Of the lot here, I really like Keni Stevens, a British soulster of distinctive style and voice who never made it big. I previously posted my favourite song of his, 24-7-365 (download it here).  Somehow he was not marketable because he was not sufficiently upbeat. Soul lost a fine artist, who released only three albums.

A cursory listen to Charlie Singleton’s track will doubtless cause the savvy listener to call to mind Cameo’s 1985 hit Single Life. Singleton was the guitarist of Cameo until the Single Life album. So all he’s doing is to rip off himself. I hear that lately he’s been performing with Cameo again.

Three songs featured here have a tangential link: Mica Paris and Paul Johnson (the latter featured also on Any Major Soul 1986-87) perform a song from Mica’s 1988 debut album. Another singer who duetted with Paris on the album was the greatly gifted Will Downing, featured here with a track from his eponymously titled debut album. And the gorgeous song here by Al Jarrreau from 1989 originally appeared on Mica Paris’ debut.

This mix features a slate of new artists, but also a few singers in the twilight of their careers. Shortly after releasing his Take It To The Streets album, on which the lovely Doo Be Down appeared, Curtis Mayfield suffered the accident that paralysed him. Johnnie Taylor had been a Stax headliner in the early 1970s and made the transition to disco. By the 1980s, he was on the fringes of soul music, though he made a brief comeback in 1996, four years before his death at 62.

New York-born Nicole McCloud never made it big, despite creating a minor soul classic with New York Eyes, her duet with Timmy Thomas (which featured on the New York City Mix Vol. 2). Her  1989 album Rock The House, a mostly poorly produced effort, was Nicole’s second. She released two more, in 1996 and 2002.

TRACKLISTING
1. Womack & Womack – Teardrops
2. Johnnie Taylor – You Knocked My Heart Out Of Line
3. Al Jarreau – So Good
4. Curtis Mayfield – Do Be Down
5. Teddy Pendergrass – 2 A.M.
6. Chuckii Booker – Turned Away
7. BeBe & CeCe Winans - Lost Without You
8. Mica Paris & Paul Johnson – Words Into Action
9. Keni Stevens – Hurt This Way
10. Maze featuring Frankie Beverley – Can’t Get Over You
11. Charlie Singleton – Good Bad Ugly
12. Will Downing – That Good Morning Love
13. Anita Baker – Lead Me Into Love
14. Regina Belle – It Doesn’t Hurt Anymore
15. Brenda Russell – Piano In The Dark
16. Narada Michael Walden – I Belong
17. Nicole - So Lost Without Your Love

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Any Major Soul 1970-71
Any Major Soul 1972-73
Any Major Soul 1974-75
Any Major Soul 1976-77
Any Major Soul 1978-79
Any Major Soul 1980-81
Any Major Soul 1982-83
Any Major Soul 1984-85
Any Major Soul 1986-87

As the mid-1980s turned into the late-’80s, the Quiet Storm sound, invented by Smokey Robinson and perfected by Luther Vandross, became the genre’s standard. When it was good, it really was good. People like Freddy Jackson, Anita Baker and Jeffrey Osborne were turning out some great music of that type (perhaps even the best); but when Michael Fucking Bolton started to muscle in on it, and Peabo Bryson sang MFB covers, Quiet Storm had to go (even if it had to be replaced by New Jack Swing and the soul-free wailers Boyz II Men). In any case, this mix represents much more than Quiet Storm material.

Southern Soul man Marvin Sease is in a rather restrained mood here. His surname rhymes with an adjective that would accurately describe the general gist of his lyrics (I certainly do endorse the title of his rather good 2001 album, A Woman Would Rather Be Licked). Here, however, he is not proposing the reciprocal performance of lewd acts, but old-fashioned marriage. Success took long to come to Sease: by the time he made his breakthrough as a solo artist in 1986, he already was 40.

One of my all-time favourite soul songs is on this mix, Tashan’s Ooh We Baby. Tashan (pronounced Tay-shon), who was signed on Def Jam, was received well critically, but never broke through commercially. It’s a pity; his 1986 album Chasing A Dream is one of the finest soul albums of the 1980s. The singer, born Thomas Jerome Pearse, is still performing, apparently releasing a new album this year.

Another unusually named singer here is Sherrick, who had a UK hit in 1987 with the excellent Just Call (which is on Any Major 80s Soul Vol 1) . The song featured here, Baby I’m Real, is a cover of the song by The Originals (I’ve always wanted to write that) and appeared on the same LP as Just Call. Sherrick evidently styled his look on DeBarge: dainty moustache and oiled hair just this side of the jheri curl. Like DeBarge, Sherrick (born Lamont Smith) had recorded on Motown, as the singer of the clumsily-named Kagny & the Dirty Rats; in fact, he was discovered by Berry Gordy’s wife Raynoma. His only solo LP, as far as I can ascertain, was released on Warner Brothers. Sadly, Sherrick died in 1999 at 41, just as he was beginning to record new songs.

