among them legendary sides like the unbeatable ‘Going Back to Miami’.

It was a while back, out digging in the field when I was lucky enough to happen upon the record you see before you today, Cochran’s version of the oft-recorded ‘Harlem Shuffle’.

Originally (and best-ly) done by Bob and Earl – it is impossible to beat that opening fanfare – ‘Harlem Shuffle’ was laid down many times over the years, vocally and instrumentally, by a string of soul and R&B performers.

Cochran waxed his take in 1965, and I’m here to tell you (though you really should pull down the ones and zeros and give it a spin yourself, because who are you going to believe, me or your own ears…) that it is among the best covers of the tune.

First off, Wayne Cochran hit everything like a sledgehammer, and he and his band plow into ‘Harlem Shuffle’ without a lick of mercy. The horns are up front, but it’s all about the bass guitar, which is the real furnace heating things up here.

Wayne himself is at his raw-voiced best, and I don’t doubt that were you to drop the needle on this the dance floor would fill up post haste.

The flip ‘Somebody Please’ is a great slice of JB/Famous Flames-influenced heat.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, October 6, 2015 3:34 pm

Listen/Download – Larry Foster – Funky Belly Pt1 MP3

Listen/Download – Larry Foster – Funky Belly Pt2 MP3

Greetings all.

How about some tasty funk to get us all through the middle of the week?

I first happened upon Larry Foster’s ‘Funky Belly’ after picking up Warren Lee’s New Orleans-made, Meters-backed record of the same name from 1970.

In fact, Foster’s was the third ‘Funky Belly’ I added to my crates, following OD Williams song on the Bar-Bare label.

Though I haven’t ever found any specific information in this regard, the presence of three geographically close 45s with the same title around the same time, makes me think that there was in fact a dance called the “funky belly”, and that funky people on the Gulf Coast of the USA (specifically Mississippi and Louisiana) were doing it.

Foster’s ‘Funky Belly’ features some funky bass, wah wah guitar and pumping combo organ, and a high-tenor vocal by Foster.

Interestingly – and you should jet on over to my man Kris Holmes’ ‘Greenville and Beyond’ site – the Big Beat label was part of a Mississippi-to-Chicago connection covering blues, soul and funk.

While my guess would be that Larry Foster was in fact working in the Miss/LA area, and tapping into the ‘Funky Belly’ thing in the region, it would certainly be interesting if the dance craze (albeit on a very small scale) made its way up to Chitown.

That said, it’s a groovy little record, and I hope you dig it.

I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, October 4, 2015 1:42 pm

Doris Troy

Listen/Download – Doris Troy – Special Care MP3

Greetings all.

In furtherance of getting the week off on the good foot (as it were) I bring you a hot, recent addition to my crates.

Doris Troy is a name that is probably familiar to R&B and soul fans as a one hit wonder for her oft-covered 1963 hit ‘Just One Look’.

By the late 60s, Troy had relocated to the UK where she worked as a backing singer and vocal arranger for groups like the Rolling Stones.

In 1969 Troy met up with George Harrison (via a Billy Preston recording date) and through that meeting was signed to Apple Records.

The self-titled album she made for Apple (released in 1970) was an all-star affair, dipping into the various and sundry heavy friends circulating in and around Harrison and the rest of the Beatles.

The tune I bring you today is Troy’s smoking cover of one of my favorite Buffalo Springfield songs ‘Special Care’.
Recorded with the song’s composer Stephen Stills on guitar and Leon Russell on piano, Troy takes the song and a much more brisk pace than the original, and hearing the vocal delivered by her soulful voice, as opposed to the Springfield’s harmonies (Stills/Neil Young/Richie Furay), makes for an interesting contrast.

I dig the bass (Klaus Voorman) and the horn section too.

All in all a very nice reworking of an already groovy song.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, October 1, 2015 10:37 am

Wee Willie Walker, then and now

Listen/Download – Wee Willie Walker (feat Curtis Salgado) – Help!

Listen/Download – Wee Willie Walker – Ticket To Ride

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 right here at the blog.

I am going to break with tradition today and do something I don’t normally do, which is take the time to hype a new release.

What made me do this, is the release of an outstanding comeback album by Wee Willie Walker.

I first came upon Walker’s music back in the day when I unearthed his sole Goldwax 45, a blinding cover of the Beatles ‘Ticket To Ride’.

Having been in the habit of grabbing any and all Goldwax ish found in the field, I was thrilled times two, first by putting another notch in my Goldwax discography, and second (but really “first”) finding a killer soul 45 formy play box, where it has held a position of honor for years.

Walker got his start singing gospel with the Redemption Harmonizers (alongside songwriter Roosevelt Jamison*), he relocated from his home base in Minnesota to Memphis, where he hooked up with the Goldwax label.

