Almost a set list.

Thanks to everyone who turned up on Good Friday, I hope that you enjoyed yourself, I certainly did. With all of the excitement, I didn’t get a chance to keep a proper note of the order I played tracks in so here is a list of them in no particular order:

Mitty Collier – I Can’t Lose
Jackie Ross – I’ve Got The Skill
The Mirettes – Take Me For A Little While
Ella Fitzgerald – Get Ready
The Reflections – (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet
Barbara Lynn – You Left The Water Running
Thelma Jones – Stronger
The Shirelles – Too Much Of A Good Thing
Betty LaVette – What Condition My Condition Is In
Jessica James and the Outlaws – We’ll Be Making Out
Crampton Sisters – Baby Baby
Baby Washington – Think About The Good Times
Martha Jean Love – How To Succeed In Love (Without Really Trying)
Little Anthony and the Imperials – Gonna Fix You Good (Everytime You’re Bad)
Barbra Mercer – Nobody Loves You Like Me
Lela Martin and the Soul Providers – You Can’t Have Your Cake (And Eat It Too)
Carl Carlton – I Can Feel It
Little Eva – Stand By Me

Pearl Woods – Sippin Sorrow (Charge)

I mentioned this track in my recent purchases write up a while ago but I like it so much that I think it warrants a posting in its own right.

Pearl Woods was born Lily Pearl Woodard on 24th September 1933 in St Matthews, South Carolina and she moved to New York City in 1951. She released her first record in 1956 on Dot and recorded another side for that label before moving on Wall where she released a couple of records.

Sippin Sorrow was released in 1961 and was Pearl’s only single on Charge, it was also had a release on Dawn (anyone care to clear up which release was first?). On it she is backed by Little Richard’s band, the Upsetters. This is a great up beat r&b track with a nice skippy beat and fantastic horns. Pearl clearly feels wronged by her man and warning him that he’ll get his. The vocal performance on this track is very strong, with a nice, slightly slurred delivery, the b side is also excellent.

You'll notice, that I have finally got around to adding label scans to the old posts, sorry for my tardiness.

The very first BlushRadio podcast

Hi and welcome to the first installment of our soul music podcast. I've put together a short selection of back to back tracks from my collection - if you've been to any of our nights over the past few years some of these songs might already be a little familiar, so without further ado here is the tracklist for the first edition:

Bobby Moore's Rhythm Aces - Go Ahead And Burn
For years I started all of my DJing sets with an instrumental. This isn't one, but it feels like it to me with the sax taking up the main melody and the vocals acting more like percussion. The Rhythm Aces were formed by tenor sax player Bobby Moore and many of their singles featured a sax driven dance track like this on on one side and a song featuring the soulful lead vocals of Chico Jenkins. Probably their best known track is 'Searching For My Love', which is a fine example of the latter - in fact following the success of 'Searching' they were credited as 'Bobby Moore's Rhythm Aces featuring Chico' for several records, including this one. 'Go Ahead and Burn' was paired with 'Try My Love Again', a fine vocal track and a good dancer in its own right that really shows of their versatility.

Billy Young - You Left The Water Running
I think this is probably my favourite version of this great standard, which is quite something considering some of the great singers who've recorded it, including James & Bobby Purify, Maurice and Mac, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. In fact, Billy Young was something of a protege of Otis Redding and had previously been recorded on his Jotis label. It's hard for me to pick out exactly what makes this particular take on this tale of broken-hearted yearning stand out for me, there's just something about his phrasing that really makes it hit home.

Blossoms - That's When The Tears Start
Now this is a real stormer. A classic of the girl group sound, with a vocal by the great Darlene Love taking time out from being Phil Spector's secret weapon and of course many years before going on to co-star in the Lethal Weapon films. One of the enduring wonders pop music in general and soul music in particular is how it can turn a story of misery and loneliness into a record as joyful and uplifting as this. A little slice of magic, and part of the reason we all keep listening I think.

Nella Dodds - You Don't Love Me Anymore
A great lesson in Principle One of record collecting - always listen to the B-side! Pretty much all of the Philly singer's records are much loved and this little gem lives on the flip of her tremendous version of 'Come See About Me'. As atmospheric a song as you could hope to hear, and a very pleasant surprise to me the first time I turned the record over.

Jean Knight - Anyone Can Love Him
Roger gave this cracking little tune a nice write-up recently, so I'll direct a bit further down the blog for more information about it. For me it's the bouncy, melodic bass line that drives this song rather than the funky guitar - but arguing about which is better would be like arguing about whether it's the salt or the vinegar that make salt & vinegar crisps great. It's the potatoes, obviously.

Gwen Stewart - You Took Me For A Fool
A really lovely record, but one I know very little about. Released on Call Me Records from Los Angeles, Gwen Stewart was apparently only 19 when she recorded this beauty. A gorgeous mid-tempo beat ballad, I'd be delighted to hear more about it if anyone can help me out.

Mitty Collier - Pain
Well, what can I say? An amazingly sparse arrangement built around Mitty Collier's towering voice this is yet another song that just oozes atmosphere. With a beat powerful enough to make it a great dancer despite the pretty relaxed tempo, this is an absolute gem.

King Coleman - Down In The Basement
In his own words, Carlton 'King' Coleman is a bald-headed wonder full of lightning and thunder! Well, this storming party tune certainly crackles with energy - and if his voice is more like distant rolling thunder than crashes and booms I'm certainly not complaining. This one just slinks its way along at a lounge-lizard pace with a suitably dirty sounding organ and sax interjecting themselves as and when needed to keep the groove ticking over. And those toys he gets to play with in the basement? I want some.

Raelets - One Room Paradise
A glorious chunk of R&B, only to be expected from the Raelets backed by the Ray Charles Orchestra, really. Attitude to spare.

Johnny Sayles - Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love)
A true classic, and its enduring appeal is easy to understand starting out with a brilliant slow burn of an intro rapidly exploding into a full-on inferno of high-intensity soul. Like many singers who later found recognition through the Northern soul scene, Johnny Sayles released tracks on a whole raft of different labels including Chi-Town, Minit, Mar-V-Lus and this one on St. Lawrence.

Spooners Crowd - Two In The Morning
Well, if this one doesn't let you know it's the end of the show nothing will... As I write this it really is late at night, but but the record captures the feel of the small hours well enough that any time you hear it feels like the middle of the night.

So, I hope you've enjoyed it - let me know what you think.

Ed.

Subscribe to the podcast with iTunes or Download this podcast as mp3

Carl Carlton – I Can Feel It (Back Beat)

Carl Carlton was born in Detroit in 1953. Carl’s early releases on the Lando and Golden World, under the name “Little Carl” Carlton, one presumes to cash in on fellow Detroit sensation, Stevie Wonder. In 68 Carl moved to Houston label Back Beat and released the classic Competition Ain’t Nothing Babe.

I Can Feel It was released in 1970 and is a great upbeat dancer. It starts off with a horn line, before being joined by the vocals and the rest of the instrumentation. There’s a great breakdown midway through, before building to the finale.

Lela Martin and the Soul Providers – You Can't Have Your Cake (And Eat It Too) (Melatone)

This one is pretty rare and it has taken to a couple of years to track down a copy. I have also drawn a blank when trying to find out more about the Lela Martin or this record. All I can tell you is that, this was recorded in LA, Carol King co-produced it and written by William Powell. Lela recorded at least one other single for Melatone and one for Stigers.

The song itself is one minute and forty-eight seconds of stomping soul brilliance. It starts off with a pounding bass line before the up tempo drums, guitar and vibes join in. Lela’s vocals are sweet and the male backing vocalists offer a nice counterbalance.

As I’ve said, this track can be pretty difficult to pick up but it is featured on the excellent Soul Function cd/dvd which is well worth picking up for this track alone.

Unfortunately, I’ve been having a problem with my scanner so I haven’t been able to do the label scans I intended to do. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fix this over the weekend and get the lovely label scans up here for you beautiful people.

Jean Knight – Anyone Can Love Him (Staff)

Jean Knight is, of course, best known for the Stax classic Mr Big Stuff. She was born Jean Caliste in 1943 in Crescent City, New Orleans but changed her name because she thought that people would have trouble pronouncing her last name.

Jean had been performing around New Orleans since her early twenties before being discovered by Huey Meaux and signed to his Tribe and Jet Stream labels. She released a number of singles on these labels throughout the mid-sixties and although these releases were well received within New Orleans none broke through to gain national attention.


Anyone Can Love Him was released in 1966 on Staff, which I believe is a Detroit label that mainly released jazz and gospel (can anyone confirm). It was also released on Tribe, which I would assume that this was the original (local) release but again if anyone can confirm I’d be delighted to hear from you.

The song starts with a rolling guitar line which carries the song and provides most of the rhythm. The sound is very sparse and Jean’s vocals are quite thin and high pitched. Describing it in such a way does the song a great disservice as it has real charm, is very distinctive and after a few listens it really begins to grab you. You can clearly hear the early funk influence of New Orleans in the song without it being an out and out funk track and this song would, therefore, cross over nicely between the soul and funk scenes.

I’ve been playing this record in warm up sets for a couple of years now and it always gets a good reception. This is yet another cheapy and you should have no problems securing a copy for under £10.

Roscoe Robinson – What Makes A Man Do Wrong (Tuff)

Roscoe Robinson was in various gospel outfits, notably The Southern Sons Quartet and the Fairfield Four before going secular. What A Man Do Wrong was his first secular release and just goes to show what a short step it is from the church to the stage.

Released in 1963 on the Tuff label, this is a gritty, gospel tinged affair. It kicks off with a nice guitar lick before being quickly followed by the drums, at this point Roscoe belts out the title of the song before being joined by some great female backing. The rest of the track is pretty basic call and response stuff but done with such vigour that you cannot fail but be moved, both emotionally and physically. I picked this record up blind and it is one of my best blind purchases.

I am going to do some label scans to add to some of the posts over the next week or so, to brighten the place up a bit and because I love looking at them on other people’s sites. I’ll also continue to write about more of my favourite disks, a couple of times a week. I’ve been keeping my postman busy over the last couple of months, so I’ll write about some new purchases but mix that up with some old favourites.

Little Eva – Stand By Me (Amy)

Everyone will be familiar with the Ben E King original of this track but this version is a little less known. Little Eva is of course most famous for recording the The Loco-Motion. She was born Eva Narcissus Boyd in 1943 in Bellhaven, North Carolina and moved to New York to finish her education. Whilst in New York, Eva worked as a maid and babysitter for Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It was through this connection that she came to record the Loco-Motion, although the song was originally intended for Dee Dee Sharpe.


Little Eva’s version of Stand By Me was released in 1965 and was her only release on Amy, as far as I can tell. It is more up beat than the Ben E King version and works well as a mid-paced dancer. Eva puts in a great vocal performance and it builds to a nice finale. There seem to be quite a few copies of this floating around and I do not think that it is particularly collectable, hence you can get a great song at a really reasonable price.

Barbra Mercer – Nobody Loves You Like Me (Golden World)

This is one of my current favourites and a nice cheap one to pick up. I can see why Berry Gordy bought out Golden World because there is a definite Motown vibe to this Detroit stormer. Barbra Mercer offers breathy vocals over a driving beat and some nice piano. I haven’t had the chance to play this one out yet but I am certain to do so on Good Friday.

I’ve found Golden World to be a pretty reliable label and it’s nice and easy to pick up stuff on it. Both the Reflections (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet and Pat Lewis’ Can’t Shake It Loose, will be familiar to many but that doesn’t detract from how great they are.

New Arrivals

Here are a few of the aural delights that have popped through my letter box over the last few weeks.

The Crampton Sisters – Baby Baby

I’ve been after this single for ages and was always getting outbid for it but perseverance won the day and I’ve finally got my grubby hands on it. I first heard this on the Kent compilation Class of 66 and was immediately taken by the oboe, not an instrument you normally associate with soul music. This is a mid-paced dancer of the highest order and I am smitten with the slightly out of tune backing vocals.

O.V. Wright – Love The Way You Love

I first heard about this on Larry Grogan’s excellent Funky 16 Corners blog and had to pick up a copy. I suggest you do likewise, as this is top quality soul with a driving beat and pleading vocals.

Mirettes – Take Me For A Little While

I’ve loved this track for ages but again Larry Grogan prompted me to open my wallet after he wrote about it on his blog. This version knocks seven shades out of the Evie Sands original and is for my money far superior.

Pearl Woods – Sippin Sorrow

This is a top draw rhythm and blues dancer.