It’s an injustice that English soul singer Paul Johnson did not have much success. His song When Love Comes Calling should be a soul classic. That and Half A World Away were produced by fellow UK soulster Junior Giscombe (Mama Used To Say). Johnson, who had a mean falsetto, had previously been a singer with the group Paradise. He later duetted with Mica Paris on her debut LP and released a second album in 1989. He has a Facegroup group, on which he writes: “My life is now somewhat removed from the music industry. I am head of a department in an inner city college where I work with young people and adults who despite very difficult circumstances are attempting to improve their lives through accessing education.”

I trust that nobody is going to confuse Shirley Jones with the mom of the Partridge Family. This Shirley Jones was one of the fabulous Jones Girls (who featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79 and 1980-81). I think that Shirley’s 1986 album, Always In The Mood, was her only solo effort. Do You Get Enough Love is the LP’s stand-out track, and topped the R&B charts. Apparently Jones took an extended break from recording after that to raise her son. She still performs on stage (find her on MySpace)

Shirley Jones’ MySpace page reveals that she has lately shared a stage with fellow Philly star Jean Carne (who added the ‘e’ to her name for reasons of numerology in the 1980s). Born in 1947 as Sarah Jean Perkins (Carne is her married name), she has had a long career, starting in the early 1970s — including a stint as female lead on Earth Wind & Fire’s first two albums — and reaching its zenith on Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International label (she featured on Any Major Soul 1978-79). Closer Than Close topped the R&B charts, but further commercial success eluded her. Carne is probably one of very few soul singers fluent in Russian.

Chicago-born Miki Howard launched her career with her Come Share My Love album, which included the hit Imagination. The daughter of gospel singers stepped out with the late Gerald Levert for a while, and played Billie Holiday in Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X. She had some success until the mid-1990s, when she retired from recording and became a radio DJ in Atlanta instead. She came out of retirement in the early 2000s and now performs as a jazz singer.

Prince Phillip Mitchell is better known as a successful songwriter than as a singer. He started his career as a teenage member of The Premiers and The Checkmates in the late 1950s. Like Jean Carn, in the ’70s he sang on Norman Connors records. His solo LPs made little impact, and in 1979 he withdrew from recording, reappearing briefly in 1986 with the rather good Devastation LP. He seems like a great guy with a good story. Check out this 2001 interview.

TRACKLISTING
1. Maze featuring Frankie Beverley – Before I Let Go (live)
2. Alexander O’Neal & Cherelle – Never Knew Love Like This
3. Force M.D.’s – Love Is A House
4. Sherrick - Baby I’m For Real
5. Marvin Sease – Let’s Get Married Today
6. Jean Carne – Closer Than Close
7. Tashan - Ooh We Baby
8. Freddie Jackson – Have You Ever Loved Somebody
9. Shirley Jones – Do You Get Enough Love
10. Kashif & Meli’sa Morgan – Love Changes
11. Jeffrey Osborne – You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song)
12. Luther Vandross feat Gregory Hines – There’s Nothing Better Than Love
13. Miki Howard – Come Share My Love
14. Paul Johnson – Half A World Away
15. The Winans feat Anita Baker – Ain’t No Need To Worry (12″ version)
16. Prince Phillip Mitchell – I Taught Her Everything

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The next Any Major Soul will cover the years 1988-89. I don’t think that I have enough quality material to continue this series into the 1990s (though I might make a couple of 90s soul comps. Should I? You tell me). The series started with the years 1970-71. On reflection, I regret not starting it with the 1960s. So that might be an option for the future. Again, you tell me whether I should go in that direction.

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More ’70s Soul

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This mix should persuade those who believe that soul music was dying by the mid-1980s of their error. There is much that’s great on this mix, and among tracks that did not make the cut.

Some of the songs are surprising. Cameo are more usually associated with funk and camp codpieces, not deep soul music as this duet between Larry Blackmon and Barbara Mitchell of Hi Inergy (who featured on Any Major Soul 1976-77). Denise LaSalle, during the time covered by this mix, had a hit with the awful Don’t Mess With My Toot Toot; the song here, an old-fashioned southern soul number, preceded that atrocity  by a year. And those who associate Amii Stewart only with thumping Euro disco will hear another side to the long-legged Washington-born and Italy-based singer. And if there has been a perception that Deniece Williams had sold out to pop with Johnny Mathis duets and Let’s Hear It For The Boy, Black Butterfly (from the same album on which the latter appeared on) will dispel that notion.

