Northern Soul’s Classiest Rarities Volume 2 – Various Artists CD (Kent)

If you’ve ventured into a Northern Soul club over the past thirty odd years, the chances are that you’ll have already heard the first fifteen seconds of this CD. However, unless you’ve been frequenting the 6Ts 100 Club all-nighters over the last twelve months, the next two minutes of the opening track will come as a very pleasant surprise to you. That’s because around that point the famous instrumental track of the Checkerboard Squares’ Villa single Double Cookin’ metamorphasises into a beautiful male soul group, harmony performance called (Just A Little) Faith And Understanding. This is yet another Kent Northern Soul coup, finding the holy grail of a sublime vocal put to a classic Northern instrumental that fans have searched out for a generation. The original single just used the very effective backing track and this magical singing version was left on a ¬?” master tape languishing in Fantasy’s tape vault. In the sleeve notes I actually go on to use 1500 words to describe the sequence of events that got it from there to your CD player, so I’ll not strain your eyes twice. Suffice it to say that Ace’s garage gringo Alec Palao was instrumental (pun intended) in getting this and half a dozen other tracks on here for you soul sophisticates.

For instance he also found the original master tape to Ty Karim’s super-rarity You Just Don’t Know that Ty’s husband Kent Harris had lovingly looked after while awaiting a proper deal for the licensing of his superb Romark label. So now listen to the clarity of that cascading piano, crisp cymbal work, haunting organ and Ty’s fabulous, rich, deep brown vocals on a song that epitomises all that’s good about mid-60s, soul-soaring music.

More sounds that command a four-figure price are the Extremes’ Four J single How I Need Your Love; great soul group harmony so rare that mortals like us will probably never see one let alone own one. Also Eddie Campbell, the now sadly deceased half of Eddie & Ernie, gives us his only solo single Contagious Love that came out on the microscopic Phoenix label Artco. It’s a true Southern Soul sound but has just the right beat for the rare soul dancefloor. As does the next high roller: in spades. It’s the Shreveport, Louisiana recorded I’m Waiting by Bill Bush; catchy as hell and a pure soul sound despite Bill’s pale face. This track has got him flying over for a gig in Glasgow this summer; read all about it in the booklet. The final of our five ¬£1000 plus singles will also please our southern soul brothers, it’s the beautiful Florida produced Jimmy “Bo” Horne I Can’t Speak on Dade Records. Clarence Reid, Willie Clarke, Brad Shapiro and Steve Alaimo are all involved; enough said.

The “Classiest Rarities” series tries to represent all the facets of the Northern Soul collector’s world and to us the little nuggets that we play at home are just as valuable as the monsters that draw dancers to the floor like moths to a flame. Records like Danny White’s Miss Fine, Miss Fine on the Frisco label out of New Orleans are within most people’s spending limits but are as downright dirty and soulful as this music gets. Having Isaac Hayes and David Porter write and produce the single in Memphis undoubtedly made the session happen and Danny rose to the occasion. In a similar bag is Billy Keen’s smoother soul sound I Finally Got Wise cut for Galaxy and featuring the sort of big Ray Shanklin arrangement that Cliff Goldsmith used to such success on Little Johnnie Taylor’s recordings.

All soul fans have a soft spot for girl groups and we have some fine examples. An outfit, possibly called the Angels (it’s an unreleased Swan master tape with poorly annotated tape box notes), give a tough performance on You Got What You Want that the Shangri Las would have been proud of. Denita James’ Wild Side is also very much of its mid 60s period with lyrics about a rebel boyfriend who’s never been understood; a right trouble maker if you ask me. For lovers of that specific Philly sound of a lead girl with a male backing group, like Patti & The Emblems and Ruby & The Romantics, we have Janice Christian with Johnny & The Charmers. They give us another Swan recording called Just A Bad Dream which features shoo be dooby doo bop she-bops galore.

Then there’s some folk/soul/protest from Canada’s Jackie Washington, mellow pop-soul from the charmingly named Athens Rogues and a groovy doo wop take on the standard It’s Only A Paper Moon by the economically named Gino. Add some faux oriental sound effects on Jennifer Wells’ Dining In Chinatown, the surfing soul sound of Carl Burnett & The Hustlers Jerk Baby Jerk and a beautiful Bobby Hebb beat ballad ender from William Hunt and you have a CD for each and every soul fan on this diverse scene. By Ady Croasdell – Ace Records