Fantastic Voyage
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Various - Soul For Dancers 2: Out On The Floor Firecrackers 2CD (CD)
€15,00Quick ViewFantastic Voyage’s autumn 2015 release of Soul For Dancers proved so successful, that we didn’t have to think twice when Lois Wilson (Mojo, Record Collector) asked if she could do it all over again. It turns out that there were plenty more classic sides in her DJ crates, drawing on that rich seam of early soul and proto-soul rhythm & blues, of the sort that would have packed the dancefloors on the sixties club scene, or has been embraced by subsequent generations of club soul diehards.
Lois’s latest wide-ranging selection, Soul For Dancers 2, makes welcome forays into the unique New Orleans sound (including a storming sequence of Chris Kenner, Jessie Hill and Lee Dorsey), samples Memphis imprints Satellite and Stax (including a brace of Mar-Keys instrumentals), and stays in the groove for Oscar Brown Jr’s vocal take on Nat Adderley’s Work Song. Elsewhere the 60-track 2CD set makes space for early Tamla sides by The Marvelettes and Marvin Gaye, and tips its hat to big guns such as Bobby Bland, The 5 Royales, Solomon Burke, James Brown and Jackie Wilson. Lovers of Lois’s Ain’t Gonna Hush: The Queens Of Rhythm & Blues, will be pleased to see that female vocalists are well represented here, with Ann Cole leading the charge with four tracks, a hat trick from Lula Reed, two each from Etta James, Mitty Collier and Marie Knight, plus contributions from Tiny Topsy, Della Reese and Barbara George, as well as Tina Turner in the company of her old man, and Ruth Brown, both solo and in duet with the peerless Clyde McPhatter.
The first volume of Soul For Dancers prompted Shindig to observe “you can almost breathe that rarefied mod club atmosphere”, and the set elicited 4-star reviews from Echoes, Soul & Jazz & Funk, and Record Collector, the latter remarking “no let-up in quality…you can’t sit down”. Well, be prepared to take to the floor again, as Soul For Dancers 2 weaves its magic.
A 2LP edition selecting 32 highlights will also be released.
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Various - Soul For Dancers: Out On The Floor Firecrackers That Ignited The Northern Soul Boom 2LP (LP)
€35,00Quick ViewOn Soul For Dancers, journalist (Mojo, Record Collector) and R&B authority Lois Wilson takes a trip back in time to the rare soul scene’s roots, to where it all began if you like. Many of the 32 tracks on this 2LP vinyl set (selected from the 61-track 2CD compilation) filled the floor at Manchester’s The Twisted Wheel and London’s The Scene Club, both precursors of the Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, The Golden Torch in Stoke et al. The sparks that lit the fuse, these early triumphs would give rise to an era defining scene, one which became a treasured subcultural phenomenon.
Some tracks on Soul For Dancers were obscure back then but are crowd favourites today, others still remain rare and largely unknown. Some of the artists are famous (James Brown, Etta James, Jackie Wilson, The Isley Brothers, Don Covay, Irma Thomas, and Sam and Dave) although the tracks selected here may be less familiar, while other artists like Bruce Cloud, Eloise Carter, Bunker Hill, Willie Cobbs and Mary Johnson are known only to the soul cognoscenti. Every track’s a winner here so put on your dancing shoes and get on that good foot!
Lois’s previous compilations for Fantastic Voyage include Get On The Right Track, Right On and Ain’t Gonna Hush, all popular releases which have elicited enthusiastic reviews.
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Various - Soul For Dancers: Out On The Floor Firecrackers That Ignited The Northern Soul Boom 2CD (CD)
€15,00Quick ViewOn Soul For Dancers, journalist (Mojo, Record Collector) and R&B authority Lois Wilson takes a trip back in time to the rare soul scene’s roots, to where it all began if you like. Many of the 61 tracks on this 2CD set filled the floor at Manchester’s The Twisted Wheel and London’s The Scene Club, both precursors of the Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, The Golden Torch in Stoke et al. The sparks that lit the fuse, these early triumphs would give rise to an era defining scene, one which became a treasured subcultural phenomenon.
Some tracks on Soul For Dancers were obscure back then but are crowd favourites today, others still remain rare and largely unknown. Some of the artists are famous (James Brown, Etta James, Jackie Wilson, The Isley Brothers, Don Covay, Irma Thomas, and Sam & Dave) although the tracks selected here may be less familiar, while other artists like Bruce Cloud, Eloise Carter, Bunker Hill, Willie Cobbs and Mary Johnson are known only to the soul cognoscenti. Every track’s a winner here so put on your dancing shoes and get on that good foot!
Lois’s previous compilations for Fantastic Voyage include Get On The Right Track, Right On and Ain’t Gonna Hush, all popular releases which have elicited enthusiastic reviews.
A 2LP edition selecting 32 highlights is also available, including illustrated, annotated insert.
