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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.

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By Larry, October 8, 2015 12:43 pm

Dave Pike

Listen/Download – Dave Pike – Sweet Tater Pie MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, and so then is the Funky16Corners Radio Show,which comes to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to the podcast in iTunes, listening on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

This has been a rough week for music, with the passing of New Orleans drumming giant Smokey Johnson, singer Billy Joe Royal, and then yesterday the news came down that the mighty Dave Pike had slipped the surly bonds of earth.

If you don’t know (though you should) Pike was one of the pioneers of the groovy side of 60s and 70s soul jazz.

He got his start playing straight ahead jazz with Paul Bley in the late 50s, then moving on for an extended period of time playing in the bands of flautist Herbie Mann (who produced today’s selection), an artist that he was similar to in artistic temperament, if not long term commercial success.

Pike was, as a master of the vibes and the marimba, and explorer in musical styles (amplifying his vibes early on in his career), working (like Mann) all manner of world music sounds into his work as well as healthy doses of soul, funk and even pop.

His late 60s/early 70s) work with the Dave Pike Set alongside guitarist Volker Kriegel included groundbreaking soul jazz and rare groove, sought after by DJs and collectors the world over.

The selection I bring you today is a single, which originally appeared on Pike’s 1966 LP ‘Jazz for the Jet Set’, which featured him exclusively on marimba with a group that also included Herbie Hancock making a rare appearance on organ.

Written by Rodgers Grant (who also penned ‘Yeh Yeh’ for Mongo Santamaria, which went on to be a cornerstone of Georgie Fame’s repertoire), ‘Sweet Tater Pie’ (originally waxed by Mongo in ’63)  is a classic bit of hard-charging, dance-floor-ready soul jazz.

Pike manages to rein in the woodier sound of the marimba, and it’s very cool to hear Herbie working it out on the Hammond. Jimmy Lewis’s bass adds a throbbing undercurrent to the proceedings, helping Grady Tate to keep it in the pocket.

If you dig what you hear, I would highly suggest that you head out and find yourselves some of the Dave Pike Set, especially the ‘Infra-Red’ album, the deep track ‘Mathar’, and my personal fave (of which I wish I owned an OG), his 1969 ‘Got the Feelin’ set, which is a classic.

Pike was a master, and continued to play and record until 2010, when ill health forced his retirement.

I hope you dig the sounds, and that you take the opportunity to head out and dig deeper into the music of Dave Pike.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 17, 2015 12:37 pm

The Apollas

Listen/Download – The Apollas – Seven Days MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I must remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this 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 here at the blog.

I first heard today’s selection back in the mid-90s on a great Rhino records comp called ‘Go Girl! Soul Sisters Telling It Like It Is’. I fell in love with the song ‘Seven Days’, but was unable to put my hands on a copy of the 45 (despite a long search) until early this year.

The Apollas were three southern singers, Leola Jiles, Ella Jamerson and Dorothy Ramsey, who did most of their recording (though their earliest sides as the Lovejoys were recorded in NYC with Leiber and Stoller) on the west coast.

They recorded a stellar string of 45s for Loma and Warner Brothers between 1965 and 1968, including the in demand Northern Soul classic ‘Mr. Creator’ in 1967.

Working with songwriter/producer Dick Glasser and a variety of top-shelf arrangers like Gene Page and HB Barnum, the Apollas laid down sweet ballads, dance floor stormers and funky 45s like ‘Seven Days’.

Opening with sharp snare shots, bass and electric piano, there’s great interplay between the lead and backing vocals, with the backup shooting through to the front on occasion.

‘Seven Days’ is the kind of thing that Aretha Franklin could have nailed, but I think it works better in the hands (voices) of a group like the Apollas.

Listen for the lead guitar punch through the mix at about the two-minute mark.

The flipside, ‘Open the Door Fool’ is also very cool.

I hope you dig the sounds, 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, September 15, 2015 1:26 pm

Ollie and the Nightingales

Listen/Download – Ollie and the Nightingales – Girl You Have My Heart Singing MP3

Greetings all.

I have to shout out to my man Kris Holmes, who hipped me to today’s selection when he fell by on his grand tour of the states.

There’s really nothing better than a vinyl session with someone who has excellent taste, and Kris has that in spades.

Ollie and the Nightingales got their start as the gospel group the Dixie Nightingales, and recorded under that name in the late 50s/early 60s for Pepper, Nashboro and Chalice.

They made the transition to secular music with Stax in 1968, providing backing vocals for Sam and Dave and Eddie Floyd, and laying down their own stuff on a handful of singles and an LP between 1968 and 1970 (when lead singer Ollie Hoskins would leave the group and begin recording as ‘Ollie Nightingale’).

‘Girl You Have My Heart Singing’ was the flipside of their first Stax 45, ‘I Got a Sure Thing’ which was a Top 20 R&B hit in April of 1968.

While I dig the A-side, ‘Girl You Have My Heart Singing’ is an absolute killer.

Co-written by Booker T Jones (who also produced the record) and William Bell, the song features deep, rich harmonies and a great lead by Hoskins.

The thing that popped into my mind the very first time I heard this record was that it ‘rocked’. It has a great propulsive feel, driven by the drums, organ, bass and guitar, making it great for the dance floor and catchy as hell.

The short guitar solo at 1:03 is fantastic, and the breakdown at 1:45 makes me wonder if a young Michael McDonald was listening to it when he wrote ‘Taking It To the Streets’.

The group had two more Top 50 R&B hits in 1968 and 1969 before Hoskins left and was replaced by Sir Mack Rice, with the group continuing as the Nightingales.

Ollie Nightingale had a fairly long solo career before passing away in 1997.

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.