The Number One Songs In Heaven

This is an ex-blog

LondonLee — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:18:00 +0000

I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that the time has come to bring down the curtain on this blog. The reason posts have been far less frequent lately hasn't just been because of my newly-minted fatherhood, but also because I've been running out of gas for a while. I've been doing this for over two years now and I think I've said all I can say about old soul records. There are still lots of them out there but I've run out of interesting ways of writing about them. In those 2+ years this blog has been mentioned in USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Guardian (several times) and The Word magazine, and I've averaged around 1700 visits a day which isn't too shabby. When I first started this there were few (if any) mp3 blogs covering vintage soul, now there is Feel It, The Stepfather Of Soul, Awful Thom, Two Minutes of Bliss, Soul Sides and Funky 16 Corners, to serve your listening needs (usually better than me too) – and those are just the ones I know of.

But the good news is I'm not leaving the world of mp3 blogging, another reason for the lack of activity here lately is I've been working on a new blog called "Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop" which is now open for business. It will be very different to this one and I'll probably lose a lot of visitors, but that's OK. One thing I learned doing this is that you shouldn't do what you think will make other people happy. Do your own thing no matter how esoteric it might appear – believe it or not I originally thought not a lot people would be interested in this blog but I did it anyway because no one else was doing it (at least not from an English persective.)

So thanks for all the comments and I hope to see you all at the new digs. I can't think of a classier or more beautiful way to go out than with this tune.

[Download]
Kiss And Say Goodbye - Manhattans

Bigmouth Strikes Again

LondonLee — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:33:00 +0000

Three years after her brilliant first album, Amy Winehouse finally stopped drinking long enough to produce the follow-up "Back To Black." I was worried that she might have shot her bolt with her debut but the new album is well up to that standard. She's mostly dropped the smokey Jazz vibes of the previous album in favour of classic soul, R&B, and 60s Girl Group stylings, and at first it doesn't seem to have much on it that's as head-turning as "Fuck Me Pumps" or "Take The Box" but it's a richer, more mature effort overall - well, as mature as an album with lyrics like "What kind of fuckery is this? You made me miss the Slick Rick gig" can be. Apart from the terrific single "Rehab" the tune that's floating my boat at the moment is the lovely "Love Is A Losing Game". This is a slinky ballad with Amy turning in a beautiful, melancholy vocal that shows she isn't just some mouthy tart and can be soft and vulnerable when need be. You can hear more of the album at her official site.

Like her debut this hasn't been released in America and there's still no sign that Amy or her records will ever make it over here. So if you're in the USA, CD Wow looks like it has the best deal. Amazon's price is just ridiculous.

[Download]
Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winehouse

Baby Overload

LondonLee — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:29:00 +0000

Sorry to inflict another baby post on you but there's not much else going on in my world right now. These few tunes should keep y'all happy for a while.

Unfortuntely I couldn't find a song called "I Haven't Slept Properly In Weeks" (scroll down to the bottom) but I'll keep looking. Thanks for the plug Chris, my daughter is famous now (thanks to Matthew for the link, too).

[Download]
Baby Mine - Thelma Houston
(From "Talcum Soul Vol 3")

Nothing In This World Like My Baby - The Originals
(From "A Cellarful of Motown Vol 2")

Loveable Girl - James Carr
(From "The Complete Goldwax Records Singles")

Look what I made!

LondonLee — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:05:00 +0000

How did an old git like me help create something so beautiful?

[Download]
New Girl In The Neighborhood - The Attractions

Expectancy

LondonLee — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:59:00 +0000

Apologies for the increasingly erratic nature of posts lately but I do have a very good reason. My wife is expecting a baby this week so my brain isn't exactly able to focus on this blogging lark.

In the meantime however, this track pretty much sums up how I feel right now. A song that's also been done by Baby Washington and Dusty Springfield, but this is my favourite version.

[Download]
I Can't Wait To See My Baby's Face - The Montcellos

Big Chief Smokey

LondonLee — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:57:00 +0000

Smokey Robinson is about the last singer on Motown you'd expect to wade into the waters of racism and social commentary as he was usually more concerned with conflict and strife on the field of romance, but the majestic "Just My Soul Responding" is so good it makes you wonder why he didn't do more stuff like this (I can't recall another song of his like it). Taken from his 1973 solo album "Smokey" - his first since leaving The MIracles - this is a sweeping historical epic of a record, starting out from the angry point of view of a soldier returning home from Vietnam ("though that war he sent me to didn't claim me, if I'm bitter don't blame me") then reaching way back to the appaling treatment of Native Americans and painting a portrait of an America built on blood and injustice. There was something of a "Red Power" vogue at the time and the record sounds like a tribal wardance as written by Curtis Mayfield with a marching beat and chanting courtesy of Tom Bee, the Dakota Sioux leader of the Native American rock band XIT who'd just signed to Motown subsidiary label Rare Earth and put out an album called "Plight Of The Redman." I don't know what he's saying but everytime I play this it rains outside.