The 1980s saw much collaboration and crossing over between jazz fusion and soul. We saw this on the Any Major Soul 1980-81 mix, on which the great Grady Tate provided vocals for Grover Washington. Likewise, here Roberta Flack guests with Japanese saxman Sadao Watanabe on the very lovely Here’s To Love. Likewise Bobby Womack guests on Crusaders’ saxophonist Wilton Felder’s cumbersomely titled but gorgeous (No Matter How High I Get) I’ll Still Be Looking Up You. Womack, who had previously sung on Felder’s Inherit The Wind, was accompanied by Alltrinna Grayson. Grayson was discovered by Womack while singing in a burger joint; when Patti LaBelle dropped out of Womack’s tour, he roped in Grayson (her vocals here suggest that she was an astute replacement for LaBelle).

Bernard Wright, like his childhood friend Tom Browne, had a jazz-funk background and recorded on Dave Grusin’s GRP label, though Mr Wright, on which the featured song appeared, was released on EMI subsidiary Manhattan.

Paris L. Holley is the son of a bandleader for Billie Holliday, and recorded in Chicago, apparently only this one single — but what a magnificent single! Google reveals that there is a music producer and web developer of that name, but I have no idea if that’s the same person.

A few veterans from the 1970s were making comebacks: The Intruders had been recording since 1961, though their breakthrough came only in 1968. After success through the 1970s, two of the trio left to become Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the other member, Eugene Daugherty, became a truck driver. In 1984, he left the road to reform The Intruders with a new line-up, and scored a hit with Who Do You Love. The Spinners went back even further, when as the Domingos they shared the stage with the Four Ames, who’d become the Four Tops. After a stint with Motown and various personnel changes, the Spinners enjoyed their most successful period in the 1970s. Their last big chart hit was in 1980.

And Teddy Pendergrass made his comeback with Love Language in 1984, two years after the car crash that left him paralysed. Truth be told, Love Language was mostly inferior by TP’s standards (he’d hit a final high in 1988 with his Joy LP). In My Time is standard ’80s soul crooning fare, but I think TP’s understated vocals are rather touching.

If I had to choose favourites from this set, the contenders would certainly include the two opening tracks, and the Cameo song and Patrice Rushen’s High In Me from her Now album, the tape of which I wore out driving on the Autobahn in 1984. Hear a podcast interview with Rushen at the fine jazz blog Straight No Chaser.

TRACKLISTING
1. Sadao Watanabe & Roberta Flack – Here’s To Love
2. Bill Withers – Oh Yeah
3. Paris - I Choose You
4. Amii Stewart – Friends
5. Alexander O’Neal – A Broken Heart Can Mend
6. Bernard Wright – Just When I Thought You Were Mine
7. Denise LaSalle & Latimore – Right Place Right Time
8. Wilton Felder feat. Bobby Womack & Alltinna Grayson – (No Matter How High I Get) I’ll Still Be Looking Up To You
9. Deniece Williams – Black Butterfly
10. Cameo - I’ll Never Look For Love
11. Patrice Rushen – High In Me
12. The Intruders – Who Do You Love?
13. S.O.S. Band – Just The Way You Like It
14. DeBarge – Time Will Reveal
15. The Spinners – Love Don’t Love Nobody
16. Teddy Pendergrass – In My Time

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’70s Soul

Opening track Time Is appeared on veteran funk group New Birth’s swansong album, I’m Back, a title that proved terminally temporary. Put together in the late 1960s by Harvey Fuqua, New Birth scored a number of R&B hits throughout the ’70s.

The LIVE Band, from New York City, released only one album (on The Sound of Brooklyn label). The title feature here sounds a lot like a Maze song, especially Joy And Pain, with the vocalist doing his best to emulate Frankie Beverley’s phrasing. It would be horribly unfair to call this a pastiche, though. It’s a great track from a fine album.
Gayle Adams represents the Washington D.C. soul scene here. Like so many other artists on this set, her career was relatively short-lived. Perhaps best-known for her cover of the Four Tops’ Baby I Need Your Loving or possibly the dance hit Love Fever, both from the album featuring Don’t Jump To Conclusion, the sets one mid-tempo number, with a rather nice guitar solo.

Among the bonus tracks for Any Major Soul 1978-79 were Switch, which included two brothers of the DeBarge clan, Bobby and Tommy. Through their good office the younger siblings, led by El DeBarge, landed a contract with Motown subsidiary Gordy. It would be an injustice if the group’s reputation were to hinge on the chart-fodder Rhythm Of The Night; the group produced some excellent soul music. Check out the acoustic guitar solo on All This Love.