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Various - Liverpool Sounds: 75 Classics From The Singing City 3CD Boxset (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewAs you drive into Liverpool you will see a sign “Liverpool – Home Of The Beatles”, which is absolutely true, but the city’s contribution to popular music is far greater than that, covering the years before the Beatles, the Beatle years themselves, and more recent times. The Wall of Fame in Mathew Street salutes Liverpool’s number 1 hit-makers and there is plenty of space for further additions. Compiled and annotated by author and BBC Radio Merseyside broadcaster Spencer Leigh, Liverpool Sounds: 75 Classics From The Singing City presents 75 tracks which, by and large, relate to the pre-Beatles area. There are great songs, great comedy and great performances, and every track is here for a reason. There are many hit singles and several number 1s. Even if the Beatles had been born elsewhere, the city would still have made an enormous contribution to modern popular music. From Lita Roza’s (How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window (1953) to the Hillsborough Justice Collective’s He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (2012), there have been 56 Number 1’s from Liverpool.
The earliest tracks on Liverpool Sounds are from the late Thirties, by Dingle-born comedian Arthur Askey; the most recent are 1965 beat recordings made at the Cavern club’s Cavern Sound recording studio. In between you will hear jazz performed by the Merseysippi Jazz Band and George Melly, folk courtesy of Stan Kelly and The Spinners (including the traditional Johnny Todd, the tune of which is familiar as the theme to the long-running Merseyside-based police TV drama series Z-Cars), and pre-rock era popular vocalists like Frankie Vaughan, Lita Roza, Michael Holliday and comedian Ken Dodd. Other popular local sons of Liverpool include rockers Billy Fury and King Size Taylor & The Dominoes, and, inevitably, The Beatles (here in their own right and with Tony Sheridan) as well as beat group contemporaries Gerry & The Pacemakers (archival recordings from 1961) and Howie Casey & The Seniors. As a bonus, you can hear Johnny Gentle (who was backed by the Beatles on a 1960 Scottish tour) reminiscing on John Lennon’s hand in creating his song I’ve Just Fallen For Someone.
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Various - Please Mr Disc Jockey: The Atlantic Vocal Group Sound 3CD Boxset (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewCompiled and annotated by author and broadcaster Clive Richardson, Please Mr Disc Jockey features 90 vocal group recordings dating from 1951 to 1962, released on the famed New York label Atlantic and its Cat and Atco subsidiaries. With pivotal tracks by the labels most famous groups The Clovers, The Drifters and The Coasters, alongside a generous selection of recordings by the less-compiled likes of The Cardinals, The Diamonds, The Chords, The Sensations, The Royal Jokers, The Ray-O-Vacs, The Superiors and The Hollywood Flames, the 3CD set will appeal to fans of rhythm & blues and doo wop, and anyone interested in the history of rock & roll and the development of soul music.
Commencing in 1951 with the February session which yielded both sides of The Clovers’ first R&B hit, the chart-topping Don’t You Know I Love You, and the recording a few weeks later of the first of three hits for The Cardinals, Please Mr Disc Jockey then chronicles the arrival of other hit-making vocal groups to Atlantic, including label stalwarts The Drifters (initially fronted by Clyde McPhatter), The Chords (aka The Chordcats and The Sh-Booms), The Sensations, The Coasters (that peerless vehicle for Leiber & Stoller’s songs), one-hit wonders The Bobbettes and migrants from Los Angeles, The Hollywood Flames. By the early Sixties, Atlantic was home to Twist And Shout originators The Top Notes, as well as The Isley Brothers and The Falcons. Ringing the changes, Please Mr Disc Jockey ends with that great staple of British beat groups (Ain’t That) Just Like Me by The Coasters.
Please Mr Disc Jockey: The Atlantic Vocal Group Sound has been conceived as a companion to Fantastic Voyage’s earlier club-centric 3CD set Right Now: Atlantic Club Soul And Deep Cuts. Taken together, these sets offer the ideal survey of the legendary label’s rich rhythm & blues legacy.
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Various - Raunchy Sugar: The Pure Essence Of Memphis Rock & Roll 2LP (LP)
€30,00Quick ViewFantastic Voyage continues to bring the Sugar series to vinyl, with 32 standout tracks selected by Stuart Colman from the 75-track 3CD set Raunchy Sugar.
Raunchy Sugar is the successor to the thoroughly-recommended Fantastic Voyage compilations, Heavy Sugar (FVDV051), Savvy Sugar (FVDV059), Sassy Sugar (FVDV098) and Classy Sugar (FVDV108). Whereas those releases were devoted to New Orleans, the West Coast, Nashville and New York respectively, Raunchy Sugar focuses on that crucible of rock ’n’ roll Memphis.
The argument will forever rage, but Memphis, Tennessee, is as much the fountainhead of rock ’n’ roll as is Cleveland, Ohio. Whilst the north had Alan Freed as its turntable champion, the south was blessed with the madcap deejay, Dewey Phillips. Chances are, ole Dewey would have played most of the 32 titles that go to make up Raunchy Sugar on his Red Hot and Blue show that aired over WHBQ in Memphis.
