As I mentioned in another post, I recently got the Atlntic records box set, and have been on a real kick for classic soul music lately. I'm curious what some of your favorite soul albums/songs are.

I've found that I really like a guy named Joe Tex. His songs really stand out among the 200 songs in the Atlantic set. That's saying something ssince he is up against Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett.

Joe Tex is great and I think the Atlantic box is the benchmark for doing such a project right. I bought it when it originally came out on vinyl and it's been a treasured part of my collection since.

My knee-jerk reaction rather than producing a shopping list of soul albums and songs would be to suggest the excellent The Complete Stax-Volt Singles: 1959-1968 box, though at 9 discs it's a bit of budget buster.

Atlantic's four-disc Otis Redding box is not only great in terms of completely covering his short studio career, but has some terrific live stuff as well.

Scratching just a little deeper, in the early 90s I came across a 2-CD set of New Orleans R&B legend Dave Bartholomew called The Genius of Dave Bartholomew that really got me started seeking out more recordings from the Imperial and Aladdin labels. They were home to artists like Fats Domino, T-Bone Walker, The Spiders, Earl King and many more. A lot of their early sides were produced almost exclusively for the "race record" market and cross over with the jump blues and boogie woogie for which I have a great personal affinity. It's a great sound and if you like the Stax sound, a lot of must-hear music.

Great topic, klt. K-Bee should weigh on this, I think.

Now Playing: "'88 AKA Come Down on Me" Lemon Jelly streaming on WOXY

oh man, I've looked at that complete Stax records box so many times when I'm shopping for music. I hope that someday soon I will have the extra cash to buy it, but at that price i doubt it. I think that may be my most desired box set aside from the more resonably priced phil spector box and motown box.

Thanks for all the other suggestions. I'll be visiting some decent record stores this weekend, and will keep an eye out.

quote:

Great topic, klt. K-Bee should weigh on this, I think.

Haha!! This IS my kinda topic!!
It's very hard for me to list my favs though, since this kinda music makes out a substantial amount of my record collection.
Box sets are usually a pretty good way to get into a certain musical style but I must admit I never really look into them too much. I have way too much of the stuff on vinyl already. Often Box set are extremely pricy too and not really for the casual listener.
As we all know original vinyl albums may be hard to find, depending on your geographical location but thankfully many labels are putting cd remasters out of many a great classic nowadays. It sure does make it easier.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of 80s soul but since i'm most likely the only on the board into that, i'll leave it alone for now.
Turning to the 70s instead, these are some of the essential items of the decade that every soul fan should have in their collection. The choices may be obvious but normally there's a reason for their "classic" status.

Isaac Hays - Shaft soundtrack
Isaac Hays - Hot Buttered Soul
Donny Hathaway - Extensions Of A Man
Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace
Aretha Franklin - Young Gifted & Black

The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
The Temptations - All Directions
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get In On
Leon Ware - Musical Massage

Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly - Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly (1977 album)
The O'jays - Backstabbers
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly soundtrack
Isley Brothers - Harvest For The World
Phyllis Hyman - You Know How To Love Me

Obviously I could go on for days about this
The list cold be endless.

A word of advice about compilations though....be very careful!! Often, the tracks are edited into hell and makes a mockery out of the original vinyl full lenghts versions. In general, UK made compilations are better than stateside ones.

That's it for now....I'll be back!

A few of my favorite soul albums. This is just the 1960s-70s records.

Stevie Wonder- "Innversions"
"Fulfillingness First Finale"
"Songs in the Key of Life"
Marvin Gaye- "What's Going On"
"Let's Get It On"
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell- "Greatest Hits"
Al Green- "Let's Get Togather"
"I'm Still in Love with You"
"Call Me"
"Everything's OK"
"I Can't Stop"
Curtis Mayfield- "Superfly"
"Roots"
"New World Order"
Gladys Knight & the Pips- "I Feel A Song"
Maxine Nightingale- "Right Back Where We Started From"
The O'Jays- "Back Stabbers"
The Spinners- "Pick of the Litter"
Aretha Franklin- "Let Me in Your Life" (which contains my favorite soul song of all time, a cover of Stevie Wonder's Until You Come Back To Me.
Four Tops- "Keeper of the Castle"

My favorites also include greatest hits/bests-of comps of the artists above. Some artists I may or may not prefer a certain era or record label hits over another. I also love artists' compilations of Diana Ross (solo & with the Supremes), Smokey Robinson, Isaac Hayes, The Chi-lites, Rufus/Chaka Khan, Bill Withers, The Tempatations, Sly & the Family Stone, The Impressions, Sam Cooke, The Sytlistics, and Otis Redding. Funky but soulful, have to include albums by James Brown and War.

I've bought a load of various artists soul and funk comps from Dusty Groove in the last 5 or 6 years. Some are fabulous imports from the UK with great details on each artist and some are cheap but amazing releases with little to no info on the artists within. Their neo-soul and Afro-funk offerings are pretty nice, too.

The Stax-Volt collections are killer! My dad has all three and I have been slowly burning them. My favorite of all time is Otis Redding. There is a nice collection called "Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding." It is four discs and has some really early stuff, going back before Stax and Atlantic. But the gem of the collection is disc four: 23 live cuts including "My Girl," "Respect," and "A Hard Day's Night!"

Some of my favorites, Although it's basically your standard classic soul albums list:

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand! (not exactly classic soul, but still)
Otis Redding - Otis Blue
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Stevie Wonder - Talking book
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Marvin Gaye - What's Goin On?
Al Green - Call Me
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music

Big Maybelle - Complete Okeh Sessions

Any music fan of any age should own:

Al Green - Greatest Hits
James Brown - 20 All-Time Hits

God damn! I love soul music.