I have been unable to find out anything about Lenard Lidell, or even if he ever released anything else but his 1983 four-track EP, Afternoon Affair, from which the lovely Sweetie Pie comes. It was released by the L.A.-based Jara Records. Likewise, I have no information on The Vosonics, other than that they apparently recorded in Oakland, California.
Beau Williams was going to become a replacement member of the Temptations, but was rejected because at 5’8” he was considered too short. In reparation, of sorts, the Temps appeared on George Benson protégé Williams’ 1983 debut album Stay With Me, on which Elvina appeared. The song is a classic in some Cape Town karaoke bars, invariably causing much distress to singer and listeners when it comes to the high note at 4:20.
Fred Parris was one of doo wop group Five Satins, who recorded the original version of In The Still Of The Night, and he still tours with an incarnation of the group. In the 1980s, he led the now unnumbered Satins on a very nice soul album. Homepage here.
Windjammer, from New Orleans, are probably best remembered for the 1984 hit Tossin’ And Turnin’. Stay is from their self-titled debut, released 1982. Five years earlier, guitarist Ken McLin had ambushed Tito Jackson on a hotel escalator with a Windjammer demo. To his credit, Tito listened to the tape, and two years later that charming man Joe Jackson became their manager.
Like Windjammer, Atlantic Starr were for a while produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a period that produced gems like Silver Shadow and Let The Sun In as well as MOR ballads like Always. Circles preceded that period, with James Anthony Carmichael doing producing duty, with Sharon Bryant still with the Lewis brothers before leaving and replaced with Barbara Weathers.

TRACKLISTING
1. The New Birth – Time Is
2. Vernon Burch – Simply Love
3. The LIVE Band - A Chance For Hope
4. O.T. Sykes - Lonelines Inside Of Me
5. Roberta Flack – I’m The One
6. Gayle Adams – Don’t Jump To Conclusions
7. DeBarge – All This Love
8. Lenard Lidell – Sweetie Pie
9. Beau Williams – Elvina
10. Bloodstone – Go On And Cry
11. Fred Parris and the Satins – Let Me Be The Last One
12. Windjammer – Stay
13. Randy Crawford – In Real Life
14. The Vosonics – Set My Soul On Fire
15. Gwen Guthrie - It Should Have Been You
16. Atlantic Starr – Circles
17. Mtume – Would You Like To Fool Around

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As usual, here are a few bonus tracks of songs I was particularly disappointed to exclude from the mix (those not worried about the customary CD-R time limit of these mixes might want to add the bonus tracks to their playlist).

Randy Crawford appears on the mix; here she gets another outing in duet with Al Jarreau in their gorgeous version of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s Your Precious Love, recorded with the Yellow Jackets at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. The first side of the 1982 album of the festival, Casino Lights, consists of Crawford and Jarreau dueting (plus a rather nice version of Imagine by Crawford solo).
Keni Burke had initial success as one of the Five Stairsteps (Ooh Child) before going solo on George Harrison’s Dark Horse label, where he was produced by Billy Preston. He wasn’t very successful, and so worked as a session bass player for the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, Bill Withers and Ramsey Lewis. In the early 1980s Burke signed with RCA on which he released two albums, including 1982’s excellent Changes, on which the oft-sampled Risin’ To The Top appeared.

Margie Joseph’s career went back to the 1960s, when she was a soul singer in the Aretha mould on Stax and then, under Jerry Wexler’s tutelage, Atlantic. Modest success followed in the 1970s until an album she recorded for Philly’s WMOT Records went unreleased because the label went bankrupt. Joseph briefly taught elocution at a school before making a comeback with her 1982 Knockout album, showing Aretha Franklin that you can do dance records without screaming.
Do I Do was Stevie Wonder’s final masterpiece before drowning himself in the schlock of I Just Called To Say… This is the full, ten-and-a-half-minute workout from his Original Musiquarium collection (which one cannot describe as a “best of” compilation, because a double album could never cover Stevie’s best), with Dizzy Gillespie guesting.
Anita Baker achieved her breakthrough with 1986 outstanding Rapture album. Angel comes from her 1983 debut, which never was much promoted. In fact, Baker was told early in her career to pack in the singing gig because she supposedly had no good voice. Whoever offered that piece of advice was not the brightest light on the A&R switchboard.
Finally, Melba Moore shows that she has lungs: check out that note she holds for 36 seconds at the end of The Other Side Of The Rainbow. And if you think 36 seconds is not very long, listen again.

