Surfing attracted its own music in the early 1960s – Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, and instrumental ‘beat groups’ like the Surfaris and Chantays. But as longboards gave way to shortboards to shape a more frantic, carving style of surfing, loud punk, grunge and garage became...
of course, made Storey’s task of research more demanding and almost certainly more entertaining). When I worked in A&R there, in the mid-’70s, someone told me one morning that the Richmond branch of the Blackwell-owned One Stop Records...
1reranks The best Southern soul songs are delivered by true superstar musicians. These are the legends of soul andrhythm and bluesmusic, and these songs reflect an era when nearly every tune was powerful, emotional, and memorable. This style became popular in the 1960s and '70s, when g...
(January 6, 2023) His name wasn’t known to music fans generally, but he was an original member of one of the all-time great vocal groups. Today we say a sad goodbye toGordy Harmon,one of the founding members of the iconic singing group The Whispers. Harmon died last night in his s...
Music from Japan in the 1970s proved just how far and wide rock music from America and the UK had spread in the 1960s. Groups like RC Succession became massively popular in Japan as they interpreted the genre through the music they grew up listening to. The Sadistic Mika Band churned out...
(April 7, 2019) During the late 1960s and early 70s, Chicago was one of the nation’s hotspots for soul music, and one of the native groups from the Windy City that was keeping folks grooving wasThe Notations.With two monster hits, “I’m Still Here” and “It Only Hurts For Awhil...
I don't have a long post to write here - I can't say I really knew the Dramatics' catalog as deeply as that of other groups though obviously, I'm up on their big hits. I did find it fascinating that they were a Detroit group yet signed to the star of the South: Stax/Volt. ...
By in fact one of Dave Lee of RePublic Records’ alter egos, this ’70s jazz-funk and ’90s sparse synth fusing New York-style 33⅓rpm six tracker has the Nite-Liters/MFSB ‘K-Jee’ underpinned twittery burbling ‘I Don’t Need You No More’ (118¾-119bpm...
Gladys Knight and the Pips were an American vocal group that was among the most popular rhythm and blues and soul groups of the 1960s and ’70s and that was unique in having a female lead singer and male backup singers.
Maxwell: Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite (1996) A song cycle that moves from a passionate fling to a breakup to a reunion and marriage proposal, Maxwell’s sumptuous debut album dilates one turbulent romance into a celebration of monogamous love and ’70s soul. To bring this retro vision to li...