I am surprised, though, to see no mention of Wilson Pickett! Go and pickup the 2-disc comp, it's definitely worth it. It's called A Man and a Half.

I am really into the pre-Motown stuff as well. I would check out anything by:

The Moonglows
The Cadillacs
The Drifters
The Coasters
The Clovers

That's all great stuff.

Also, pretty much anything people have listed here is great stuff, except for maybe Isaac Hayes. Too gimmicky for me. I would also say check out the following:

Lee Dorsey
Percy Sledge
James Carr
Solomon Burke
Sam & Dave
Arthur Alexander

But the motherlode is James Brown. Even sub-par James Brown is great to listen to.

Great thread!!!

--I also endorse the four or five great Stevie Wonder albums, but for some reason I always found Stevie's music really strange. I don't know why, but it struck me as sorta baroque in a way. Good stuff, however.

ALSO: I forgot, somehow! My all-time favorite soulster:

Jackie Wilson!!!

Get it now!

Isaac Hayes "Hot Buttered Soul"
Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"
Sly & the Family Stone "There's a Riot Goin On"

I recently picked up a fantastic comp from the Temptations, Psychedelic Soul. This is a 2 cd set of rock, psych, and funk soul songs the band released between 1968 and 1973. "Psychedelic Shack" and "Ball of Confusion" are here in previously unreleased extended versions. Other great tunes on the discs include "Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite the World)", "Funky Music Sho' Nuff Turns Me On", "Cloud Nine" "Message from a Black Man", "Don't Let the Joneses Get You Down" and the extended version of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". What an amazing amount of quality soul music this band turned out and here's the essential package for exploring their output for the late '60s- early '70s.

Sounds like a very good Temptations compilation, crazed
In general I prefer their Norman Whitfield produced period as opposed to the more polished 60s Motown stuff. They became socially aware during those years and moved away from the usual 3 minute song formula and into the more "symphonic" soul style, also made popular by Isaac Hayes.
The early 70s - what an exciting time for soul music!

One of my all-time favorite R&B albums was Keith Sweat's self-titled release Keith Sweat in 1996, which featured the R&B classics "Twisted" and "Nobody".

quote:

Originally posted by Carlito's Way:
One of my all-time favorite R&B albums was Keith Sweat's self-titled release Keith Sweat in 1996, which featured the R&B classics "Twisted" and "Nobody".

Dude, the "Sexual Healing" remix of "Twisted" remains a classic.

Found a recent album, I Believe to My Soul, in the very cheap used album bin- what a great disovery it was. Five artists on this cd- Ann Peebles, Irma Thomas, Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint and Billy Preston. These are all recently recorded songs (covers of the artist's songs from long ago), produced by Joe Henry. These aren't fading gasps by classic soul stars, these are powerful renditions, perhaps better than some of the originals, given the lives that have been lead since the older songs were first issued. My top choices are Mavis Staples' "You Must Have That True Religion", Ann Peebles' "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" and Billy Preston's "As One". I hope Joe Henry produces an album from each of these artists, I'm sure each record would be a welcome addition to any soul collection.

quote:

Originally posted by merqury:

quote:

Originally posted by Carlito's Way:
One of my all-time favorite R&B albums was Keith Sweat's self-titled release Keith Sweat in 1996, which featured the R&B classics "Twisted" and "Nobody".

Dude, the "Sexual Healing" remix of "Twisted" remains a classic.

Keith Sweat wise I'm still gonna go for his 2 first albums.
"Make It Forever" (1987) and "I'll Give All My Love To You" were both new jack swing landmarks and instrumental in moulding the style. I Want Her, Something Just Ain't Right, Don't Stop Your Love, Make U Sweat, Your Love ect. The hits were countless almost, and rightfully so.

Picked up a two-fer reissue recently, Gwen McCrae's Rockin' Chair/Let's Straighten It Out. The 1975 Rockin' Chair album is an excellent mix of R&B and light funk. The title song, "90% of Me Is You", "Move Me Baby" and "It's "Worth the Hurt" are my favorite selections though there's not a poor song here. 1978's Let's Straighten It Out is more hit and miss for me. But the title song is a killer, I wish the energy from it had lasted the rest of the album. I prefer Gwen's cover of "Starting All Over Again" over Mel & Tim's original. Another worthy song here is "Early Morning Love", which reminds me of vintage Gladys Knight. All in all, the reissue is very much worth the price. Not sure if Ms McCrae is still singing these days but it'd be interesting to hear her again (perhaps Joe Henry could work his production magic for her).

Gwen McCrae has a voice like no other and every reissue is higly appreciated.
For later stuff check out Gwen's "Girlfriend's Boyfriend" set on Homegrown (1996) (reissued on Ichiban for the US in 1998)
The title track is soul perfection!

Thanks for the tip on the Gwen McCrae, K-Bee, I'll keep an eye out for that album.

Don't know anything about Andy Lewis (I suspect he's a DJ), but his Billion Pound Project album on Acid Jazz is amazing. It's a mix of soul, funk and 60's beat featuring some old time soul artists such as Keni Burke, Bettye Lavette, Loleatta Holloway and the Exciters. There's a soul/lounge vibe to the album but all the singers put in great performances and I love the two instrumental tunes as well. My top picks: "(Love Is) Alive In My Heart" featuring Keni Burke, "Looking Up, Looking In" vocals by Dave Jay (of the Soul Hooligans) and "See You There" featuring Lynda Laurence.