Al Jarreau & Randy Crawford – Your Precious Love.mp3
Keni Burke – Risin’ To The Top.mp3
Con Funk Shun – Love’s Train.mp3
Womack & Womack – Baby I’m Scared Of You Baby.mp3
Melba Moore – The Other Side Of The Rainbow.mp3
Anita Baker – Angel.mp3
Margie Joseph – Knockout.mp3
Stevie Wonder – Do I Do.mp3

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’70s Soul

I thought that this series would come to a natural end with 1979, but the early 1980s were not as deficient as one might imagine. The difference resides in the volume of quality and the widening chasm between the great and the utterly abject in the ’80s. A lot of bad soul music was created in the ’80s, and the genre has never recovered. The next couple of installments of Any Major Soul will, I hope, highlight the bright spots in a declining genre.

The two opening tracks, by Clyde Milton and Sam Butler, are apparently quite difficult to find. Both are excellent, and would merit being regarded as ’80s soul classics – if they were more widely known outside the Northern Soul scene. Milton’s single sold on eBay for $199 last month; a promo copy of Butler’s single was going for $500 last week. I have not been able to find out anything about either singer.

Ruby Wilson has had a prolific if not necessarily high profile recording career, releasing ten albums. She has performed with the likes of Isaac Hayes and B.B. King, and apparently is a hugely popular on the Memphis circuit. She suffered a mild stroke in June last year, and has recently taken to the stage again. Check her out on Facebook, where visitors can learn how to donate towards her medical bills and order her greatest hits CD.

The Movers provide a fix of South African soul-funk. I can’t recall from which excellent site I got this track from, but I ought to express my appreciation for it.

The late Grover Washington Jr is not an obvious choice for a soul compilation, but Be Mine (Tonight) from the excellent Come Morning album does fit the bill. Grady Tate, a terribly under-appreciated singer, delivers the cool and very sexy vocals. The smash of the cymbal in the midst of the instrumental break at 5:45 is one of my favourite moment in popular music.

Con Funk Shun were founded in 1968 and after 1972 worked as a backing band at Stax. During that time they released a few albums on a local Memphis label. Their breakthrough came when they were signed by Mercury where they released a string of albums of varying quality.

Odyssey are better known for their great disco numbers, such as Native New Yorker and Going Back To My Roots. If You’re Looking For A Way Out is a slow soul song that will melt your heart, telling the story of a break-up from the point of view from a woman who still loves her man but has given up.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Clyde Milton – I’d Rather Leave On My Feet
2. Sam Butler – I Can’t Get Over Loving You
3. Grover Washington Jr feat Grady Tate - Be Mine (Tonight)
4. Maze feat Frankie Beverly – The Look In Your Eyes
5. The Dramatics - You’re The Best Thing In My Life
6. Ruby Wilson - Seeing You Again
7. Lou Rawls - I Go Crazy
8. Odyssey - If You’re Looking For A Way Out
9. The Jones Girls - At Peace With Woman
10. The Movers – Give Me A Day
11. Chaka Khan – Heed The Warning
12. Mtume - So You Wanna Be A Star
13. Tavares - I Don’t Want You Anymore
14. Patrice Rushen – Message In The Music
15. Ebonee Webb – Do Me Right (Everybody Needs A Little Love)
16. Con Funk Shun – All Up To You
17. Peaches & Herb - I Pledge My Love To You
18. Commodores – Lucy

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…

And a few bonus songs which didn’t fit on the CD-R length mix, of which Al Jarreau’s Spain in particular is quite astonishing:

Al Jarreau – Spain.mp3
Earth, Wind & Fire – I Wanna Be With You.mp3
Larry Graham – One In A Million.mp3
The Crusaders feat. Bill Withers – Soul Shadows.mp3
Ray Parker Jr – A Woman Needs Love.mp3
Teena Marie – I Need Your Lovin’.mp3
Stephanie Mills & Teddy Pendergrass -Two Hearts.mp3

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This mix includes two Gospel songs. Invoking God in soul music was nothing new. Curtis Mayfield did it habitually before Al Green swapped his silky sheets for a silky collar. By Gospel was still indentifiable by its distinctive features. The Winans family, who breed like the Wayans but have more talent in their chosen field, led a revolution which appropriated the contemporary soul sound into their songs of praise. The lyrics were usually not as direct as those of traditional Gospel – less of the hollering hallelujahs and summonsing of witnesses, lawrd. Indeed, hear the Winans or Steve Arrington songs without being aware of the lyrics, and you’d have no idea which genre you’re tuning into.

