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Tuesday 17 January 2023

R.I.P. - Renée Geyer (11 Sep 1953 - 17 Jan 2023)


The grim reaper is hyperactive this month as yet another loss to the soul world has been reported. Australian blue-eyed soul and jazz singer Renée Geyer has died at the age of 69 owing to complications following hip surgery which discovered that she had inoperable lung cancer.
She may perhaps be best known in the the UK for her version of Aretha's "It Only Happens When I Look At You" (who she cites as her 'ultimate inspiration') and the rare groover "Be There In The Morning". However, in her home country, Australia, she had hits in the 70s with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" (also recorded by Freda Payne and Alton McClain & Destiny) and in the 80s with "Say I Love You", which was her biggest hit reaching #5 on the Australian pop chart (but is rather too pop oriented to post here).

Geyer was born in Melbourne on 11 Sep 1953 to a holocaust surviving Slovak mother (who was consigned to Auschwitz) and a Hungarian father. Whilst still at high school she began singing for a jazz/blues band Dry Red in 1970 aged 16 and later joined Sun who released one, self-titled, album in 1972. She soon left Sun and joined R&B/soul group Mother Earth.

By 1973 she was signed to RCA Victor and released a debut, self-titled, album mainly of covers, on which she insisted Mother Earth, who had been released by the label, were to be her backing band. It was followed in 1974 by "It's A Mans Man's World" named after the lead track, a cover of James Brown's classic 1966 deep soul song, which she released as a single and both single and album where her first charting recordings.

For the next album she formed her own band and recorded two albums as Renée Geyer Band, "Ready To Deal" (1975) and a live album "Really Really Love You" (1976) on which she covered Aretha's "It Only Happens". One of her signature songs, "Heading in the Right Direction", appeared on the former.

She wanted to record her next album in the states which was produced by Motown's Frank Wilson and included musicians from The Funk Brothers and Ray Parker Jr. It was released in the states as "Renee Geyer" on Polydor, but in her home country on RCA Victor as "Moving Along", in 1977 (and included "Stares And Whispers" and "Be There In The Morning"). Against the advice of Polydor, who suggested not including a photo of her on the album to perpetuate the myth that she was black, she insisted on it, and radio stations stopped playing her as she was too white for black stations and too black for white stations, the crazy world we live in! She stayed in the US working as a session singer for a number of years (8-10) before returning to Australia. 

She toured with Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan and has sung on recordings by Lenny Williams, Sting, Neil Diamond, Paul Anka, Donny Osmond, Anita Pointer, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt and many others.

In her career spanning from 1973 she released fifteen studio albums and four live albums. Her last studio album came in 2013 which was an album of big band covers titled "Swing". In 2018 she suggested that she would like to record a blues album which would be her last.

Only five of her nine albums since 1981 are on Spotify, and none of her six 70s albums, so providing a playlist wouldn't be representative of her career, therefore, there are only a handful of videos below which are her main hits, including a live  performance of  "Heading in the Right Direction" from March 2021 (in which she's a real character) and a short tribute from ABC News.

Here's YouTube playlist with most of her best recordings.

Album Discography 

Renée Geyer
1973 - Renée Geyer
1974 - It's a Man's Man's World

Renée Geyer Band
1975 - Ready to Deal
1976 - Really Really Love You (Live album)

Renée Geyer
1977 - Moving Along
1978 - Winner
1979 - Blues License
1981 - So Lucky
1985 - Sing to Me
1994 - Difficult Woman
1999 - Sweet Life
2003 - Tenderland
2005 - Tonight
2007 - Dedicated
2009 - Renéessance
2013 - Swing


Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved


UK Soul Chart 16th Jan 2023 (Week 02)

9th Jan 2023

Summary: There are 8 risers, 14 fallers, 0 non-movers, 8 new entries

New Entries: Maysa (2), Castella ft Marqueal Jordan (8), Luxury Soul 2023 (9), Rita Ray (10), Captain Sky (13), Mast (21), Shelia (23), Dave Mascal (26)

Highest Risers: Kenny Hamber (+7), Brian Power & The Lewis Sisters (+6), Bey Bright (+4)

Biggest Fallers: Carmichael Musiclover (-12), Kim Tibbs (-10), Glenn Jones Feat. Y'Anna Crawley (-9)

Losers: SouLutions, B Golden, Chris Kingdon, Ten City, Raja-Nee', Penny Wells, Down To Earth, Bob Baldwin & Kathy Kosins

