VA [2022] - Mountain of Soul Episode 4 [Charly] (Full Album)

The next instalment of Mountain Of Soul with Episode 4 was released on Friday (9 Dec '22). Unlike Episode 3, which still hasn't appeared on Spotify, this one has but also included is the Kev Roberts hosted podcast from Mixcloud on which the series is based.

A few more Top 500 classics thrown in from Roscoe Shelton, Donna King, Nolan Chance, Fi-Dells and Anderson Brothers. A rarity from The De-Tours and a superb unreleased song by Otis Clay which first appeared on a look-a-like One-derful! label released by Secret Stash in 2017. New discoveries don't get much better that this these days! A new one on me from Jim & Lee which is quite nice. The set completes with A.C. Reed and a classy crossover track from Choice of Colour which got a reissue on Grapevine in 2000.

01 - Roscoe Shelton [1967] - Running for My Life [Sound Stage 7 #45-2587]

02 - A.C. Reed [1966] - My Baby's Been Cheating [Cool #5001]

03 - The Del-Tours [1968] - Sweet And Lovely [Starville #1206]  c/u as Ernest Mosley]

04 - Donna King [1966] - Take Me Home [Hot Line #906]

05 - Nolan Chance [1965] - Just Like the Weather [Constellation #C-161]

06 - Otis Clay [2017] - I Got Problems [Secret Stash/One-derful! #SSR-2007]

07 - Jim & Lee [1967] - Let Go, Baby [Smash #S-2112]

08 - The Fi-Dels [1967] - Try a Little Harder [Keymen #K-106]

09 - Anderson Brothers [1974] - I Can See Him Loving You [GSF #6914]

10 - Choice of Colour [1972] - Your Love [Apt #26011]

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Details

Rating:	8.6
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Northern Soul
Format:	Album / Compilation
Media:	Digital
Label:	Charly
Cat No:	None
Date:	09/12/2022
Price:	£7.89

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Sharon McMahan [2022] - Got To Find Another Guy / Love Is Wonderful [Big Man Records #BMR 1011]

Sharan McMahan may not be a name familiar to many other than die hard rare soul followers. She is possibly best known to them for her 1973 Columbia single "Get Out Of My Life" which was a modern soul spin and reissued by Expansion in 2011. However, prior to that she released two singles for Ollie McLaughlin's Karen label. 

A side from each of them has been reissued together on the latest 7" release by Mark Bicknell's Big Man Records. The A side is her 1966 single "Got To Find Another Guy" which was originally flipped with a version of Barbara Lewis' "Hello Stranger 66". The B side being her earlier 1964 single "Love Is Wonderful". She wrote both songs.

Sharon began writing songs from the age of 12 and auditioned for Ollie McLaughlin who, as well as Karen, owned a number of Detroit labels in the 60s and early 70s, Ruth named after his wife and Karen, Carla and Moira named after his daughters.

Only three singles are listed for the Ruth label released between 1959-62 and the last consisted of two songs written by McMahon recorded by Gracie Darnell which I believe may have been her first recorded song. 

Other McMahon songs have been recorded by Barbara Lewis, Deon Jackson, Johnnie Mae Matthews and even a song posted in The Three Degrees playlist last week, "You're The Fool", which was on their 1970 Roulette album and the B side of the single "I'd Take You" and was also recorded by Etta James and Mavis Staples the same year and Madeline Bell in 1971.

Popular Mersey Beat group, The Searchers, had a UK #11 pop hit with one of her songs  "Someday We're Gonna Love Again" in 1966, also recorded, and was a big Northern Soul tune, by Barbara Lewis.

The song recorded by Johnnie Mae Matthews is a rare record, "I Have No Choice", that is huge on the UK rare soul scene (reissued by Hit And Run in 2020). I was also later recorded on an album "Talking To The People" by Matthew's son's band Black Nasty in 1973. An unreleased recording of the song turned up which was thought to be at the time her daughter Audrey Matthews. A 1967 demo version recorded by Sharon McMahan has subsequently been released on 7" by Hayley Records around 2015/16. Audrey claims that it is not her singing, rather Sharon, and Sharon also claims it is not her on the first version, and both version are different so it's still a mystery who recored the one attributed to Audrey. You can listen to all four versions HERE.