I’m saving the best for last though. The very last. When the bizarrely named Oran ‘Juice’ Jones berates his cheating girlfriend, he cracks wiser than any heartbroken man ever did. He gets vicious (“I gave you things you couldn’t even pronounce”) and funny (“You without me is like…” oh, let’s not give away the punchline). Doesn’t sound as good in print as it does when “Juice” says it. Amusingly, Jones seems to be quite at a loss as to why the girl would cheat on his charming, non-condescending and gender-role sensitive self. The cover of The Rain pretty much sums up our boy Oran’s demeanour vis-a-vis the laydees. Still, cracking song. And, don’t touch that coat!

TRACKLISTING
1. Isley Jasper Isley – Caravan Of Love (1985)
2. Smokey Robinson – Just To See Her (1987)
3. Randy Crawford – Rainy Night In Georgia (1981)
4. Larry Graham – One In A Million You (1980)
5. The Winans feat. Anita Baker – Ain’t No Need To Worry (1987)
6. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly – Before I Let Go (live) (1986)
7. Teddy Pendergrass – Joy (1988)
8. Timmy Thomas & Nicole – New York Eyes (1985)
9. Cameo - A Goodbye (1985)
10. Force M.D.’s – Tender Love (1986)
11. Cheryl Lynn & Luther Vandross – If This World Were Mine (1982)
12. The Temptations - I Wonder Who She’s Seeing Now (1987)
13. Steve Arrington – Feel So Real (12″ version) (1985)
14. Gwen Guthrie – It Should Have Been You (1982)
15. Cherelle & Alexander O’Neal – Saturday Love (1985)
16. Oran ‘Juice’ Jones - The Rain (1986)

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Atlantic Starr are often trivialised as the crooners who gave us the saccharine Always, which was a hit a year after the group’s other big ballad, the excellent adultery anthem Secret Lovers. So it’s easy to forget that they had some fantastic upbeat grooves, none more so than Silver Shadow. Even better than Silver Shadow is the other Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis production included here, Windjammer’s brilliantly urgent Tossin’ And Turnin’ (not to be confused with the Ivy League’s ’60s hit). Mtume’s much sampled Juicy Fruit sounds like it might be a Jam/Lewis production. It’s lyrics are deliciously sexy as the female singer fantasises about the action she and the addressee of the song will get down to. “Candy rain comin’ down, taste you in my mind and spread you all around.” Later she states her hope for being the recipient of cunnilingus. And that sort of smut was played on public radio! Won’t someone think of the children!!!

The cutest song here is Roberta Flack’s collaboration with the Japanese fusion maestro Sadao Watanabe. Flack’s vocals are gently percussive as she sweetly declares her love. Not at all innocent are the machinations of Eugene Wilde, a jheri-curled herbert with a pencil ‘tache in a shiny suit who promises his lady love an avalanche of orgasms (if the Dom Perignon doesn’t get her too drunk) because that’s how he roills as a loverman supreme. It should be awful, but it isn’t. How could it be when you can imagine Marvin Gaye singing it? Anyone who remembers the song will recall the woah-oh–oh-oh (2:34). Talking of Marvin, the collection kicks off with the closer of his final album, a song I rate even higher than Sexual Healing.

Marvin is just one of the veterans included here. You might not buy into jheri-curled Eugene’s braggadoccio, but you believe Bobby Womack’s pangs of conscience as he lusts for his best friend’s woman, and the way Curtis Mayfeld sings his song of love, he’d could have seduced even the Mother Superior among ice queens. It is said that countless babies have been conceived thanks to Luther Vandross’ silky croonings. I bet that Freddie Jackson can claim credit for quite a few 20-somethings as well. I had no space for the full 7-minute version of Rock Me Tonight, but the featured track, a duet with Melba Moore, is excellent in its own right. And probably more difficult to find.

Some songs, like Wilde’s, bring back memories of times, places, people. Sherrick is another one with a pencil ‘tache and too much wet hair gel. And a stupid name. But Just Call, with its great bassline, was one of my anthems of 1987. As was Amii Stewart’s Friends in 1985, a tune quite unlike the Euro disco songs for which she was briefly famous in the late ’70s. Sherrick might have been long forgotten, but does anyone remember Tashan, whose 1987 Chasin’ A Dream album was quite excellent (the ballad Ooh We Baby was a candidate for inclusion)? He never made it big, which is a great pity.

Two tracks here are based on jazz. Benson is joined by the very underrated Patti Austen to deliver a fine cover of King Pleasure’s Moody’s Mood For Love, which was based on a James Moody’s solo. Forget about Amy Winehouse’s uninspiring take, Benson and Austen nail it. Will Downing (labelmate of the excellent British soulstress Mica Paris, on whose 1988 debut he guested) based his A Love Supreme on John Coltrane’s classic jazz recording. Call me stupid, but I prefer Downing’s interpretation. Alas, Downing is now confined to a wheelchair due to a muscle disorder.

