The Best Soul Albums of the '60s

Jerry Wexler took her to FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and the session collapsed in a brawl after a single day, so the rest was finished in New York with the same players flown up. Her Respect rewires an Otis Redding song into a demand, spelling the letters out, and King Curtis answers with a tenor solo that never settles down. Spotify's only copy runs fourteen tracks against the original eleven.

Cut in roughly twenty-four hours at the Stax studio on McLemore Avenue, with a break in the middle so the house band could play its club dates, and three Sam Cooke songs on it because Cooke had died that winter. I've Been Loving You Too Long is the one: Steve Cropper answering every line, Redding singing behind the beat on purpose.

Four tracks in forty-five minutes, put out on Stax's Enterprise imprint after the Atlantic split stripped the label of its own back catalogue and Al Bell ordered records made fast. By The Time I Get To Phoenix opens with an eight-minute spoken sermon before the Bar-Kays arrive, and the Jimmy Webb song underneath turns out to carry the weight.

Eric Clapton played the guitar part on Good to Me as I Am to You, uncredited on the original sleeve, which tells you how loose Atlantic sessions had become by 1968. Ain't No Way was written by her sister Carolyn, and Cissy Houston's soprano floats above the lead like a second conscience. Spotify carries only the expanded Lady Soul (With Bonus Selections).

Recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis with Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin producing, though Springfield was intimidated enough by the room that most of her vocals were finished later in New York. Son of a Preacher Man had been written for Aretha Franklin first. Spotify's only unpadded edition is the 1969 mono, so that is what this links.

Curtis Mayfield wrote everything here and Johnny Pate scored the horns, working out of Chicago for ABC-Paramount rather than any southern studio. People Get Ready runs a gospel train metaphor over a guitar figure that hardly moves, and it was adopted as an unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement. Three voices, one guitar, no fat anywhere on it.

Volt put this out at the end of 1966 and the sleeve promised a dictionary, which is nearer the truth than most concept gimmicks get. Try a Little Tenderness was a 1932 pop ballad that Bing Crosby had crooned; here it starts almost motionless and ends with Al Jackson Jr. doubling the tempo while Redding shouts himself hoarse.

Three nights in an RCA studio in Hollywood in February 1963, with a teenage Billy Preston at the organ, made more like a private record than a hit vehicle. Mean Old World sits at the bottom of Cooke's range and stays there — no strings, no chorus, nothing to hide behind. Border case: blues singing at least as much as soul.

ABC-Paramount let him make it against the label's own commercial judgement, and Sid Feller assembled the country repertoire. I Can't Stop Loving You, a Don Gibson song, spent five weeks at number one on the pop chart. Border case: country-pop as much as soul. Spotify's one album-typed edition pairs Volumes 1 and 2, both 1962; standalone Volume 1 entries are filed as compilations.

Signed to Atlantic and lent out to Stax, which is why the Memphis house band backs them while the paperwork went north. Isaac Hayes and David Porter wrote and produced the lot, including Hold On, I'm Comin', whose title came out of Porter yelling it from the toilet. Two men shouting over each other and a horn line that will not sit down.

A B-side thrown together at the end of somebody else's session, with Booker T. Jones seventeen years old and Lewie Steinberg still on bass before Duck Dunn arrived. Green Onions is twelve bars, a Hammond organ and Steve Cropper answering in single notes; Al Jackson Jr. plays so little it barely counts. Border case: an instrumental record on a singers' list.

Norman Whitfield rebuilt the group around Dennis Edwards after David Ruffin was fired, passed the leads around all five men, and won Motown its first Grammy with the title song. Runaway Child, Running Wild spends nine minutes on wah-wah guitar, congas and a frightened kid's monologue. The only Motown entry here, because the label's singles belong to the neighbouring list.

Half of it was cut at Stax in Memphis and half at FAME in Muscle Shoals, which is why the record swings two slightly different ways across twelve tracks. Land of 1000 Dances, a Chris Kenner song, reached number six on the pop chart and stayed his highest placing; the shouted count-off at the front is four of the best seconds in soul.

Chess sent her to FAME in Muscle Shoals with Rick Hall producing, hoping southern horns would restart a career heroin had nearly ended. I'd Rather Go Blind is credited to Ellington Jordan and Billy Foster; James always said she wrote it with Jordan and put another name on the paperwork. She sings it almost quietly, which is the whole trick.

Atlantic marketed him as the King of Rock 'n Soul, and Jerry Wexler later called him the best soul singer he ever recorded, which from Wexler is a large claim. Cry to Me was written and produced by Bert Berns over a slow Latin shuffle, and Burke leaves so much room between phrases that the band sounds like it is waiting for permission.

Charles Stepney arranged and Bobby Miller produced for Cadet, the Chess subsidiary, handing a Chicago vocal group formed in the early fifties an entire second career. Stay In My Corner runs past six minutes in this re-recorded version and topped the R&B chart, Marvin Junior's baritone and Johnny Carter's falsetto passing the same line back and forth.

Riley Hampton wrote the string charts for Argo, a Chess subsidiary, converting a Chicago R&B shouter into a torch singer more or less overnight. At Last was a 1941 Glenn Miller number by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren before she claimed it. Border case: half standards record, half soul. Spotify's copy runs fourteen tracks with six tagged single versions, and no plain LP exists there.

New Orleans gets one seat on this list and Dorsey takes it, singing material Allen Toussaint wrote and produced for the Amy label while keeping his day job in a body shop. Get Out of My Life, Woman rides a drum pattern that hip-hop producers later stripped for parts. Spotify files the record as Ride Your Pony - Get Out Of My Life Woman.