In the 70s one of her songs, 'Love Is  The Key", was recorded by Benny Golson on his "I'm Always Dancin' To The Music", and Norhern Soul followers may be interested to know that one Jodi Mathis was the female vocalist on this track under the name Mortonette Jenkins (she also went by Mortonette Stephens). We did an article about Ms Mathis HERE.

More recently McMahon had a song, "Do Over", included on a Preston Glass CD "Soul In The Rear View Mirror" in 2014

The single is available now from out friends at Simply Soul with picture sleeve.

Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Northern Soul / 60s Soul
Format:	Single / Reissue
Media:	7" Vinyl
Label:	Big Man Records
Cat No:	BMR 1011
Date:	12/2022
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£20

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Sylvia v Janet Jackson - Pillow Talk

An unreleased demo recording by Janet Jackson,of a cover of Sylvia Robinson's 1973 R&B #1 R&B hit "Pillow Talk", is being released as her next single.

It was played by DJ Questlove on Questlove's IG Live few years ago (May 2020) from unreleased Damita Jo sessions in 2003 You can listen to the original broadcast @58:34 HERE.

Sylvia Robinson, who owned the All Platinum group of labels and was part of duo Mickey & Sylvia in the late 50s, wrote the song with Michael Burton and had hoped that Al Green would record it but when he turned it down she decided to come out of singing retirement to record it herself in 1973. The orgasmic moans included predates the sexual moaning of Donna Summer on her disco hit "Love To Love You Baby" by two years. It hit the top of the R&B chart for two weeks, reaching #3 on the Hot 100, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance losing to Aretha Franklin (Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)). 

Another, more disco oriented version, was released by Canadian singer Tanya Jackson in 1983 on 12".

However, as ever, the UK rare soul scene flipped it for the B side "My Thing" which was originally recorded by The Whatnauts as an album track on their debut "Reaching For The Stars" in 1971, followed by The Moments as title track to an album and as a single in 1972 and then Sylvia's version on the flip to "Pillow Talk" but she had released a different take earlier in 1972 on Stang 5026 which seems to be hard to find. The Chosen Few also did a reggae take of it on their album "I Love The Way You Love" in 1975. 

Michael Burton released a version of "Love On A Two Way Street" on Turbo in 1972 and then went on to form Brother To Brother who did a cover of Gil Scott-Herons "The Bottle" in 1974, also on Turbo.

Sylvia (nee Vanderpool) recorded as Little Sylvia from 1950 and the teamed up with Mickey (MacHouston) Baker as Mickey & Sylvia and had a smash hit with a Bo Diddley song "Love Is Strange" in 1957 with Diddley's blessing after sharing the bill with him at a show in Washington D.C. When they spit in 1958 she recorded using the name Sylvia Robbins, presumably a shortening of her married name Robinson after she married Joseph Robinson in 1959. In 1961 she got back with Baker releasing more singles under the name Mickey & Sylvia. They both featured on Ike & Tina Turner's first Grammy nominated song "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", Mickey provided vocals and Sylvia played guitar, so where is Ike Turner on this track you may ask? 

By 1966 the Robinsons moved to New Jersey and set up All Platinum Records which included subsidiary label Stang, Turbo and Vibration. They later formed Sugar Hill Records in the 70s (with the financial backing of Roulette Record's Morris Levy) and introduced rap to the world via one of the first commercially successful rap songs, "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugar Hill Gang, in 1979. You may or may not be aware that a female trio called The Sequence, who featured on the label, included a teenaged Angie Stone (Angela Brown) who at that time went by the name Angie B. The label folded in 1985.

Robinson died from heart failure in Sep 2011 aged 76 and only this year (2022) was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as a non-performer.

Janet Jackson

Tanya Jackson [1983]

Mashup of "My Thing" by Whatnauts, Moments & Sylvia

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Robert Kelly [2022] - I ADMIT IT [Legacy Recordings] (Full Album)

Billed as Robert Kelly (on the Bandcamp release), this album is a collection of released and unreleased (for obvious reasons?) R. Kelly songs, many of which have been floating around on YouTube and other internet sources for a many years but mainly from 2018 onwards. In fact, "Air" was uploaded to Spotify a few weeks ago as a single which I drafted and agonised whether to post or not in the circumstances and decided not to.