TRACKLISTING
1. Marvin Gaye – My Love Is Waiting (1982)
2. Sadao Watanabe & Roberta Flack – Here’s To Love (1984)
3. Phil Upchurch – When And If I Fall In Love (1983)
4. Sherrick - Just Call (1987)
5. Windjammer - Tossing And Turning (1984)
6. Eugene Wilde - Gotta Get You Home With Me Tonight (1984)
7. Freddie Jackson & Melba Moore – Just A Little Bit More (1986)
8. Amii Stewart - Friends (1985)
9. Mtume - Juicy Fruit (1983)
10. Mica Paris - My One Temptation (1988)
11. Will Downing – A Love Supreme (1988)
12. Tashan - Strung Out On You (1987)
13. Atlantic Starr - Silver Shadow (1985)
14. Jeffrey Osborne – You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song) (1986)
15. Womack & Womack – Teardrops (1988)
16. Curtis Mayfield – Do Be Down (1989)
17. Bobby Womack - I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much (1985)
18. George Benson feat. Patti Austin – Moody’s Mood (1980)

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After the glorious era of the ’60s and ’70s, soul music found itself in a bit of a rut in the ’80s, and has never recovered from it. Where in the golden age the public standard bearers of soul were the likes of Aretha Franklin and Al Green, in the ’80s it was Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie. I am referring to popular perception, of course. Still, the soul giant of the 1980s was Luther Vandross; rather a step down from Al, Ike, Marvin or Curtis (soul singers are always referred to by their first names). Much of ’80s soul was too smooth to be sexual, even as the lyrics promised total sexual gratification, or your money back. The more the singers sang about makin’ lurve to you awawawawall nighyeet, the more sexless the genre became. Things were called soul that weren’t much soulful. Like Whitney Houston, like Lionel Richie (though both made some excellent soul records).

It is not surprising that ’80s soul has acquired such a bad reputation. And it is unfortunate that the excesses in jheri-curled smoothery have tarnished much great work. This series, then, is intended to present some of the great soul songs from the ’80s, from the decade’s premium moist-maker to its best soul grooves. By force, there will be obvious choices. But I hope there will be some more obscure numbers and rare tracks which may become welcome (re-)discoveries, and that at least in some measure those who disown the genre might find that it can be at least partly rehabilitated.

Alexander O’Neal – If You Were Here Tonight.mp3
If any soul classic has suffered most unjustly from the prejudices against ’80s soul, then 1985’s If You Were Here Tonight may well be it. I have made the case for Alex before. Yes, he could be smooth; yes, he had an ’80s soul singer’s moustache. But, boy, the man could project with restraint. Hear this song and imagine how many other soulmeisters might have gone into wailing histrionic mode (suppose Patti LaBelle, the Queen of Scream, singing this!). The song was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – like O’Neal freshly disaffected from Prince side-kicks The Time – who did much to shape soul music in the ’80s, sometimes for the better (with O’Neal, the S.O.S. Band, some Atlantic Starr), sometimes not. Their association with Janet Jackson, for example, helped facilitate the migration of soul to mainstream pop – a movement they seemed to embrace when they produced the Human League’s 1986 single Human and the slimy treacle that was Atlantic Starr’s Always – which would give rise to the 1990s behemoth likes of Mariah Carey.

S.O.S. Band – Weekend Girl.mp3
For their culpability in the corporatisation of soul, Jam & Lewis cannot be seen as altogether a force for good (just as one cannot regard, say, Berry Gordy in an entirely benevolent light). And some of their production values now sound terribly dated. Yet their music does not, however, merit reflexive censure. Weekend Girl is perhaps the best example of all these three currents meeting: it is impossibly smooth, it features a terribly dated spoken bit, and it is endearingly catchy. To paraphrase the title of the album it appeared on, it gives it to you just the way you like it.

Isley Brothers – Between The Sheets.mp3
When in my introduction I referred to moist-makers, Between the Sheets sprang to mind. The subject matter – ooh, I’m gonna make good lovin’ to you all night baby coz I been trainin’ all week for makin’ you feel like my laydee. With 12kg weights! – is cliché, as is the LP cover with, of course, silk sheets (though, and call me girly if you like, I really like the colour of those sheets). But few songs capture the rapture of being in the moment of unitive sex as does this track; by the masters of sexy music, of course. Younger generations of R&B and Hop Hop fans will know the riff; it has been sampled prodigiously. If the whole Quiet Storm thing has a bad name, Between The Sheets is a powerful redeemer.

