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This year’s “in” black music style is the slow, sweet groove of soul harmony ballads. Interest has grown over the last decade and now the rarer of these records regularly reach four figure prices. This interest in Soul Harmony has led to Ace forming its own singles label of that name for the purpose of issuing tracks on vinyl for DJs and collectors of this genre.
Though not that expensive, several tracks on here command hefty prices due to demand. The Question Marks on Money, the Puffs on Dore, John Wesley and the 4 Tees’ Melic offering will make a hole in most pockets. We aren’t picking the songs on price though, rather on musical excellence. Hence the recordings by the Mad Lads, Moments, Diplomats and Lee Williams & The Cymbals are relatively common gems which just sound great in this context.
Where the CD makes itself unmissable is the first digital inclusion of prime examples of the harmony sound by the little-known 87Th Off Broadway, the Exclusive, Natural Resources and the Soul Interiors. All of those numbers were discovered in the tape vaults of licensors that we work with; that these excellent sides were unreleased is bemusing.
We have expanded the time span usually associated with these sounds to accommodate great earlier and later examples of the craft. The west coast offerings of the Imperialites, Question Marks, Music City Soul Brothers and Ray & Bob hark back to the doo wop era but are clearly great soul records. The musical style went through the 70s and even in 1980 Dave Hamilton and his young writing partner Dexter Dixon were still searching for that romantic love song sound.
Buy this CD and you will soon have “Soul Harmony” in your head.
Tracklist
1. I'VE NEVER FOUND A GIRL - The Mad Lads
2. INSTANT REPLAY - 87th Off Broadway
3. JUST BECAUSE HE WANTS TO MAKE LOVE (DOESN'T MEAN HE LOVES YOU) - The Moments
4. I'LL BE GONE - Lee Williams & The Cymbals
5. LET IT ALL OUT - Jimmy Conwell
6. MR LOVER SUPREME - Ramona King
7. THE WIND IS MY ONLY FRIEND - The Four Tees
8. FOR THE LOVE OF YOU - Natural Resources
9. I STILL LOVE YOU - The Exclusive
10. MY FRIEND HEARTACHES - The Soul Interiors
11. OOH BABY BABY - The San Francisco TKOs (featuring Penny Lewis)
12. FOREVER - The Diplomats
13. MOON OUT THERE - The Puffs
14. AIN'T THAT KINDA SAD - The Question Marks
15. THE GREATEST LOVE - The Four Sonics
16. YOU STILL NEED ME – Johnny Wesley & The Four Tees
17. SOMETHING IN MY EYE – The Music City Soul Brothers
18. TAKE ME BACK - The Three Reasons
19. GIRL I TRIED - The Performers
20. LOVE DON'T LET ME DOWN - Nightchill
21. YOU LOOK LIKE A FLOWER - Richard Caiton
22. PALMS OF PARADISE - Ray & Bob
23. WHO DO YOU LOVE - The Imperialites
24. THE STORY SAYS - The Tokays