Boss Soul

Various Artists - Boss Soul: The Genius Of Barry White
VAMPISOUL Records - VAMPI CD 007

Tracks:
01 - I Don't Need It - Barry White
02 - A Man Ain't Nothin' - Barry White
03 - I Got Love - Viola Wills
04 - Lost Without The Love Of My Guy - Viola Wills
05 - This Thing Called Love - Johnny Wyatt
06 - To Whom It May Concern - Johnny Wyatt
07 - Together Forever - Viola Wills
08 - Don't Kiss Me Hello - Viola Wills
09 - It May Be Winter Outside - Felice Taylor
10 - Everybody's Going Mod - Johnny Wyatt
11 - I Feel Love Coming On - Felice Taylor
12 - You're Out Of My Mind - Viola Wills
13 - Under The Influence Of Love - Felice Taylor
14 - All In The Run Of The Day - Barry White
15 - Don't Take Your Love From Me - Barry White
16 - Love Theme - Barry White

Before Barry White became disco's 'Walrus of Love' he had a varied career. He played piano on Jesse Belvin's 'Goodnight My Love' at age 11 and sang with various vocal groups in the Los Angeles area. He also had a career outside of the law and was jailed for four months at age 16 for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tyres. In 1966 he was hired by Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records as a songwriter/producer/artist for his Bronco, Mustang and Downey subsidiaries, for the princely sum of $40 a week. This album collects the best of his work for Del-Fi and all the songs are written by him. As an artist he released singles under his own name and the name Lee Barry. His first big success was with Viola Wills's 'Lost Without The Love Of My Guy/I Got Love' which got into the R&B Top 20 and pushed his wages up to $60 a week. But it was another female singer that Barry had the most success with, Felice Taylor. Her popularity, particularly in Britain, reputedly caused Barry's wages to rise to $600 a week.

Del-Fi ceased trading in 1967 and Barry went on to bigger things, but many of the singles that Barry had a hand in for Del-Fi are now soul and northern soul classics. Here's three of my favourites; Lee Barry 'I Don't Need It', Viola Wills 'I Got Love' and Felice Taylor performing 'I Feel Love Coming On' on Germany's Beat Club.....

Testify!

The Parliaments - Testify!: The Best Of The Early Years
CONNOISSEUR COLLECTION - VSOP CD 286

Tracks:
01 - (I Wanna) Testify
02 - I Can Feel The Ice Melting
03 - All Your Goodies Are Gone
04 - Don't Be Sore At Me
05 - Little Man
06 - The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg
07 - Look At What I Almost Missed
08 - What You Been Growing
09 - Good Old Music
10 - Time
11 - A New Day Begins
12 - I'll Wait
13 - I'll Wait (inst.)
14 - All Your Goodies Are Gone (inst.)
15 - Baby I Owe You Something (inst.)
16 - Lets Make It Last - The Fellows
17 - She's Always There - The Fellows
18 - Heart Trouble
19 - That Was My Girl

The roots of George Clinton's Parliaments stretch back to the mid 1950's and a barber shop in New Jersey, where a group of teenagers formed a doo-wop group named after Parliament cigarettes. As a doo-wop group they released 'Poor Willie/Party Boys' on Apt Records in 1958 and 'Lonely Island/You Make Me Wanna Cry' on Flipp Records in 1960, without much success. In 1962 George got a job as a songwriter and producer for Motown in their New York office. Obviously George pitched The Parliaments to Motown, but a 1964 session in Detroit was rejected. That same year George teamed up with two other Motown employees, Sidney Barnes and Andrew 'Mike' Terry to form GEO-SI-MIK Productions. They sold their services to the newly formed Golden World/Ric-Tic/Wingate record labels of Detroit. As well as production and song writing duties, this resulted in a single for The Parliaments. 'Heart Trouble/That Was My Girl' was released in 1965 on Golden World and is included on this CD, although it says the tracks are demo versions I can't tell the difference. For me 'Heart Trouble' was the first Parliaments track I heard and is one of my all time favourite soul songs.

In 1966 GEO-SI-MIK began working for Revilot/Solid Hit Records, also in Detroit. While contributing to many numbers on this label, George and the latest version of The Parliaments recorded '(I Wanna) Testify/I Can Feel The Ice Melting' in 1966. This single spent so long on the shelf before it's release in 1967, that George went back to barbering in Newark for a while. When it was finally released it was a hit, reaching No.3 in the R&B charts. The band rushed back to Detroit and recorded the rest of The Parliaments tracks on this CD, allegedly in one mammoth session. The Parliaments released a total of six singles on Revilot between 1967 and 1969, none doing quite as well as '(I Wanna) Testify' but all great (in my opinion). The instrumental tracks were used as B-sides for other artists on Revilot/Solid Hit and the two tracks by The Fellows were recorded by a Temptations sounding group produced by George.

Unfortunately George got caught in a contractual dispute surrounding the bankruptcy of Revilot/Solid Hit and was no longer able to use the name The Parliaments. In order to keep recording for other labels George renamed the band Funkadelic and headed off in a whole other direction. But that's another story for another day, in the mean time enjoy some top notch vocal group soul from The Parliaments....

Souled Out

The Righteous Brothers - Souled Out - Verve Records - 1967

Tracks:
01 - Been So Nice
02 - Stranded In The Middle Of No Place
03 - If Loving You Is Wrong (I'm So Sorry)
04 - Here I Am
05 - It's Up To You
06 - So Many Lonely Nights Ahead
07 - I Don't Believe In Losing
08 - Love Keeps Callin' My Name
09 - (I Need) Someone Like You
10 - You Bent My Mind
11 - Without You I'd Be Lost

The Righteous Brothers are mostly remembered for their big ballads such as 'Ebb Tide', 'Unchained Melody' and 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling' but in 1967 they recorded this blue eyed soul classic for MGM/Verve. Produced by former Motown producer Mickey Stevenson, with songs mostly by Stevenson or Leon Ware, this is an album of 'four to the floor' Motown style grooves and a couple of soulful big ballads. Unfortunately the album and it's single 'Stranded In The Middle Of No Place / Been So Nice' failed to capture the public's attention at the time and they parted company soon after.

So listen to the amazing voices of Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley at their most soulful and wonder what could have been if the album was a hit.....