During the 1950s the city was alive with labels, record hops, musicians and the general chaos that goes hand in hand with the big beat. The geographical lie of the land helped a great deal, because the city was central to so many rural areas that harboured musical talent and style. Carl Perkins and Carl Mann gravitated to the area from Jackson, Tennessee, Billy Riley did the same from Arkansas, and Elvis Presley hit the trail from Mississippi in order to soak up some of that unique Shelby County action. Outside of Sam Phillips’ legendary Sun Records, the labels included such names as Hi, Cover, Fernwood, Meteor, Vaden and Satellite. The latter outlet, which would go on to become Stax, is represented here by Don Willis’ much-admired ‘Warrior Sam’. With a bunch of less well known, but retrospectively revered, artists rubbing shoulders with Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich and Sonny Burgess, you have some mighty fine Memphis rock ’n’ roll.
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Memphis Slim - Rockin’ The House – The Best Of The R & B Years 2CD (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewThe Best Of The R&B Years – Dazzling R&B piano pioneer Memphis Slim is the subject of the latest release in Fantastic Voyage’s highly-popular Definitive Collection series of blues sets.
Compiled and annotated by blues authority Neil Slaven, the two discs of Rockin’ The House straddle Slim’s post-war years up until he became one of the foremost figures in the early ’60s folk-blues revival, spotlighting his top-notch R&B band. The 50 tracks take in recordings he made for labels such as Hy-Tone, Miracle, Premium, Mercury, Peacock, United, Vee-Jay, United Artists and Strand, and include all seven of his R&B hits Born John L. Chatman in Memphis in 1915, Slim cut his musical teeth playing anywhere from levee camps to Arkansas roadhouses then Beale Street bars, mentored by Roosevelt Sykes. He arrived in Chicago in 1937, initially bootlegging whiskey, said to have been a pimp, playing piano to pay for his gambling until cutting several singles and hooking up with Big Bill Broonzy in 1940. After World War Two, Slim started leading his R&B band, which, at times, boasted the great bassist-songwriter Willie Dixon and future Blues Brother Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy.
The compilation starts in 1946 with ‘Mistake In Life’, Slim’s first release on the local Hy-Tone label, followed by further tracks for the label including the rollicking ‘Slim’s Boogie’ and trademark melancholic blues template ‘Cheatin’ Around’. He first encountered Willie Dixon recording for the Miracle label, the pair sparking their relationship on the blistering ‘Rockin’ The House’ and sublime ‘Lend Me Your Love’. From here the highlights come thick and fast: hits for Miracle, including chart-topping ‘Messin’ Around’, ‘Blue And Lonesome‘, ‘Help Me Some’, ‘Angel Child’, sonorous Premium release ‘Mother Earth’, ‘The Come Back’ (predating the stop-start groove of ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’), the autobiographical boogie of ‘Harlem Bound’, sax-enhanced outings such as ‘Train Is Comin’’, ‘Worried Life Blues’ (as covered by Keith Richards), lascivious Nick Cave fave ‘Grinder Man Blues’, the steaming vamp of ‘Steppin’ Out’ (later Eric Clapton’s showstopping showcase with John Mayall) and aching ‘Nobody Loves Me’ (the original title by which he first recorded the classic ‘Every Day I Have The Blues’, as made famous by B.B. King). The early 1950s tracks with Murphy’s riveting guitar to the fore are also represented, through to later sessions for Vee-Jay and three tracks from the 1959 Carnegie Hall concert with Muddy Waters which marked the start of the blues’ burgeoning acceptance by white audiences. From levee camps and roadhouses to Beale Street and white clubs, Slim was working his way up and was early in the charge as blues ambassador to Europe, recording several albums there before returning to Chicago to cut an exemplary batch of songs including ‘Lonesome (Blue Blues)’, ‘Four Walls’, ’Big Bertha’ and ’I’ll Keep Singing The Blues’. Based in Paris from 1962 until his death in 1988, he left a voluminous and captivating recorded legacy, of which one of its most fertile and seminal stretches is featured on this stellar set.
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Various - Stranger Than Fiction – Rockabilly Rules Again 2LP (LP)
€29,00Quick ViewLike any underground musical movement, the so-called rockabilly revival which curiously blossomed in the UK and spread out to the rest of Europe during the 1970s was largely fed by bootlegs or, at least, reissues of dubious legality. However, among the first independent reissue labels to emerge on both sides of the Atlantic, in an effort to quench the growing thirst for obscure US rockabilly in the 1970s, was a handful of rock ’n’ roll collectors and record dealers who diligently sought out the original artists and label owners to create their own legitimate catalogues and identifiable brands which have, today, become collectable singles in their own right…forty years and more down the line!
With Europe in the grip of another rockabilly revival, rock ’n’ roll authority Dave Penny has compiled the 3CD Stranger Than Fiction, which is devoted to recordings revived in the 1970s on some of those specialist labels. For this special 2LP vinyl edition, complete with annotated insert, he has selected 36 highlights, with Sides 1 and 2 drawing on the Rollin’ Rock and Record Mart respectively, while Side 3 investigates the sister labels Injun and Spade, and Side 4 rounds up the best releases on other labels of the period.
Serving as the soundtrack to a series of articles Dave Penny has contributed to Now Dig This magazine, Stranger Than Fiction allows new fans to acquire these classics, and conjures up memories for those who filled the dancefloors of the UK rock ’n’ roll clubs in the 1970s: the tom-toms introducing “Robinson Crusoe Bop”, the manic cowbells heralding “Lay Your Head On My Shoulder” or Pat Cupp’s long drawled-out “Aaaaaaa’m aaaaa…long gon’ daddy”. The obsession for obscure 1950s Americana by a host of British teenagers born two decades too late may have seemed stranger than fiction, but it cast a spell that weaves its magic to this day!
Side One – ROLLIN’ ROCK
Side Two – RECORD MART
Side Three – INJUN / SPADE
Side Four – THE BEST OF THE REST
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Various - Savvy Sugar: The Pure Essence Of West Coast Rock & Roll 2LP (LP)
€35,00Quick ViewSavvy Sugar is the successor to the thoroughly-recommended Fantastic Voyage compilation, Heavy Sugar (FVDV051). Whereas that release was devoted to a panorama of R&B sides out of New Orleans, Savvy Sugar focuses on The Pure Essence of West Coast Rock & Roll.
Los Angeles may well be synonymous with movie stars, the Capitol Tower and Sunset Boulevard, but it also ranks as a leading location on the road to rock ’n’ roll. The music’s emergence in the 1950s brought about a profusion of local recording facilities, many of which were dotted around the city’s 498 square miles. These included Radio Recorders, United, Gold Star and Master Recorders, and the studio owners were quick to learn that it paid to be as diverse as possible. The day might start with a film dubbing, ahead of a television commercial being taped over the lunch hour. Then in the afternoon the microphones could be adjusted to record a big band, followed by a teenage pop session in the evening. What made the system totally unique was the fact that a clutch of skilled musicians from the Hollywood sound stages were also responsible for supplying the goods on the rock ’n’ roll dates. Drummer Earl Palmer, guitarist René Hall, bassist Red Callender, and the sax and piano-playing brothers, Plas & Ray Johnson, were the guys in question, and their infinite adaptability was responsible for some of the most exciting rock ’n’ roll recordings of all time. Having said that, many of the new breed-ers like Ricky Nelson and Tommy Sands chose to use their own players; a situation that effectively allowed the baton to be handed over in readiness for another era.
Compiled and annotated by Stuart Colman, Savvy Sugar contains a wealth of musical nuggets, truly representing The Pure Essence Of West Coast Rock & Roll.
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Various - It’s Jamaica Jump Blues Time! Jamaican Sound System Classics 1941-1962 (2LP) (LP)
€35,00Quick ViewJamaican Sound System Classics 1941-1962
Well, no one can accuse us of rushing things: it’s been a year since Jump Blues Jamaica Way became the third volume in our Jamaican Sound System Classics series, but here at long last is the fourth instalment. It’s Jamaica Jump Blues Time! is available as both an 84-track 3CD selection and also a 28-track 2LP vinyl collector’s edition. These will be of equal interest to both Jamaican music fans and connoisseurs of classic US rhythm & blues. Since Fantastic Voyage released Jumping The Shuffle Blues back in 2011, each successive volume in the series has been eagerly awaited by lovers of the music, some of whom have even suggested tracks for the consideration of compiler and annotator Phil Etgart.
Over the last twelve months Phil has been busy researching what records were favoured by the Jamaican sound systems. This is no easy matter, considering that many had their labels scratched out and were retitled by DJs keen to preserve their “exclusives”, meaning that they were known on the island by their sound system titles. This is the music that provided the inspiration for Ska and all that followed. So enjoy sound system favourites by Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, Wynonie Harris, Fats Domino, Lowell Fulson, Roy Milton and a host of other names, both famous and obscure. Maybe we’ll do it all over again sometime, but you can’t hurry a good thing!
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Various - Starry-Eyed Serenaders 2CD (CD)
€15,00Quick ViewDreamy Doo Wop, Romantic R&B, Passionate Pop
Romance has been the overriding preoccupation of songwriters and performers through the ages, and never more so than in the golden years of rock & roll. On Starry-Eyed Serenaders, music historian and producer Stuart Colman has intertwined an array of love songs, some famous, many much sought after, that together assert what the classic make-out ballad is all about. Not every song is devoted to matters of the heart, but they certainly predominate. Sweet-sounding harmonies have an uncanny ability to render a heaven-sent lyric even dreamier, and vocal groups abound here: some in a supporting role but many as the defining ingredient of doo wop.
The collection spans 1955 to 1962, the golden years of rock & roll, and draws on the catalogues of a wide array of labels ranging from majors to small indies. Virtually all of the recordings feature vocal groups, mainly as the featured artists, but occasionally in a support role, but there are also a handful of solo performances which fit nicely with the romantic theme. True to form Stuart has largely eschewed familiar artists or titles in favour of lesser-heard recordings. So key interpreters such as the Clovers, the Crests and the Harptones, sit alongside lesser-knowns such as the Electras, the Lavenders and Robert Peebles. Many rare sides are included within the set, sides that usually sell for telephone numbers in the collectors’ world.
The groups and soloists may have been starry-eyed when it came to their objective, but they all knew how to dispense romance and classiness with a free-flowing air of authority. Starry-Eyed Serenaders will be welcomed by rock & roll fans, and (being released ahead of Valentine’s Day), would also make the ideal present for a loved one.
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Various - Bubbling Under – The American Charts 1959-1963 (3CD) (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewFringe Hits & Outlying Sounds From The Bubbling Under Chart
Compiled by Austin Powell (The Forgotten 45s, The American Music Library series), Bubbling Under The American Charts 1959-1963 is a 90-track 3CD collection of singles that accrued enough sales and/or airplay to register in the American Billboard magazine’s Bubbling Under chart, but then failed to climb into the Pop Hot 100. These recordings are of considerable interest to collectors and chart-watchers alike.
In the forties Billboard magazine ran several charts, including Songs With Most Radio Plugs, National and Regional Top 10s of the bestselling recordings of the day as well as the National and Regional Sheet Music Best Sellers. These eventually became the Top 20s or Top 40s that we now readily recognise. Of course, no matter whether it was a Top 10, Top 20 or even, after 1955 when Billboard started printing a Top 100, there would have been a record that was number 11, 21 or 101. The record was there, but no-one knew about it. In June 1959 Billboard started printing a Bubbling Under The Hot 100 list, first containing 15 songs and later 35. These records were the ones that were selling sufficiently well, and being played on radio enough regionally, to have the potential to make the main Hot 100 chart. In this 3CD package we’re bringing together some of the most interesting records from all musical genres to have graced the Bubbling Under chart but failed to progress into the Hot 100, between 1959 and 1963.
As you would expect, there are plenty of recordings by relatively obscure artists, but also a surprising number by familiar names, perhaps close to the start of their hit-making careers, or experiencing a temporary dip in their fortunes, or suffering from sales split across both sides of a disc, or even at the tail-end of their hit-making career. Big names featured include Ray Charles, Neil Sedaka, Sam Cooke, Bobby Vee, Conway Twitty, Ike & Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and Johnny Cash, but we rather suspect that it is those artists that failed to make any other impact on the charts that will quicken the pulses of inveterate collectors. The illustrated 20pp booklet carries Austin’s track-by-track annotation, including US catalogue number, date charted, peak position and equivalent UK catalogue number where relevant.
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Various - It’s Jamaica Jump Blues Time! Jamaican Sound System Classics 1941-1962 (3CD Boxset) (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewJamaican Sound System Classics 1941-1962
Well, no one can accuse us of rushing things: it’s been a year since Jump Blues Jamaica Way became the third volume in our Jamaican Sound System Classics series, but here at long last is the fourth instalment. It’s Jamaica Jump Blues Time! is another 3CD selection of US jump/shuffle blues recordings, which will be of equal interest to both Jamaican music fans and connoisseurs of classic US rhythm & blues. Since Fantastic Voyage released Jumping The Shuffle Blues back in 2011, each successive volume in the series has been eagerly awaited by lovers of the music, some of whom have even suggested tracks for the consideration of compiler and annotator Phil Etgart.
Over the last twelve months Phil has been busy researching what records were favoured by the Jamaican sound systems. This is no easy matter, considering that many had their labels scratched out and were retitled by DJs keen to preserve their “exclusives”, meaning that they were known on the island by their sound system titles. This is the music that provided the inspiration for Ska and all that followed. So enjoy sound system favourites by Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, King Pleasure, Fats Domino, Louis Prima, Rosco Gordon, T-Bone Walker, Professor Longhair and a host of other names, both famous and obscure. Maybe we’ll do it all over again sometime, but you can’t hurry a good thing!
Disc 1 – THE ROOTS OF SHUFFLE BLUES (1941-1951)
Disc 2 – THE GOLDEN YEARS OF SHUFFLE BLUES (1951-1955)
Disc 3 – THE BIG THREE TAKE OVER (1955-1962)
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Washington Dinah - Original Queen Of Soul 3CD Boxset (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewThree Decades Of Artistry
Dinah Washington was arguably the first Queen of Soul, having gained herself the soubriquet ‘The Queen’ in music circles of the early 1950s through the volume of hit records and performance notices achieved in the first decade of her career. She rose from the clubs and bars of Southside Chicago in the mid-1940s to enjoy a wealth of hit singles – some 40 reaching the Billboard R&B charts through the 1950s as Mercury Records reaped the value of her talent with almost as many albums.
It wasn’t until 1959 that Dinah scored her first major Hot 100 hit, with ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’, a turning point which also brought about hit duets with label-mate Brook Benton. With the new decade came a move to Roulette Records, where producer Henry Glover, as well as recording her on classy ballads and standards, invigorated her sound, turning back to the blues, whilst remaining at the forefront of the emergent soul market. Just as her career was about to reach new heights, galvanised by a new and diverse style, on the evening of December 14, 1963, Dinah took several sleeping pills after a heavy drinking session and didn’t make it to the next morning.
Soul music writer and broadcaster Clive Richardson presents Original Queen of Soul, an overview of the recording career of Dinah Washington, which also serves to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her death. The 80 tracks include hard-to-find club-blues recordings from the 1940s, album tracks and singles in a range of styles and moods from the 1950s, and a selection of her later work under the guidance of Henry Glover from the early 1960s.
The 3CD set features many of her hits including ‘Baby Get Lost’ (R&B #1 1949), ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (R&B #3 1951), ‘I Don’t Hurt Anymore’ (R&B #3 1954), ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ (R&B #4, Pop #8 1959), ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’ (R&B #1, Pop #5 1960), ‘A Rockin’ Good Way’ (R&B #1, Pop #7 1960) and ‘September In The Rain’ (R&B #5, Pop #23 1961). Among the eminent bandleaders and arrangers collaborating with her are Lionel Hampton, Lucky Thompson, Cootie Williams, Jimmy Cobb, Hal Mooney and Quincy Jones.
‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ was nominated the Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the Grammy awards in 1959, and posthumously she has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as an early influence). Her celebrated version of ‘Mad About The Boy’ was a UK hit following its use in a Levi’s commercial in 1992. Accompanied by an illustrated 20pp booklet annotated by Clive, Original Queen of Soul is a fitting tribute to the talent and career of the first Queen of Soul.
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Various - The Last Shout! Twilight Of The Blues Shouters 1954-1962 – 2LP (LP)
€29,00Quick ViewThe forgotten superheroes of 20th-century black music, the leather-lunged blues shouters dominated the US nightclub stages and R&B charts for half-a-dozen years or so following World War II, before being side-lined by the buoyant rock ’n’ roll storm in the early 1950s. Still considered a force with which to be reckoned in the US music industry of the mid-fifties, and still at the height of their vocal prowess, many of the biggest stars were granted one or two final shots to save their flagging recording careers during rock ’n’ roll’s heyday – their “Last Shout”. This set endeavours to document the twilight of that proud musical genre and resurrect the ultimate releases from some of the great voices of R&B. This 32 track 2LP version features prime cuts from the 97 track 3CD collection; the best of the bellowing, yelling and caterwauling as compiled and annotated by R&B authority Dave Penny.
The international blues boom of the 1960s – informed by the white Europeans’ predilection for more unsophisticated rural country blues and urban down-home blues, coupled with black America’s progressive, wholesale acceptance of gospel-steeped soul and funk – served to entomb the art of the jump blues shouter further and to remove the memory of an exciting musical form from general consciousness, until it began to be exhumed decades later.Featuring singers famous and obscure, The Last Shout! serves the best of the final commercial recordings issued for the African-American R&B market. When they were no longer commercially viable, some, like Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon, were able to make a comfortable living on the jazz circuit, others pursued alternative careers in comedy, preaching, composing or acting, yet others remained tragically determined; trying to maintain an ever-dwindling touring schedule on the chittlin’ circuit and drinking themselves into an early grave. Here, Fantastic Voyage offers a snapshot of time in the history of black music, when the undiminished power of the classic blues shouters was married to the urgent rhythms of the rock ’n’ roll era, resulting in some very special music indeed!
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Various - Quiffs At The Flicks 3CD Boxset (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewBig Screen British Rock’n’Roll
As its name suggests, Quiffs At The Flicks is a celebration of music from the rock’n’roll era, as included in feature films of the time. More than that, it is a celebration of specifically British feature films, so the music is predominantly home-grown rock & roll, skiffle and pop. But there is also space for a few US contributions, when a movie was fortunate enough to entice participants from across the Atlantic. Quiffs At the Flicks features music from 21 British movies which premiered between May 1957 and September 1962. No less than 98 tracks are included on this 3CD selection, compiled and annotated by early pop expert Lucky Parker. The 20pp booklet features colour illustrations including film posters and the sleeves of associated records.
Few if any of the films included are now regarded as cinematic landmarks, nor were they intended as such: in most cases they were conceived to exploit the music and other transient preoccupations of contemporary pop culture. But that is precisely why they now hold a fascination with people of a certain age and/or with an interest in late fifties and early sixties youth culture. Some films were clearly vehicles for a particular talent, like The Tommy Steele Story and The Young Ones, while others featured a patchwork of disparate pop stars.
Only the stoniest of hearts will not be warmed by the familiar roster of stars who inhabit these films, be it in lead roles or blink-and-you’ll-miss-them walk-on parts. They range from serious thespians to those much-loved players of character parts, and include Jackie Collins, Sid James, Anthony Quayle, Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Dirk Bogarde, David Hemmings, David McCallum (apparently These Dangerous Years was his feature film debut) and many more.
Noteworthy directors range from those based in exploitation – Michael Winner (Play It Cool), Gerald Thomas (The Duke Wore Jeans) – to those who would transcend the genre in favour of grander productions; Clive Donner (Some People), Val Guest (Expresso Bongo), Cy Endfield (Jet Storm) and Dick Lester (It’s Trad, Dad!) Nevertheless Quiffs At The Flicks documents their work together, allowing an insight into the early days of British film and its buoyant pop soundtracks. Contained within are performances by skiffle acts Lonnie Donegan, Les Hobeaux and the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group featuring Nancy Whiskey, jazz and dance band musicians like Art Baxter, Tony Crombie and Don Lang who tried their hand at rock’n’roll, early British popular vocalists like Frankie Vaughan, Petula Clark and Craig Douglas, first generation British rock’n’rollers Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury, instrumental combos The Shadows (aka The Drifters), The John Barry Seven and The Eagles, early sixties stars like Adam Faith and Helen Shapiro and the truly unique Anthony Newley. Of the US musicians so idolised in the UK, Quiffs At The Flicks nods to Bobby Vee, Gene Vincent, Gary US Bonds, Chubby Checker and Del Shannon.
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Various - She`s My Girl! She`s My Boy! 2CD (CD)
€15,00Quick ViewThe Boys Sing About The Girls, The Girls Sing About The Boys
Songwriters have been using boys’ and girls’ names in songs since the dawn of pop music. Harry Dacre wrote Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built For Two) in 1892, Ella Shields sang Burlington Bertie From Bow in 1915 and Sweet Georgia Brown and Dinah both came along in 1925. Cab Calloway introduced us to Minnie The Moocher in 1931 and in the forties Lili Marlene was a song popular with soldiers on both sides of World War 2. Rock ’n’ roll made the practice even more popular…There was a song for every Johnny and Bobby just as there was for every Sue, Donna or Peggy Sue.
Compiled by pop guru Austin Powell, the man behind Fantastic Voyage’s bestselling Forgotten 45s sets and the definitive American Music Library series, the 2CD set She’s My Girl! He’s My Boy! rounds up songs by many of rock ’n’ roll’s big names, all proclaiming their love for a particular girl, and conversely many a song by some of the era’s top girl singers longing for, or losing a Jimmy, Johnny or Ronnie – sixty in all.
Eddie Cochran, The Crickets, Fats Domino and Paul Anka are on CD1 The Boys Sing About The Girls, while Connie Francis, Petula Clark, Alma Cogan and The Shirelles are all on CD2 The Girls Sing About The Boys. Some songs you’ll already know, others will hopefully be pleasant discoveries. All told they’re a fascinating insight into the pop music of the rock ’n’ roll era and how its stars and forgotten heroes addressed their beloved objects of affection. A 20pp booklet, lavishly illustrated with original US and UK label shots, rounds off a terrific package.
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Various - The Last Shout! 3CD Boxset – Twilight Of The Blues Shouters 1954-1962 (CD)
€18,00Quick ViewThe forgotten superheroes of 20th-century black music, the leather-lunged blues shouters, dominated the US nightclub stages and R&B charts for half-a-dozen years or so following World War II, before being side-lined by the bourgeoning rock ’n’ roll storm in the early 1950s. Still considered a force with which to be reckoned in the US music industry of the mid-fifties, and still at the height of their vocal prowess, many of the biggest stars were granted one or two final shots to save their flagging recording careers during rock ’n’ roll’s heyday – their “Last Shout”. Compiled and annotated by R&B authority Dave Penny, this 3CD set from Fantastic Voyage endeavours to document the twilight of that proud musical genre and resurrect the ultimate releases from some of the great voices of R&B.
The international blues boom of the 1960s – informed by the white Europeans’ predilection for more unsophisticated rural country blues and urban down-home blues, coupled with black America’s progressive, wholesale acceptance of gospel-steeped soul and funk – served to entomb the art of the jump blues shouter further and to remove the memory of an exciting musical form from general consciousness, until it began to be exhumed decades later.
Featuring singers famous and obscure, The Last Shout! serves the best of the final commercial recordings issued for the African-American R&B market by the likes of Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Jimmy Witherspoon and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. When they no longer sold to their market, some, like Turner and Witherspoon, were able to make a comfortable living on the jazz circuit, others pursued alternative careers in comedy, preaching, composing or acting, yet others remained tragically determined; trying to maintain an ever-dwindling touring schedule on the chittlin’ circuit and drinking themselves into an early grave. 97 tracks and a 20pp illustrated booklet offer a snapshot of time in the history of black music, when the undiminished power of the classic blues shouters was married to the urgent rhythms of the rock ’n’ roll era, resulting in some very special music indeed!
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Various - Right Now! Atlantic Club Soul And Deep Cuts 2LP (LP)
€15,00Quick ViewThe 2LP vinyl collector’s edition of Right Now: Atlantic Club Soul And Deep Cuts sees Lois Wilson (Mojo, Record Collector) select 32 of the most sought-after cuts from her 86-track 3CD compilation.