Quinton Claunch recorded a bunch of sides on Walker, but only one ever came out on Goldwax, a few others being leased to Checker in the 60s. Walker went on to record for a variety of labels in the 70s.

His new album, ‘If Nothing Ever Changes’ is an outstanding mix of new songs and well chosen covers (including numbers by Eddie Hinton, the Southside Movement and Calvin Arnold, as well as a wonderful reworking of John Conlee’s old country hit ‘I Don’t Remember Loving You’), with Walker, still in fine voice and backed by an excellent band.

The overall feel is less retro-soul, than a modern offering by a singer with deep roots in the classic era.

The playing and production are first rate, and while the album is filed under ‘blues’, this is a soul outing through and through, with Walker able to wail like back in the day, as well as deliver depth in the quieter moments.

I first posted Walker’s version of ‘Ticket to Ride’ back in 2008, and I’m reposting it today alongside another Beatles cover from the new album, a take on ‘Help!’ in a duet with Curtis Salgado.

Walker and Salgado take the song at a slower pace, stirring in bits of gospel and deep southern soul.

‘If Nothing Ever Changes’ was released by the non-profit Little Village Foundation, and you can pick it up in iTunes, or at Amazon.

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do too.

See you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Composer of ‘That’s How Strong My Love Is’

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 29, 2015 10:57 am

Gene Chandler – Good Times (Constellation)
Eddie Bo – Falling In Love (Seven B)
Mad Lads – No Time Is Better Than Right Now (Volt)
The Valdons – Stop Wait A Minute Girl (Secret Stash)
The De vonns –One- Sided Lover (REDD)
Donald Jenkins & The Delighters -My Lucky Day (Black Beauty)
The Parliament- I Wanna Testify (Revilot)
Witches & Warlocks – Nowhere to Run (Sew City)
Lee Rogers – Go Go Girl (D-Town)
Bobby Byrd – I’m Lonely (Smash)
Jerry O – Funky Four Corners(Boo-Ga-Loo)
The Exciters – The Bag (Loyola)
James & The Incredible Showmen – James Brown Boogaloo (Disco)
Friday Saturday Sunday- Potato Salad (Dig)
Mod Singers & Mod Lads – Let’s Have Some Fun Part 1 (Savern)
Gregory Washington- Pamla Lamour

Listen/Download – Tarik Thornton – To Russia With Love 48MB Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

I have a special treat for you all today!

My man Tarik Thornton – frequent guest mix/Allnighter flyer – has returned to the ones and twos and whipped up a very tasty new mix indeed, entitled ‘To Russia With Love’.

It gets its Bond-ish title as it was originally prepared for the Grooves collective in Russia (see the accompanying interview here).

What you get here is a great selection of upbeat, classic-era soul 45s from one of the genre’s preeminent collectors and spinners. I’ve already added a couple of the selections to my want list, so you get that endorsement as well!

It’s always a gas when I get to pass along one of Tarik’s mixes to y’all, so dig in, dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 27, 2015 9:18 am

Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown

Listen/Download – Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown – Can’t Let You Out Of My Sight MP3

Greetings all.

Welcome to another groovy week here at the Corners.

Though I knew of both Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, it took me a good, long time to finally get a grip on their best stuff.

I owe that eventual success to the motherlode of 45s that arrived at my door more than ten years ago, courtesy of my father-in-law, who came upon the horde at an estate sale.

I spent the better part of a summer – and several ensuing years – working my way through the records, and it was quite an education.

The records had clearly been accumulated by a hoarder, and as a result there was a surprising (and rewarding) variety to the selection. Instead of box after box of the same kind of stuff, there were all kinds of sounds therein, from soul, funk and R&B, to rock, rockabilly, psych and garage.

Among the first wave of records, were a number of 45s by Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, both as a duet, and solo.
They recorded together for Wand in the mid-60s, recording albums in 1965 and 1967, and a bunch of 45s (many of them LP tracks) as well.

A couple of these managed to make it onto the pop and R&B charts.

Today’s selection, ‘Can’t Let You Out of My Sight’ was a minor hit in the Northeast in the summer of 1965.

The 45 that it appeared on was an interesting study in contrasts, with the b-side, the gritty ‘Don’t Go’ penned by Ashford, Simpson and Armstead, and today’s selection written by a pair of Brill Building writers, Helen Miller and Roger Atkins.

‘Can’t Let You Out of My Sight’ is a fast-paced number that opens with chiming piano notes before a chugging rhythm section takes over,moving the dancers out onto the floor.

Pushed along by an odd (but winning) background vocal, Jackson and Brown do a fantastic job trading lines.

The tune walks the pop/soul line so well, that I’m surprised that it wasn’t a much bigger hit, but in the mid-60s, that’s kind of the way things were.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 24, 2015 1:31 pm

The Sound Foundation

Listen/Download – The Sound Foundation – Morning Dew (Walk Me Out In the) MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is finally here, and so I will dole out my periodic reminder that you check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 right here in the archive.

I have, over the years whipped a little funky horn rock on y’all. Small doses and all that, but you know that I have a taste for the brassy stuff from the late 60s, when so many bands in the BST/Chicago mold walked the earth like shiny, loud dinosaurs, stomping on everything in their paths.

I first happened upon the Sound Foundation back in the halcion days of Soulstrut, when the group’s sole LP used to show up in’finds’ posts on the reg. The dark hallways of the attics of the basements of my mind remain littered with album covers first encountered in that forum, so when I happened upon one of the group’s singles in the field, I snapped it up right away.

The Sound Foundation, who apparently came together in Las Vegas recorded for the very interesting, short-lived Smobro label, which (dig the smushed-togetherness of the name) was owned and operated by the Smothers Brothers during the peak of their popularity in the late 60s.

The flipside of this 45 is a very groovy take on Steppenwolf’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’, but it was the other side that really grabbed me.

‘Morning Dew’, written in the early 60s by Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson, was later popularized by Tim Rose and the Grateful Dead, and covered dozens of times by a wide variety of performers.

The Sound Foundation version of the song is a real departure from tradition, taking the dark, post-apocalyptic dirge and turning into an upbeat, funky mover. They even manage to stir a little Sly and the Family Stone into the mix (dig the breakdown around 1:40).

While certainly not outright funk or soul, their version of ‘Morning Dew’ is proof yet again of the constant intersection of styles that was going down between 1967 and 1971, when rock and soul groups were mixing their figurative chocolate and peanut butter together to make something new.

It is very cool, and I hope you dig it, too.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 22, 2015 11:34 am

Listen/Download – Lee Austin (the Burner) – I’m In Love MP3

Greetings all.

I come to you this fine day with one of the weirdest records ever to emerge from the world of James Brown.

Lee Austin, aka ‘The Burner’ was an ex-con, who was brought into the fold by the Godfather as his bodyguard, hairdresser, and last, but not least, recording artist.

Austin recorded a string of singles under the auspices of Brown between 1967 and the late 70s for a variety of JB-associated labels.

Austin’s 1974 cover of Bobby Womack’s ‘I’m In Love’ is, once you sift out all the bizarre audio bric a brac, a very nice performance indeed.

The problem is, I can’t imagine who has the time and energy for so mighty a sifting job.

The record openes with Austin’s orgasmic moans, interrupted by an announcer demanding you “Listen to the story.”

Austin then namechecks some heavies from the JB organizations (Fred Wesley and the JBs, Lyn Collins and Mr Brown himself), and launching into an extended rap.

Once he starts actually singing, you’re all, “Oh…OK, dude can sing.”

But, then, just when things get rolling, the announcer falls by again to let you know that “This record is TOGETHER!”

The thing is, that if Austin had been left alone to just sing the song over what is in essence a nice, smooth arrangement of a great tune, this record might have gone somewhere.

Unfortunately, what you get has the ring of an attention span gone all wonky (on a variety of intoxicants, no doubt) while James Brown tosses everything into the mix but the kitchen sink (and I’ll bet there’s an outtake somewhere where you can hear the sink).

Strange stuff, indeed.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday with something groovy.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 20, 2015 10:42 am

Jo Armstead

Listen/Download – Jo Armstead – I Feel An Urge Coming On MP3

Greetings all.

In furtherance of the idea that one really ought to start the week off with a solid kick in the pants, I bring you this fiery biscuit from the discography of the mighty Jo Armstead.

Miss Armstead has appeared in this space before, with single tracks, in mixes and in many references to her talents as a songwriter.

Getting her start in the ranks of the Ikettes (she’s on ‘I’m Blue’), Armstead went on to record some very tasty singles for her own Giant label, and working as a songsmith, often in collaborations with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

The song I bring you today is perhaps her best loved entry in the Northern Soul sweepstakes.

Released in 1967, ‘I Feel an Urge Coming On’ was a favorite on UK dance floors in haunts like the Golden Torch and the Blackpool Mecca.

It is a fast moving, tuneful groover (arranged by Mike Terry) with a powerful vocal by Armstead, piano (high in the mix), rhythm guitar and tastefully applied strings (as in just enough for added drama, but not so much that things ever get syrupy).

Armstead (who ran Giant with her husband Mel Collins) would release five singles on the label – all killers – in 1967 and 1968.

She went on to write or cowrite tunes for a veritable who’s who of 1960s soul and R&B, including Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, Marie Knight, Ray Charles, Betty Everett, the Apollas, Candy and the Kisses and many, many more.

Though she is loved by soulies the world over, she ought to be much better known.

So dig in (and dance if you are so inclined) and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

____________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.