Great Sixties Soul Albums

Definitely Tate's Get It While You Can
The Immortal Otis Redding
In the Midnight Hour
Etta James, The Second Time Around
The Temptations, With a Lot o' Soul
Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Booker T. and the MGs, Hip Hug Her
The Impressions, The Young Mod's Forgotten Story
The Jackson 5, ABC
Alexander's Lonely Just Like Me is from 1993, but his best album.

sam cooke's night beat

Oh: Sam Cooke, Night Beat and the Meters' Josie albums.

haha xpost

One of JB's best studio albums is just outside the period, but I'll mention it here: Hot Pants

William Bell's -the Soul of a Bell is a great Album, despite being the usual Stax compendium of singles+
Bobby Bland's Two Steps from the Blues and Here's the Man
Oscar Toney Jr. For Your Precious Love
Aretha's first 4 Atlantic LPs
Roberta Flack's First Take
Ike Turner's A Black Man's Soul
Arthur Conley's Sweet Soul Music Let Nothin' Separate Us and Where You Lead Me are up there with the title track

500 Awesome Funk and Soul Albums

One of my favorites is a disc I have (burnt, so I don't even know if it's an official release, or in print, or whatever) by Irma Thomas called Down at the Muscle Shoals.. It's basically a compilation of tracks she recorded at said studio. I believe much of this material may have been released as an album under the title Something Good, so seek that out if you want something concise and album-like, maybe. It's a great session! It's grittiness is unique from other similar material, I think. You can really hear her voice going into the red, and at other times she just plays it so cool.

'60s: Joe Tex's Buying a Book
Gene Chandler's Woman Handler

I'm not a big fan of Otis Blue, altho the new reissue is spiffy. Otis, I love him I guess, but he never gets off the ground half the way. But Dictionary of Soul is pretty definitive.

soul: Chris Kenner's only real album, Land of 1000 Dances
Lee Dorsey on Josie.

1969: Bobby Womack, Fly Me to the Moon.

for that matter, Swamp Dogg's Total Destruction to Your Mind is '69, right?

There's an insane amount of Jerry Williams production stuff out there, on Ace mainly, beside the Doris Duke material. I can't keep track of it myself, but a lot of it's good.

also, Clyde McPhatter's Sundazed reissue of A Shot of Rhythm and Blues, which was an actual '60s album I think, recorded '65-'67 and all amazing, with the intense super-soul-pop death-wish career-death ode "I Dreamt I Died" one of the most incredible things I have ever heard in any idiom or decade.

I only see about four names on the original list that I wouldn't necessarily regard as soul giants, but someone's already mentioned Doris Duke, and you've simply got to get her CD compilation of Swamp Dogg productions on Ace. Best soul album ever. And on the same label, "Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures" and "The Birth Of Soul" series - three or four volumes in each series - are loaded with great 60s soul you may not have heard.

I've got the Irma Thomas Muscle Shoals sessions, some of my favorites. I read pretty ambivalent things about the MCPhatter platter, but Dogg's Total Destruction and the Doris Duke sounds like real gems! From AMG:

"By 1969 standards, the lyrics are sobering in their candor and, considering that this is loosely a concept album about the darkest facets of love and secret relationships, quite relentless, too. Credit is due to legendary soul eccentric Swamp Dogg, who produced and wrote most of I'm a Loser and a good deal of the follow-up, A Legend in Her Own Time. Legend isn't as intense as its predecessor and really, how could it be? It's an excellent companion, though, and its lighter tone and punchy horn arrangements are a welcome reprieve from the weight of I'm a Loser. As with most of the output on Kent, the liner notes here are superb, including technical facts like chart position for singles, a great look at Duke and how she viewed her work from this time, and a record review from the late soul expert Dave Godin, who considered Loser to be "the best album I have ever heard."

Gonna grab this from Dusty Groove for sure. Total Destruction is out of print, and I don't see any used copies anywhere at the moment.

Marvin Gaye M.P.G.
Johnnie Taylor Wanted One Soul Singer
Jerry Butler The Iceman Cometh
Temptations Puzzle People
Isaac Hayes Hot Buttered Soul
Otis Redding Love Man
Wilson Pickett The Exciting Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett Hey Jude
Ike & Tina Turner River Deep, Mountain High

That reminds me to remind you to check out the recently released Johnnie Taylor, Live At The Summit Club.

Joe Tex I've Got To Do A Little Bit Better
Joe Tex Soul Country
Joe Tex Happy Soul

I like Joe Tex a lot.

Total Destruction is out of print, and I don't see any used copies anywhere at the moment.

actually, Total Destruction is readily available on Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg Vol. 1.

the McPhatter Sundazed disc is great! Essential.

Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" is nice enough. The title track and "Yester-me, Yester-you, Yesterday" are of course both amazing, and the rest of the tracks aren't all that bad either (except for the ill-advised cover of "Light My Fire")

And you can order "Total Destruction" directly from Mr. Dogg himself, and he'll autograph it for you!

http://www.swampdogg.net/

or write him!

swampd✧✧✧@swampd✧✧✧.n✧✧

or better yet, buy his house on eBay, get all his (many) gold records and he'll play a private show for you:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Jerry-Swamp-Dogg-Williams-Estate-and-Museum_W0QQitemZ190226755701QQihZ009QQcategoryZ12605QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Sorry about that email address, but it's pretty obvious what it is.

sam cooke's night beat

this is one of the best albums EVER

also almost all the Temps' mid- to late-60s albums are incredibly solid. dig that Norman Whitfield psych silliness.

The recommendation for "I'm a Loser" upthread is OTM. This is one of the best albums I've bought in a while. You can get a two-for-one of "Loser" and "Legend" from ITunes for 9.99.

Well, I found a used copy of Dogg's Destruction at Reckless and have it on hold to pick up. Ordered I'm A Loser and Vol 1 of Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures from Deepdiscount. I already have the first few volumes of Birth Of Soul.

I'll have to investigate the Joe Tex albums, as I only have one comp. Thanks for the tips, good stuff here.

Joe Tex Buying a Book needs to be on that list.

Dogg's Destruction on vinyl? don't let that one escape.
here's something i wrote about Dave Godin when he passed away in 2004.

I forgot to mention that the Temptations are another big hole in my collection and I'm picking up the two twofers at Dusty Groove tonight!

These are really great recommendations. I have the Sam Cooke, Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Howard Tate, Etta James, Stevie Wonder, and will get the Butler, Flack and Kenner at Deepdiscount. Nice to find a lot of these available!

What year is Gene Chandler - Woman Handler from? Can't find it anywhere, nor is it mentioned on Allmusic. These are also hard to find:

Lee Dorsey – Ride Your Pony (Amy) 66
Lee Dorsey – The New Lee Dorsey (Amy) 66
Lee Dorsey – Yes We Can (Polydor) 70
Joe Tex – I’ve Got To Do A Little Better (Atlantic) 66
Joe Tex – The New Boss (Atlantic) 66

The Wilson Pickett and Bobby Womack albums are out of stock where I've looked, but probably still in print.

Any opinions on these?

Vicki Anderson - Mother Popcorn (King)
J.J. Barnes/Steve Mancha/Darrell Banks – The Sound Of Detroit (Stax)
William Bell – Bound to Happen/Wow 1969-1971 (Stax) 71
Solomon Burke – King Solomon (Atlantic) 68
Tyrone Davis – Turn Back The Hands Of Time (Dakar) 69
Betty Everett - You're No Good (Vee-Jay) 64
Eddie Floyd – Knock On Wood (Stax) 67
Jimmy Hughes – Why Not Tonight? (Atco) 67
Isley Brothers – Doin’ Their Thing (Motown) 69/ It’s Our Thing (T-Neck) 69
Freda Payne – Band of Gold (HDH) 70
David Ruffin - My Whole World Ended (Motown) 69
Joe Simon - Simon Sings (Sound Stage 7) 69
Candi Staton – I’m Just A Prisoner (Fame) 69
Marva Whitney – It’s My Thing (King) 69

May your weekend be funky, and may your booty glisten.

Rev. Hoodoo gave me more tips, and since he's misplaced his login info I'll post it:

Lorraine Ellison Stay With Me (Warner Bros.-7 Arts)
Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St. Band You're So Beautiful (Warner Bros.)
Howard Tate Get It While You Can (Verve, rereleased with one or two tracks added as Howard Tate)
Roy C. Sex & Soul (Mercury)
Martha & the Vandellas Watchout! (Gordy)

The Roy C. is sort of a compilation, but it doesn't advertise itself that way...they just put his then-current single ("Don't Blame The Man") on an album and surrounded it with a bunch of earlier 45's that Roy pressed himself. The Lorraine Ellison album was kinda piecemeal too. A few of the albums on your list are like that...the Chris Kenner LP came out in '66, but the songs were at least five years old by then. But these are still good records.

Soul music really was a singles medium. With some artists, they used to put hit songs on two consecutive albums just to make sure the LP sold.

oooh yeah Charles Wright cut some really solid LPs. I can't remember any of their titles though

I like how on the cover, or one of the covers, of the Howard Tate album his head is shaped like guitar, or vice-versa.

It's still evolving but I made a top 200 list: http://www.fastnbulbous.com/best_soul.htm

ah, "Woman Handler" turns out to be a sampler my friend made, of Gene Chandler's '60s stuff. What is a real album, and fine, is The Girl Don't Care, '67. Contains "Buddy Ain't It a Shame," maybe my fave Chandler moment. He's better on the uptempo material, I think, and doesn't do enough of it. Also good: Just Be True, '64.