Pos Last Chg Artist - Title
1 2 +1 Groove Association ft Georgie B - You'll Never Know           
2     Maysa - I Don't Mind
3 7 +4 Bey Bright - Just A Little Bit
4 6 +2 Los Charly's Orchestra Feat Andre Espeut -
Music For The Soul Pt.2
5 11 +6 Brian Power ft The Lewis Sisters - Year Of Decision
6 1 -5 Hil St. Soul - Back To Love LP
7 10 +3 Centric - Love Received LP
8     Castella ft Marqueal Jordan - I Saw You
9     VA - Luxury Soul 2023 LP
10     Rita Ray - A Life Of Its Own LP
11 5 -6 Victor Haynes - Love Is The Answer LP
12 19 +7 Kenny Hamber - Open The Door (Mixes)
13     Captain Sky - Back Together Again
14 8 -6 Will Wheaton - The Lady In My Life
15 14 -1 Kenny Thomas - Get It On Time (Oplopo Remix)
16 4 -12 Carmichael Musiclover - Black Elvis -
Western Eyes Vol. 1 & 2 LP
17 12 -5 Lindsey Webster - Reasons LP
18 13 -5 Julian Jonah - Now's The Time For Us /
Comin' Back For Your Lovin'
19 23 +4 James Aaron - All I've Been
20 17 -3 Al Lindsey & Sugar Rainbow - Something Special
21     Masta - No More Tears In Your Eye (Remix)
22 20 -2 Ingram Street - Natural High (The Realm Remix)
23     Sheila - Oh My God
24 26 +2 Backhouse Nation - Full Circle LP
25 16 -9 Glenn Jones Feat. Y'Anna Crawley - Family Time
26 RE   Dave Mascall - Back To Scat (Mixes)
27 24 -3 Will Downing - Kinda Guy
28 18 -10 Kim Tibbs - The Science Of Completion Vol. 1 LP
29 27 -2 Sir Spencer Feat. Raquel Rodriguez -
Maybe (The Maxi-Single)
30 22 -8 Ava Cherry - Love Shines So Bright

Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved


UK Soul Chart BREAKERS 14th Jan 2023 (Week 02)


Here are the latest UK Soul Chart Breakers for 14th Jan 2023 with links to tracks posted (or to Spotify for those not yet posted). 

You can catch the breakers show each Saturday at 7pm-8pm presented by Andy Tee on Starpoint Radio.

Artist - TitleRel'dPost
Sheila - Brand New Day30/12 
Geoff Waddington Feat. Tamika Jackson - Big City Lights       14/0114/01
Bey Bright - 365 Love (Can't Stop)06/0114/01
Duanne Parham Feat,. Tammy Trele Davis -
Your Precious Love (15/12/2021)
15/12 
Trad Ukiyo - Mind Reader (Floating EP)13/0114/01
T-Groove Feat. Marie Meney & The Precious Lo's -
We Can Run Away
10/01 
Gwen Yvette - Country Swagg  
David Margam ft Carlos Camilo - Immune15/01 
Ledisi - I Need To Know11/0112/01
Trade Stevens - Only Woman01/0111/01
Bradlee - Queen Lightning30/12 
Celina Graves - I Still Need Your Love (Truth LP)05/0114/01
Dondria - Take You There06/01 
Arthur (Sugar Bear) Aiken - Smooth02/01 
TK Soul - Miss Independent01/01

NB tracks in yellow are forthcoming

Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved


Sheila Hutchinson (The Emotions) - A Profile


Sheila Hutchinson-Witt, born 17 Jan 1953 in Chicago, celebrates her 70th birthday today. She is of course one of three Hutchinson sisters along with Wanda and Jeanette who formed The Emotions. The youngest sister, Pamela, stepped in to replace Jeanette in 1977 when she left for a year to give birth to her second child, with EW&F's Philip Bailey. Pamela died in Sep 2020 aged 61 after a long illness.
Sheila and eldest sister Wanda are the mainstays of the group with Jeanette leaving on several occasions to raise her family replaced initially by cousin Theresa Davis and then by sister Pamela and later in the 80s by Adrianne Harris.

They started out as a gospel group using several names such as The Heavenly Sunbeams, Three Ribbons & A Beau, The Hutch Stereos, The Sunbeams and The Hutchinson Sunbeams whilst still infants (3,4 & 5 years old) in the 50s performing on TV shows and occasionally with the gospel great Mahalia Jackson. Two early singles were released as Hutch Stereo's in 1962 (a novelty Christmas double-sider) and The Sunbeams in 1964. 