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly – Back In Stride (live).mp3
In 1985, Maze announced five gigs at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. By the time I got there, a queue was snaking right around the old cinema complex. I had to get to work and jumped back on the Picadilly Line. It is one of my great regrets that I never got to see Maze live, except on DVD. Maze’s studio LPs were okay, but their live albums is where it’s at, when the band jams a tight funk and frontman Frankie Beverley’s towering charisma rises from the grooves. I might have chosen a dozen equally worthy songs from the two fantastic live albums, Live in New Orleans (1981) and Live In Los Angeles (1986), but decided to go with the almost totemic Back In Stride, a song packed with an abundance of energy which finds Beverly in commanding form. Beverly was a Marvin Gaye protegé – Maze’s 1989 homage to the man, Silky Soul, is quite excellent – and, I submit, was so good a pupil that he eclipsed the master as a vocalist. Yes, I’ve said it, Frankie Beverley is a better soul singer than Marvin Gaye.

Rufus & Chaka Khan – Stay.mp3
My pal Mr Agreeable probably won’t agree with my choice of a Chaka Khan song; I suspect he’d advocate the inclusion of Any Old Sunday. Others might make the case for Ain’t Nobody. Both would make a very strong case. But this is my favourite Chaka Khan track, from 1983’s Stompin’ At The Savoy live album. Unlike Maze, I did see Chaka Khan live at the Hammersmith Odeon, in January 1985. It was a bit of a let-down on two fronts. I had bought two tickets for me and a date in December. Then my mother died, necessitating a very sudden trip to South Africa. I returned to London just in time for the gig, but couldn’t contact my date who in turn thought I wouldn’t pitch and sold her ticket outside the Odeon. So instead of falling in love with a lovely dark-haired Irish girl at a Cha

ka Khan concert, some oversized fucker sat next to me. I didn’t fall in love with him. The second disappointment was that Chaka was suffering from some ailment which turned her powerful voice into a croak. Like the trooper she is, Chaka performed anyway and put on a fine show (she cancelled the second Odeon date though). But it wasn not the real thing, more like watching a thunder-thighed Tina Turner impersonator pretending to be Chaka Khan. On Stompin’ At The Savoy, recorded as Rufus’ swansong, Chaka was not invariably in fine vocal form either, but she nails Stay beautifully, with band and vocals creating a dramatic interplay as the song reaches its climax.

Keni Stevens – 24-7-365.mp3
I can almost guarantee that this song cannot be found on any other music blog, and perhaps not even on P2P networks. As far as I can ascertain, it was never issued on CD. This file is a vinyl rip from the British singer’s 1987 You album, his second, which did not do brisk business. It is a pity that it didn’t: it’s a superb laid-back soul album by a self-assured independent singer who turned down a massive recording deal because he didn’t want to produce the commercial, upbeat sounds of the likes of his compatriots Loose Ends. Steven’s debut album, Night Moods, which is by no means better, achieved respectable sales, but as a gimmick-free soul singer on an independent label, Stevens did not get much exposure. After three albums, the last released in 1989, this talented artist vanished from the scene. Ignore the rather hackneyed lyrics (“24-7-365 gets you on the loveline”!) and check out the groove of an artist who deserved much more than he got.

Paul Johnson – When Love Comes Calling.mp3
Another UK soul singer who didn’t get his dues. I’ve posted this file before (and it is this blog’s most downloaded file, probably because some bastard leeched it), but it must be included in this series as one of my favourite ’80s soul tracks. When Love Comes Calling, released in early 1987, is a joyous tune and Johnson’s falsetto – which bears comparison with the maestro, Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire – soars with happiness as he elucidates on the enchantments of being in love. The long falsetto note when he sings “I’m masquerading” before launching into the chorus is particularly impressive. I will never comprehend how this song failed to become a massive hit at a time when all kinds of inferior “soul” numbers (such as Always, for crying out loud) sold well.

Bill Withers – Oh Yeah.mp3
And talking of songs that capture the ecstasy of being in love, the great Bill Withers got his sunshine back on 1985’s Oh Yeah (actually, he must’ve already done so in 1977 with Lovely Day). The bouncy tune and relaxed vocals confirm that for Bill being in love is indeed “a pure delight”, especially as he finds different ways of singing the titular words. But one might wonder about the depth of Bill’s love when he sings: “And I think you’re very nice”. Easy on the hyperbole, tiger! Soon after the release of this, Withers retired from the music industry to become a family man (I suppose Mrs Withers must be very nice), resurfacing only briefly in 1988 when the great Ben Leibrand remix of Lovely Day charted in the UK (MP3 of that here).

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