Sounds Of Soul chronicles and playlist (27.09.2013): Sidney premier
It’s not every day that we’ve got the chance for a worldwide premier at Sounds Of Soul so it was a special honour to introduce Sidney Barnes latest 45 at last weeks show before it even left the pressing plant. If there is a career in R&B and Soul that can be truly called diverse and enduring it’s Sidney Barnes’s one. Born in Welch, West Virginia this multitalented artist got a lasting place in the history of Afro-American music, be it as singer, songwriter, producer or as live performer. In his high school years in Newark, New Jersey he crossed paths with likes of Marvin Gaye and Van McCoy before hooking up with the Serenaders with whom he recorded three singles on the Riverside, V.I.P. and Motown labels. The group split up and Sidney Barnes concentrated on a career as solo artist and songwriter. His own recordings from this time on the Red Bird label “You’ll Always Be in Style” and “I Hurt on the Other Side” laid the foundation for his legendary reputation in the Northern Soul scene. But it was his work as songwriter for Billy Prophet, Inez and Charles Foxx, and most notably the Shangri-Las, in addition to being a member of psychedelic Soul group Rotary Connection, that made him a household name in the word of R&B in the 60s. In the following decade he continue to work as writer and producer for great artists like George Clinton, Parliament, Funkadelic, Deniece Williams and Minnie Riperton. It’s a sign of his extraordinary talent that he never really got out of fashion as an musician and performer even after the boom years of Soul, Disco and Funk faded. With the resurrection of Northern Soul in last 20 years his enduring career got another boost that holds on to this day as this double-sider proofs. For the self-penned “Best Thing (That Ever Happened)” backed by Nolan Porters Northern classic “If I Could Only Be Sure” Sidney Barnes teamed up with prolific UK funk band Speedometer who laid the solid and yet driving backing to what very well be the floor-filler of the season.
And here’s the playlist of last weeks show, including both of Sidney Barnes sides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCf9FwrOpHo
Randy Brown/I’m Always In The Mood/7″ Parachute
Dorothy Morrison/I Can’t Go Without You part I/7″ Brown Door records
Opus Seven/Hey Big Brother/7″ Source
Sidney Barnes/Best Thing (That Ever Happened)/7″ Record Shack
Sidney Barnes/If I Could Only Be Sure/7″ Record Shack
Walter Heath/You Know You’re Wrong Don’t You Brother/LP Buddah
Bobby Womack/There’s One Thing That Beats Failing/LP Lookin’ For A Love Again/Edsel
Donny Hathaway/The Ghetto Part 1/7″ Atlantic
Voices Of East Harlem/I Like Having You Around/7″ Just Sunshine
The Summits/It Takes Two/7″ DC international records
David Ruffin/Rode By The Place/7″ Tamla Motown
The Chi-Lites/Stoned Out Of My Mind/7″/Brunswick
McFadden & Whitehead/Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (The Philadelphia Phillies Version)/7″ TSOP
Lifestyle/Katrina/7″ MCA Records
Lynn Varnado/Ain’t That Something/7″ Testpress
Diane Jenkins/Tow-A-Way Zone/7″ Crystal
Lonette McKee/Do To Me/7″ Sussex
Sugar Pie DeSanto/Git Back/7″ Jasman
T.S.U Toronados/Please Heart Don’t Break/7″ Rampart Street
Exportations/Meet The Exportations (Fell In Love Too Late)/LP United Artists
Robert Moore/Tears Of The World/7″ Blue Candle
Gloria Walker/Gift of Love/7″ Federal
Loleatta Holloway/Cry To Me/7″ Aware
If you want to hear the show back here is the link to the Sounds Of Soul page at Eastside radio:
https://eastsidefm.org/specialist/soundsofsoul/
DJ Burn Hard