Sony Music is distancing itself from, what they describe as, an unofficial release (they claim it's a bootleg even though the copyright states there music catalogue division Legacy Recordings they did not sanction it) which was released on digital platforms on Friday including Spotify, who must have since removed it as it is no longer there, but it is available on Bandcamp. I understand that Apple has now also removed it.

It transpires that the company behind the release is Real Talk Entertainment and there is speculation that that may have acquired the rights when Kelly's contract with Sony was terminated in 2019.

The title of the album "I Admit It" is derived from a 19 minute song "I Admit" that Kelly released in Jul 2018 in which denies the sexual-misconduct allegations against him for which he was convicted of in Jun 2022 and is currently serving a 30 year sentence. The song is split into three parts on the album.

Inevitably, I suspect, this album will be taken down by Bandcamp, so if you want it you know what to do! Whether it is legal or not is questionable which will no doubt increase demand for it!

Musically, for me at least, the first half of the album are the best tracks and they deteriorate as the album progresses with the first two tracks, "Air", the very Marvin Gaye'ish  "Planet" and "Where's Love, When You Need It" (which harps back to the stepping days of his "Chocolate Factory" / "Happy People" period) being the standouts

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul / R&B
Format:	Album / Bootleg?
Media:	Digital
Label:	Legacy Recordings
Cat No:	None
Date:	09/12/2022
Price:	$7.99

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Kenny Hamber [2022] - Open The Door [Quantize Recordings]

A health warning for the purists, cover your ears, as this is a house version of the Darrell Banks classic, "Open The Door To Your Heart", by Kenny Hamber and covered by many. (I feel another Version Excursion brewing!)

To be fair, there is an "Original Soul Funk Mix" which is fairly faithful to the original, and the "DJ Fella Re-Edit" is good, but I'm afraid the "DJ Spen & Reelsoul Radio Edit" doesn't do it for me as it's too club oriented!

Quite a bit was written about Kenny Hamber on the post for his last single, another cover, of The O'Jays' Used Ta Be My Girl" in Aug '22. It should come as no big surprise with Kenny covering this 60s classic, as his career dates back to the mid 60s recording from Philly's Arctic Records and many of his recordings have had exposure on the UK Northern Soul scene over the years.

Originally Banks took the song writing credits and submitted the song to BMI whilst the song's writer Donnie Elbert was on tour. The song is registered at BMI under Elbert's working title "Baby Walk Right In" and not "Open The Door To Your Heart". Elbert discovered what Banks had done after the song became popular and claimed that he actually wrote the song, and all Banks did was speed it up, so took legal action and won and subsequently his name appears alongside Darrell Eubanks'. It's Banks' only writing credit.

In a week where we wrote about Frank Wilson on his birthday, and the 'world's rarest soul record', the Darrel Banks single was issued in the UK on yellow London promos in 1966. It never got a full release as London Records did not have the rights to it so the release was pulled. It was subsequently released by EMI on their Stateside imprint. The only, so far, known London stock copy surfaced in 2014 and was auctioned in Dec 2014 selling for an estimated £14.5k.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Click icons below for further information or to connect with the artist. 

Details

Rating:	8.4 (for mixes 2 & 3)
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	House / Retro Soul / Cover Version
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Quantize Recordings
Cat No:	None
Date:	09/12/2022
Key/BPM:	3A/123 / 3B/123 / 3B/124
Price:	£1

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Gloria Scott [2022] - All Of The Time, You're On My Mind [Acid Jazz]

Gloria Scott released her first album in almost 50 years on 30 Sep 2022 with "So Wonderful" (her first "What Am I Gonna Do" , produced by Barry White, was released in 1974).

Her career was resurrected from appearances in Germany from The Baltic Soul Weekender, where she has appeared every year since 2008. The promoter, Andrew McGuiness, learned of several unreleased tracks and persuaded Gloria to re-record them along with some new material for the new album.

One of those previously unreleased songs, "All Of The Time, You're On My Mind", written by Thomas Anderson and Vance Wilson, (a member of The Remarkables and brother of Frank Wilson) has been released as her next single today (9 Dec '22) along with a "Dicky Continental Rework".

To learn more about 76 year old Gloria's extraordinary path then follow link to "So Wonderful". There's also a good article in The Guardian for the album release.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Click icons below for further information or to connect with the artist. 

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Retro Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Acid Jazz
Cat No:	None
Date:	09/12/2022
Key/BPM:	5B/79 / 4A/79
Price:	£1

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved