Your Custom Text Here
Scott Walker, 1943-2019
Song of the Day: A short musical tribute to the great and now sadly late American-born British singer and composer with that extraordinary baritone voice, from his Walker Brothers pop era to a solo career of great influence, innovation and experiment
Read more
Garnet (originally Garnett) Mimms
Song of the Day: Following Miles Davis with In A Silent Way, a beautiful ‘64 soul number pleading for silence on a noisy street by the artist who grew up in Philadelphia and developed his Sam Cooke-like voice in church and doo-wop bands
Read more
The Staple Singers - fronted by Mavis
Song of the Day: On the day Donald Trump calls an attention-seeking national emergency to get funding for his controversial wall project, a song from 1973 by the great soul and gospel family with a message that’s loud and clear
Read more
Robert Redford and Paul Newman making their last stand in the 1969 film
Song of the Day: Today’s date, 7 November, is significant in all sorts of ways - elections, revolutions, births, deaths, but it’s the day in 1908 when two of America’s most famous outlaws were reportedly killed on the run in Bolivia
Read more
Shaft (1971) with the lead role played by Richard Roundtree, but perhaps best known for Isaac Hayes’s music
Song of the Day: Who is the man? Isaac Hayes - that is. Damn right! Today’s choice of orchestral funk, and another film theme, comes from the great Stax songwriter and singer from Tennessee, king of the deep voice
Read more
Curtis Mayfield on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Baby Huey, whose brilliant only album was produced by Curtis Mayfield, let’s turn to the man himself with a trio classic tracks from 1972 that show the full range of his funk and orchestration prowess
Read more
At work and play: Baby Huey, as shown on his sole album of 1971
Song of the Day: We move from Britain’s Labi Siffre to a funk-soul legend from Indiana, who died at the age of just 26 and whose album, The Baby Huey Story: Living Legend was released posthumously in 1971
Read more
Labi Siffre
Song of the Day: After Véronique Sanson, more mid-70s soul-funk full-orchestral music, this time from the influential British artist sampled by Eminem, and two classic songs fully using fat bass and rhythmic violin and brass sections
Read more
Véronique Sanson
Song of the Day: Following from the previous but one song, Bernardette by the Four Tops, a switch of gender, and style, with funk and soul number from the acclaimed artist from the 1970s nouvelle chanson française
Read more
The cover of Lee Moses’s classic 1971 album
Song of the Day: After the Four Tops, two superb and passionate songs about tricky relationships from a hugely under-rated artist who worked in the same circles, and made a classic 1971 album
Read more
The Four Tops
Song of the Day: Another helpless love song in the form of a stone-cold 1967 classic marked by superlative, heartfelt lead vocals by Levi Stubbs fronting the Motown band, and written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland
Read more
Otis Redding, 1941-1967
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s classic blues number best known for Lead Belly, another simmering jealousy classic from one of the great soul stars whose life was tragically cut short in a 1967 plane crash aged only 26
Read more
The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
Read more
Song of the Day: Following a series of gospel sings, let's move into a mixture of blues, soul and an even wider theme with song that brought this star back into the public eye in 2002, backed by The Blind Boys of Alabama
Read more
The Blind Boys of Alabama in later years, including founders Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter
Song of the Day: From mountains with Mahalia Jackson and the rain from Rosetta Tharpe and Ray Charles, we turn to similar heights with the great gospel singing group that has been going since 1939 and a songwriter also from Alabama
Read more
Ray Chalres
Song of the Day: After Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing in rainy Manchester in 1964, another great's rendition of a another wet weather number written by Tony Joe White in 1967 from his 1972 album Through The Eyes Of Love
Read more
Aretha Franklin 1942-2018)
Song of the Day: A tribute to the one of the greatest of all. With the passing of Memphis-born Aretha Louise Franklin (25 March 25, 1942 – 16 August 2018), we say farewell to far more than soul singing at its best
Read more
Fatoumata Diawara
Song of the Day: After a series of longer established African stars, a more contemporary one – the Ivory Coast born singer songwriter, from her 2018 album, Fenfo (Something To Say), with a song about mass migration
Read more
Youssou N'Dour
Song of the Day: Moving from Morocco, and another huge figure in African music and the style of mbalax, which mixes jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal
Read more
Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui
Song of the Day: From the deserts of Mali with Tuareg band Tinariwen to the Sahara further north, and the sublime singer Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui from her 2013 album, Soul of Morocco
Read more