Groovy, Sexy & Soulful Part 7
Mary J. Blige Feat. Drake – Mr. Wrong (2012)
From her latest album 'My life II: the journey continues (act 1)' and her new single. Mary sings: 'Bad boys ain't good, good boys ain't fun...' Her new album is a sequel to her 1994's 'My life', a true classic. This duet with Drake borrows a few words from 'Me and Mrs Jones', the well-known Philly song from Billy Paul, written by Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble.
Glen Campbell – These Days [B-Shakes Edit] (2008/2011)
Thanks to Bill Shakes and Matt Garlick for this edit of Glen Campbell's 2008 cover version of the Jackson Browne classic, originally performed by Nico in 1967. Glen sadly suffers from Alzheimer's disease nowadays and he just recently released his last album 'Ghost on the canvas', his farewell to the music business. In this song he sings: 'These days I think a lot of the things I forgot to do...' It's a beautiful piece of music. Glen Campbell is most famous for hits like 'Southern nights' and 'Rhinestone cowboy' in the 1970s.
Marvin Gaye – Ain’t That Peculiar [SoulP & Neil Thompson Summer Madness Mix] (2009)
The lyrics of this song are about a guy with a tormented soul: 'Every chance you get you seem to hurt me more and more/But each hurt makes my love stronger than before'. More about this wonderful combination of 'Ain't that peculiar' from Marvin Gaye and 'Summer madness' from Kool & the Gang on the Soulpersona blog.
Mystic Moods – The Morning After (1976)
The orginal was sung by Renée Armand in 1972. Maureen McGovern brought this song to a Billboard number one the same year. I chose for this suggestive instrumental cover.
Johnny Mathis – How Deep Is Your Love (1978)
Originally a classic from the Bee Gees and it was used for ‘Saturday Night Fever’. Johnny Mathis turns this pop song into a real soul gem! It’s from his ‘You Light Up My Life’ album.
Billy Paul – Let ‘Em In (1976)
Billy Paul had a worldwide hit with ‘Me And Mrs. Jones’ in 1973. This is a cover of a Paul McCartney song, but the lyrics have been changed. It’s now about the social struggles of the late sixties and early seventies. There are snippets of the famous Martin Luther King speech in it. There are two superb Billy Paul tracks on a new Philly compilation album called 'Philly Busters' that came out as the 24th volume of the Backbeats series.
Donna Washington – Save Your Love For Me (1980)
From her album ‘For The Sake Of Love’. She’s a great singer with a powerful voice. Later on she appeared on some gospel house tracks.
Lawrence Hilton Jacobs – Lock Me Up (1979)
I don't know much about this singer. It's a very good song though! It's from his 'All the way... love' album.
Lisa Danielle – You’re All I Need (1985)
I don’t know anything about this artist either. Her voice sounds a bit like the one of Deniece Williams. This song came out on the Sugarhill label which was led by the late Sylvia Robinson. The label was best known for the Sugar Hill Gang, of course. There's a guy on the track as well, but he's a complete mystery to me. Anyone who knows more?
The Jones Girls – Won’t Let It Take You Back (1984)
How I love those voices! This song came out on the famous Philadelphia International label, but they already had left the company by then. They never reached commercial success unfortunately.
Ronn Matlock – Feeling Something (1979)
This man sounds like the brother of Isaac Hayes (Chef from ‘South Park’ and known for his classic ‘Shaft’). Great baritone voice!
Silver Convention – San Francisco Hustle (1976)
This German based female vocal group is best remembered for their disco smash ‘Fly Robin Fly’. It reached the number one position on the American pop charts in 1975. They made a few really nice disco tunes, with some great string arrangements in it, like this one. The highest position of ‘San Francisco Hustle’ was number 8 on the Billboard disco charts.
Fat Larry’s Band – Act Like You Know [12”] (1982)
From their album ‘Breakin’ Out’ which includes their well-known ballad ‘Zoom’. This type of dance music from the early eighties is often called ‘club soul’ in stead of ‘disco’. On July 12, 1979, an anti-disco protest in Chicago called 'Disco Demolition Night', led by dj Steve Dahl, had shown that an angry backlash against disco and its culture had emerged in the United States ('disco sucks'). In the subsequent months and years, many musical acts associated with disco struggled to get airplay on the radio.
Soulpersona Feat. Freesia – Babylon [Exclusive Promo Version] (2011)
A very danceable track from the album 'The lapdancer' that came out last year.
Hodges James And Smith – Love Was Just A Word (1973)
A very nice soul song produced by Joe Sample from The Crusaders. It's from their album 'Incredible'.
Courtney Pine – Darwin's Dream Deferred (2011)
From his latest album 'Europa'. No one can play the saxophone better than he does!
Chic – Sao Paolo (1977)
A smooth instrumental track from Bernard Edwards en Nile Rodgers that closes the mix perfectly.
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