Around 1967 they changed their name to The Emotions and released a few singles on Brainstorm and Twin Stacks before meeting Pervis Staples (Staples Singers) who became their manager and got them signed to the Stax imprint Volt in 1969. Under the wing of Isaac Hayes and David Porter they released their debut album "So I Can Love You" the same year. Much of their early material was posted in a post "The Emotions - The Early Sides" in Apr 2020, some of the links are now dead which I'll endeavour to replace.

Jeanette left the group in 1970 to start a family and was replaced by cousin Theresa Davis until she returned for the "Flowers" album in 1976.

In 1973 they started work on their third studio album "Songs of Innocence and Experience" (but it was never released at the time but a 'version' of it was subsequently released 33 years later in 2006 by Ace/Kent on CD with additional tracks, including a demo version of The Charmels "As Long As I've Got You"). The same year they appeared at Wattstax performing "Peace Be Still" which was featured on the movie's soundtrack. Stax was in financial difficulty, eventually closing in 1975 with the group leaving to join Columbia where they hooked up with Maurice White and Charles Stepney signing to White's Kalimba setup. 
It was their most successful commercial period with a #1 hit on both R&B and Hot 100 charts with the Maurice White and Al McKay song  "Best Of My Love" (Wanda on lead) in 1977 from their platinum selling #1 R&B album "Rejoice". In 1979 they collaborated with EW&F on "Boogie Wonderland" which reached  #2 Hot 100, but it would prove to be their last foray into the Hot 100. Other minor hits included "Flowers", "I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love", "Don't Ask My Neighbors" (on which Sheila took lead) and "Shouting Out Love". 

To cash in on their success of "Rejoice", a rejuvenated Stax, now owned by Fantasy, released an album of both released and unreleased Stax material, "Sunshine", in 1977. Their follow up album on Columbia, "Sunbeam", whilst not as successful, did sell enough copies to go gold but had no real standout singles, in fact some of the better tracks were relegated to B sides such as "Changes", "Love Vibes" (Brazil only) and "Ain't No Doubt About It" and a couple of others which weren't released as singles.

Two more albums were released on Columbia either side of the change of decade "Coming Into Our World" (1979) and "New Affair" (1981) and they then left. They were a bit disappointed that "Boogie Wonderland" was never released on any of their albums.

Only two more studio albums were released by the group "Sincerely" (1984) and "If I Only Knew" (1985). They released a live album in 1996 and feature on several tracks on Key Of Life (a Japanese house produceralbum in 1999 and on one track ("All In The Way") on EW&F's "The Promise" album in 2003.

Album Discography

1969 - So I Can Love You
1971 - Untouched
1973 - Songs of Innocence and Experience (unreleased)
1976 - Flowers (Gold)
1977 - Rejoice (Platinum)
1977 - Sunshine (a Stax issue after they had left)
1978 - Sunbeam (Gold)
1979 - Come into Our World
1981 - New Affair
1984 - Sincerely
1985 - If I Only Knew
1996 - Live In '96 (Live album)
1999 - Key Of Life Feat. The Emotions - Key Of Life II


Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved


Remembering Billy Stewart (24 Mar 1937 - 17 Jan 1970)


Billy Stewart is an artist I've admired for many years, who seems to have been overlooked in the main, (apart from the  a couple of records he is probably best known for "Sitting In The Park" and "I Do Love You") died on this day in 1970 aged only 32. 

He had another hit with his superb version of the George Gershwin's standard "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess. If you've never had the pleasure of hearing it, be prepared to be blown away by his rendition which turns it completely on it's head with his unique vocal style of word-doubling and scat which he attributed to his love of calypso music.
William Larry Stewart II was born in Washington D.C. on 24 March 1937 and, tragically, is another artist taken from us far too early, being killed in a car crash in 1970 aged only 32. Stewart was driving the car, with three band members as passengers, to a gig in South Carolina when it left the road on a bridge and plunged into the river killing all four passengers on 17 Jan 1970. Family member Sarah Stewart sued the Ford Motor company claiming that the vehicle had  a mechanical failure but lost in the first instance but appealed and won an out of court settlement several years later, alleged to be $500k.

Although still young, he'd already been recording for almost fourteen years, releasing his first single in Apr 1956 aged 19. He had been singing with his four brothers prior to that from the age of 12 as the Stewart Gospel Singers and The 4 Stewart Brothers (not be confused with The Stewart Four who Sly Stewart (Stone) was a member of) who had their own radio show on WUST in Washington D.C.