The album "Smokey" isn't available anymore (which is a shame as it's very good) but you can get this on "The Solo Anthology"

[Download]
Just My Soul Responding - Smokey Robinson

Boogie Friday

LondonLee — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:56:00 +0000

In the geography of House music history the city of Baltimore probably comes a long way behind such hothouses as Chicago and Detroit, but that was the home of DJ/production team The Basement Boys so named because they did their early recordings in a 4-track studio in their basement. That primitive set-up is apparent on this original mix of "It's Over Now", the 1989 debut single of Ultra Naté (that's her real name) with its basic drum machine which seems to have a hard time keeping the beat properly. There is a more polished, later version on the other side of this 12" which technically I prefer but it doesn't have the charm of this which has the same home-made quality and cheapo drum sound of early Chicago House. It's a whopping 9:53 minutes long too.

This was a fairly big club hit, particularly in Europe, but Naté had her thunder stolen somewhat by another Basement Boys-produced track a year later, Crystal Water's "Gypsy Woman" which was massive and, ironically, a song Waters had originally written for Naté but ended up recording herself because the Boys liked her demo of it.

According to Naté, her producers didn't really know what they were doing at the time and there is a certain experimental, "making it up as we go along" vibe to her debut album "Bluenotes In The Basement" which doesn't always work but is interesting. That's another one that's out of print unfortunately, so is "The Best Remixes, Vol. 1" which has this mix on it, so you're shit out of luck on both counts. Sorry.

[Download]
It's Over Now (Original Classic Mix) - Ultra Naté

Where have all the flowers gone?

LondonLee — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:27:00 +0000

Hot Chocolate were so much of a singles band they didn't get around to making an album until five years after their first hit. It was worth waiting for though. That 1974 debut "Cicero Park" was obviously influenced by the whole Superfly/Shaft sound and the socially-concious attitude of soul music at the time but it still sounded very Hot-Chocolatey - partly down to the really excellent production by Mickie Most. It's not exactly groovy party music though. The album included the moody singles "Emma" (suicide!) and "Brother Louie" (racism!) and the title track is even heavier with it's murky groove and dark lyrics. There's me thinking "Cicero Park" is probably some patch of grass on a council estate but for Errol Brown it's a metaphor for the death of love and hope. For someone who wrote such snappy tunes he sure could be a miserable bastard.

Needless to say this great album is out print but this track is included on "The Essential Collection" along with another cut, "Could Have Been Born In The Ghetto."

[Download]
Cicero Park - Hot Chocolate

Five years ago today

LondonLee — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:52:00 +0000

I know today is a day for solemn remembrance and there's plenty of that to go around. But sadly when I think of 9/11 now a lot of what comes to mind is how Bush and his party have exploited 9/11 for their own ends - and continue to do so again and again. Who would have thought five years ago when the country and the world came together how divided and poisonous the atmosphere would be today. As Bill Maher said, Bush acts as if "the worst thing that ever happened to us is the best thing that ever happened to him."

So in another act of remembrance let's not forget what he was actually doing at the time.

[Download]
Livin' In Fear - The Bagdads

Gimme Merry

LondonLee — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 14:16:00 +0000

Even though she had other high-profile gigs like being a Raelette and singing on Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends" if Merry Clayton had only done the one thing she'd be assured a place in rock history. That one thing was her extraordinary, hair-raising backing vocals on The Rolling Stones' classic "Gimme Shelter." Clayton was supposedly pregnant when she sang on the record and there's a story going around that she put so much effort and emotion into her intense performance she had a miscarriage when she got home afterwards. Personally that sounds like an urban legend to me but I've read it in a few places.

Merry recorded her own version of " Gimme Shelter" and an album of the same name in 1970. That version is really tremendous but it's popped up on a few other blogs before so I've chosen a couple of other tasty cuts. "Good Girls" is a swinging funky soul number with punchy horns and organ playing by none other than Billy Preston. "I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away" is a big ballad Merry co-wrote with Preston. This is a dramatic and grand number that gives Merry the chance to really show off her vocal chops as well as her Gospel roots (her father was a Baptist minister) with the big, emotional ending.

The "Gimme Shelter" album is out of print unfortunately (as are the other four solo albums Merry released in the 70s) but it's well worth looking out for.

[Download]
Good Girls - Merry Clayton
I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away - Merry Clayton

Agony Aunt

LondonLee — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:03:00 +0000

Dear Martha,

I'd like to know how to succeed in love without really trying. What should I do?

Yours Sincerely,

Unlucky In Love
New York

[Download]
How To Succeed In Love - Martha Jean Love

Johnny Be Good

LondonLee — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:13:00 +0000

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Johnny Nash was either Jamaican or English (I used to) but in fact he's from Texas and had pop and R&B hits in the 50s and 60s before he discovered the reggae music that made him a big star. It was while on a promotional trip to Jamaica in 1967 that fell in love with the skanking riddims coming out of the island and recorded a few reggae singles of his own. Then he met a young chap by the name of Bob Marley who he signed to his own JAD record label and covered a song he had written called "Stir It Up" which was a big UK hit and Marley's first taste of international success. That and a few other Marley songs ended up on Nash's classic 1972 album "I Can See Clearly Now" where he was backed by Bob and The Wailers. The title track was another monster hit of course, and while most of the album is reggae-flavoured, "Ohh Baby You Been Good To Me" (written by Nash) shows his American R&B roots. The sleevenotes describe this as sounding like "if Motown opened a branch in Kingston" and while you can still have a good skank to its squelchy beat the punchy horns and backing vocals give it more of a "soul" feel which is very nice indeed.

[Download]
Ooh Baby You Been Good To Me - Johnny Nash

Boogie Friday

LondonLee — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:17:00 +0000

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons were massive in the 1960s with a string of hits like "Sherry" and "Walk Like A Man" and though they didn't do as well in the 70s I think they made some of their best records then like "The Night" "Silver Star" and this solo beauty from Valli. Taken from his his 1975 album "Closeup" "Swearin' To God" is a gorgeous piece of uptown disco music with sweeping strings and big helpings of waka-waka guitar. It's even greater in this 10-minute album version which was released at the time on one of the very first 12" singles (some think the white label promo was the first 12" ever). Valli may be an unlikely disco singer but his shiny falsetto voice fits in nicely with the glittery surroundings, the backing vocals by Pattie Austin and Clydie King make it sound extra sweet. This was produced and written by Bob Crewe who had also been behind most of the Four Seasons 60s hits and (take note, trivia fans) co-wrote Labelle's "Lady Marmalade".

Sadly this long version isn't available anywhere at the moment, copies of the 12" go for rather large sums of money and "Closeup" isn't in print anymore, though old copies of that can be found without too much bother.

[Download]
Swearin' To God - Frankie Valli

Jean Goes To My Head

LondonLee — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:53:00 +0000

Jean Carne started her career as a singer in her husband's jazz fusion band in the early 70s. She also started out without an "e" on the end of her surname and was known as plain ol' Jean Carn until she signed with Motown in the 1980s. Other gigs she had early on were singing on Earth, Wind & Fire's first couple of albums and live work with none other than Duke Ellington (she was the last vocalist to work with him before he died.) Following stints with jazz-funkers Norman Connors and George Duke she was signed to Philadelphia International in 1977, but despite recording three terrific albums for the label she didn't have much success. "Don't Let It Go To Your Head" came from her 1978 album "Happy To Be With You" and is one of those songs that I've known so well for so long I always assumed it was a big hit but apparently it only made #54 on the R&B charts. Why this didn't cause a mad rush to the record stores at the time is beyond me. This is a sublime Gamble & Huff song, beautifully produced and arranged (as always) and Jean's vocal is fabulous, very soulful and with a loose expressiveness that shows off her jazz background.

"Happy To Be With You" is available on a two-fer CD along with her self-titled PIR debut.

[Download]
Don't Let It Go To Your Head - Jean Carn

Boogie Friday's Greatest Hits

LondonLee — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:24:00 +0000

Sorry, but I'm in re-runs again today. I'm not short of new music, just the time to write about it. But this here's a beauty worth doing again, one of the greatest science fiction disco records ever, in its even more fabulous 12" version. As originally posted back in August 2004:

Though this might be a very silly song it's an utterly sublime record. If you think this sounds like Chic (with a Euro flavour) then you'd be right; this was written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers at the time when everything they touched turned to gold, producing records for Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Debbie Harry, and apparently an album for Johnny Mathis which has never been released. Sheila herself was a French chanteuse who had a number of French pop hits in the 1960s in the groovy yeh-yeh style but I've no idea how she ended up working with Chic. I'm glad she did though, this is one of their best productions with that distinctive Chic guitar riffing and a terrific spacey piano sound that shimmers like a glitterball at Studio 54. I've owned a copy of this since it came out in 1979 and always thought her name was Sheila B. Devotion but have only just realized that it's actually credited to Sheila and B. Devotion (which apparently stands for The Black Devotion, the three guys singing behind her). You learn something new every day (and I should look closer at record sleeves in future). This wasn't a hit in the US but it got to #18 in the UK. I guess we're more open to strange French women in silver jump suits singing songs about spacemen.

The above picture is from the original video which you can watch at this terrific Chic tribute site (plus a whole shitload of other Chic-related clips.) You really should go see it, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

[Download]
Spacer - Sheila & B. Devotion