Following her highly successful explorations of the Motown and Chess catalogues, Lois Wilson (Mojo, Record Collector) turns her attention to the iconic Manhattan-based Atlantic Records. Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, the key participants in the company’s rise to success included studio engineer Tom Dowd, consummate record man Jerry Wexler, Ahmet’s brother Nesuhi and the dynamic songwriting/production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and crucial early signings included Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Chuck Willis, Clyde McPhatter and LaVern Baker.
All those names are represented on Right Now, alongside other performers who recorded for Atlantic and its subsidiary Atco (founded in 1955) in the forties, fifties and early sixties, years which saw the evolution of rhythm & blues into soul. The diversity of Atlantic’s roster is represented by the presence of early Atlantic hit-makers Stick McGhee and Joe Morris, consummate soul singers Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Bettye LaVette and Barbara Lewis, a pre-Motown Isley Brothers, New Orleans piano man Professor Longhair, saxophonists Willis “Gator” Jackson and King Curtis, blues guitar pioneer T-Bone Walker, Louisiana rock ’n’ roller Dale Hawkins, jazz singer Mel Torme, and the vocal group sound of the Clovers, the Coasters and the Falcons (then including Wilson Pickett and Mack Rice in their ranks). Some of these recordings were acknowledged successes from their initial release; others have acquired popularity among collectors and on the club scene over the intervening decades.
Right Now offers club-friendly and deep catalogue selections drawn from the wealth of rhythm & rock released on the hallowed label.
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Various - Hoosier Daddy: Mar-Vel’ And The Birth Of Indiana Rockabilly 2LP (LP)
€20,00Quick ViewThe 2LP vinyl collector’s edition of Hoosier Daddy sees rock & roll authority Dave Penny select 32 prime rockabilly tracks from the massive 105-track 3CD set. This latest release from Fantastic Voyage provides yet another piece in the musical jigsaw that was the USA before the globalisation and homogenisation of the music industry. Hoosier Daddy tells the story of the pioneering and industrious Indiana record man, Harry Glenn, and his Mar-Vel’ and Glenn labels and his importance in bringing country rock ’n’ roll to the state of Indiana.
Indiana, the Hoosier State, is not one that immediately springs to mind when considering the great centres of American musical excellence in the mid-20th century. The celebrated Vee-Jay Records was launched there in 1953, but within months had relocated to nearby Chicago. A host of jazz legends graduated from the clubs of the state capitol, Indianapolis, which also played host to a lively blues scene in the 1920s and 1930s, from which Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell emerged, but musicians had to seek their fortunes elsewhere. By the mid-1940s, with the war effort in full swing, the influx of those leaving the southern states to colonise the north-western corner of Indiana, in pursuit of well-paid jobs was at an all-time high. While these migrants may have considered themselves neo-sophisticates with fat bank rolls in their pockets, they were homesick and pining for some down-home entertainment which was willingly supplied by other, musically-gifted migrants from Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. Into this maelstrom of musical talent entered a man with the desire to supply this untapped market, but not another Southern migrant – Harry Glenn was a Hoosier born and bred…
In addition to long-cherished cult rockabilly favourites such as Bobby Sisco, Herbie Duncan, Chuck Dallis and Harry Carter, Hoosier Daddy includes a host of rare tracks from other more obscure performers. In addition to the Harry Glenn story, we also look at the other important Indiana rockabilly labels from Indianapolis (Note, Nabor, Yolk, Tyme, Glee and Whispering Pines), Fort Wayne (Emerald), Marion (Claudra), Muncie (Poor Boy) and others…all gone but not forgotten. All in all, a must-have for collectors of rockabilly.
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Various - Soul City New Orleans 2CD (CD)
€15,00Quick ViewSoul City New Orleans presents records which served to establish the musical direction of the city in the early 1960s, at the dawn of the soul era. Perhaps the most glowing testimony to the city came from songwriters Frank Guida and Joe Royster in their 1960 smash hit “New Orleans” for Gary ‘U.S.’ Bonds: “Where the magnolia blossoms fill the air, you ain’t been to heaven if you ain’t been there.” New Orleans is also known as the Crescent City for its geographic shape, or the Big Easy for the city’s atmosphere and pace of life, largely driven by the high humidity and the general bonhomie endemic of South Louisiana.
The music of New Orleans has tended to match the lifestyle, easy tempo with gently insistent rolling beat and a rhythm driven either by a thumping on-beat (Mardi Gras marching bands and second-line parades) or a laid-back off-beat. While the formative talent from the city’s rhythm & blues years was all signed to remote labels, by the end of the Fifties things were beginning to look up in the local industry, and there was a relative wealth of labels active in the city.
Compiled and annotated by soul music authority and radio presenter Clive Richardson, Soul City New Orleans features significant releases on local labels like Minit, Instant, Ric, Ron, Bandy and AFO, as well as NOLA-related recordings for other imprints both large and small. Here we have music from the formative period of the soul era in the Big Easy.