He crossed over into secular music performing occasionally with The Rainbows who's members included Don Covay. Bo Diddley is credited with discovering Stewart and invited him to become his pianist/keyboardist which led to his first single on Chess ("Billy's Blues Pt.1 & Pt.2) in 1956, the label Diddley was signed to. 

Stewart was friendly with a young Marvin Gaye who also filled in for The Rainbows when other members weren't able to perform. When the Rainbows disbanded in 1957, two of the members (James Nolan and Chester Simmons) joined Gaye in The Marquees in 1957. The Marquees were introduced to Bo Diddley and his manager Phil Landwehr who then became their manager and they recorded two songs for Okeh backed by Bo Diddley's band ("Wyatt Earp" and "Hey Little School Girl") and also backed Billy Stewart on his single for Okeh ("Billy's Heartaches" and "Baby, You're My Only Love").

The Marquees, after a lack of success with their early singles, met Harvey Fuqua and formed the New Moonglows which also included Chuck Barksdale of The Dells (who disbanded between 1958-60), but the New Moonglows was short-lived and disbanded in 1960 and Barksdale re-joined the reformed Dells.
Apart from the one single on Okeh, all Stewart's recording where for Chess. He had eleven R&B charting singles and eight of them crossed over to the Hot 100. His biggest hits were the aforementioned three above with "Summertime" reaching #10 Hot 100 / #7 R&B but "Sitting In The Park" and "I Do Love You" rising slightly higher on the R&B chart, #4 and #6 respectively. "Sitting In The Park" has been covered many times since. The first time by the UK's Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames in 1966 and probably the best know is by GQ in 1980 who also covered "I Do Love You". The most recent, which is not really a cover but heavily influenced by it, is from Bill Albright "Sitting By The Phone" released last June.

As you can imagine, trying to find vintage footage for him is not easy but two videos were found. Also included is a trailer for a 60 minute documentary "Fat Boy: The Billy Stewart Story" which premiered on PBS WHUT-TV Howard University Television on 24 Oct 2020 and was scheduled for national broadcast in Feb 2021. You can watch in full by clicking on the link above.

The playlist below features almost all of his singles, barring the pre 1964 ones, in chronological order. Enjoy. 

Album Discography

1965 - I Do Love You [Chess #1496] 1496
1966 - Unbelievable [Chess #1499]
1967 - Billy Stewart Teaches Old Standards New Tricks [Chess 1513] 
1969 - Cross My Heart [Chess 1540] 
(NB this may have been a posthumous release in 1974 but included both sided of all his last four singles)

Chess released a tribute album in 1979after his death and many other compilations have been released.
1970 - Remembered [Chess 1547]

Singles Discography

1956-06 - Billy's Blues Pt. 1 / Billy's Blues Pt. 2 [Chess #1625]
1956-08 - Billy's Blues - Part 1 / Billy's Blues - Part 2 [Argo #5256]
1957-11 - Billy's Heartache / Baby, You're My Only Love [OKeh #4-7095]
1962-05 - Reap What You Sow / Fat Boy [Chess #1820]
1962-10 - True Fine Lovin' / Wedding Bells [Chess #1835]
1963-04 - Oh My (What Can The Matter Be) / Scramble [Chess #1852]
1963-08 - Strange Feeling / Sugar And Spice [Chess #1868]
1964-03 - Count Me Out / A Fat Boy Can Cry [Chess #1888]
1964-08 - Tell It Like It Is / My Sweet Senorita [Chess #1905]
1965-02 - I Do Love You / Keep Loving [Chess #1922]
1965-07 - Sitting In The Park / Once Again [Chess #1932]
1965-09 - How Nice It Is / No Girl [Chess #1941]
1965-12 - Mountain Of Love / Because I Love You [Chess #1948]
1966-04 - Love Me / Why Am I Lonely [Chess #1960]
1966-06 - Summertime / To Love To Love [Chess #1966]
1966-09 - Secret Love / Look Back And Smile [Chess #1978]
1967-01 - Every Day I Have The Blues / Ol' Man River [Chess #1991]
1967-08 - Why (Do I Love You So) / Cross My Heart [Chess #2002]
1968-06 - Tell Me The Truth / What Have I Done [Chess #2053]
1969-04 - I'm In Love (Oh Yes I Am) / Crazy 'Bout You Baby [Chess #2063]
1970-01 - By The Time I Get To Phoenix / We'll Always Be Together [Chess #2080]


Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved