Shirley Ellis – Soul Time
Miss Shirley Ellis
Listen/Download Shirley Ellis – Soul Time
Greetings all.
It’s that time again, by which I mean time to welcome you to another week here at the Funky16Corners, but also, as Miss Shirley Ellis says in today’s selection, it’s “soul time”.
Now, every single day here at Funky16Corners qualifies in some way as soul time, but with the song I bring you today it is explicitly so.
Shirley Ellis was one of the great female soul voices of the classic era and would be memorable if all she ever did was sing the oft-covered ‘The Nitty Gritty’ (1963), or for that matter ‘The Name Game’ (‘Lincoln Lincoln Bo-Bincoln’ etc) (1964) which is probably the song that most people outside of soul fandom know.
Ellis (born Elliston, the name under which she wrote ‘Soul Time’) had a powerful, soulful voice as well as a talent for writing her own material.
Though she is best known for what might be considered ‘novelty’, she managed to imbue those records with actual soul, so much so that even “those” records (especially ‘The Clapping Song’) still get spun with regularity on dance floors.
‘Soul Time’, from 1967 was her last charting hit, making it into the R&B Top 40 (stalling at #67 Pop)*.
The cut is at least to my ears the apex of her catalog, with a distinct flavor that makes it appeal to the Northern Soul crowd (dig the hooks, the vibes and the horns). ‘Soul Time’ has a rousing, propulsive beat and a brief, but anthemic chorus. It’s not hard to imagine the song pulling the dancers out onto the floor.
Ellis pretty much vanishes from the music scene after 1968, at least as a performer, seemingly content top sit back and watch her hits covered by folks like Gladys Knight, Madeline Bell (a killer cover of this very song), Ricardo Ray, Gary Glitter and much later, Southern Culture on the Skids.
I hope you dig (and dance to) the tune, and I’ll see you later in the week.
Keep the faith
Larry
*Other than a reappearance of ‘The Clapping Song’ in the UK Top 100 in 1979
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Themocracy
Another belter!
I recognised this tune straight away and was congratulating myself on how god-damned cool I am, when I realised that it was only because I had heard it in the F16C ‘S.O.S. (Heart in Distress)’ mix way back when and that was blasting out of my mp3 player a few days ago!
Och well, I can congratulate myself for being cool enough to know which area of the interweb to lurk around for top-notch funk’n’soul!
You, sir are a man of taste and distinction!