As a teenager I used to play table tennis in the basement of a house in Cheltenham and as we practiced for our youth league games, we would listen to music. Unfortunately we only had one LP. That LP was called ‘This Is Soul’ and we played it to extinction. It from this time that I developed my love of this style of music and the iconic artists who performed it.
Appearing first in the UK in 1968, This Is Soul was an immediate success. The compilation features the best of Stax and Atlantic artists, at a time when mainstream radio was not focused on soul music, and buying a compilation like this was UK’s first introduction to the great soul music from the US. The original album release, was in mono, starting and ending with Wilson Pickett and featuring the likes of Ben E. King, Sam & Dave and Percy Sledge. There was also a later Rhino version on CD, which features 17 bonus tracks including the likes of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and The Bar-Kays. ‘This Is Soul’ is the definitive soul compilations of the era.
“Sweet Soul Music” was first released by Arthur Conley in 1967. Written by Conley and Otis Redding, it is based on the Sam Cooke song “Yeah Man” from his posthumous album Shake the opening riff is a quote from Elmer Bernstein’s score for the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven. In the US, “Sweet Soul Music” reached the number two spot on the Billboard, and number two on the R&B chart. Overseas, it peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart. “Sweet Soul Music” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disk.
“When a Man Loves a Woman” is a song written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright and first recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. Released by Atlantic Records in April 1966, Sledge’s recording reached number one on both the Billboard and R&B singles charts, becoming the first number 1 hit recorded in Muscle Shoals. It is also one of seven number 1 hits to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 100. The single was also a top ten hit in the UK reaching number four on its initial release and ultimately peaking at number two in 1987 on the UK Singles Chart after it was featured in a Levi’s Jeans commercial. The Percy Sledge version is listed 53rd in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“Knock on Wood” is a 1966 hit song written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper and originally performed by Floyd. His recording peaked at number 28 on the Billboard and spent one week at number 1 on the Soul Singles chart. The song was written in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee (now The National Civil Rights Museum). Steve Cropper has stated in interviews that there was a lightning storm the night that he and Eddie wrote the song, hence the lyrics ‘It’s like thunder, lightning, The way you love me is frightening’. Floyd’s version earned a Gold certification from the RIAA in July 1995.
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You is the tenth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin. The record was released in March 1967, by Atlantic Records. The record went to number 2 on the Billboard album chart and number 1 on the magazine’s Top R&B Selling chart. The album included two top-10 singles: “Respect” was a number-1 single on the Billboard Pop singles chart, and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” peaked at number 9. The album was rated the 10th best album of the 1960s by Pitchfork.
