Jackie Wilson, Gladys Knight, Erma Franklin, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Esther Phillips, Irma Thomas, Chuck Jackson… This guy wrote Giving Up, the Donny Hathaway masterpiece, for crying out loud.

An early associate of Ray Charles and Ike Turner, Alan Merry ran his YoDi, Gateway and Merry labels like a kind of community youth project, in tough, late-sixties East St. Louis, Illinois.

Another knockout diggers’ selection of sweet, stately soul music; heavy on the hurt and harmony, just like its predecessor.
Both volumes are stuffed with killlers, and hotly recommended.
Terrific.

A selection of her Minit and Bandy sevens, from 1960-63.
Unmissable New Orleans soul, killers galore, with Aaron Neville shining through the compositions, and superb, rawly emotional singing.
Somebody Told You, Cry On, Breakaway, It’s Raining, Ruler Of My Heart, How I Wish Someone Would Care…

Masterly Barry White production from 1974, the same year Brock handed Gloria Scott his killer song A Case Of Too Much Love Makin’. The title track is the business.
Plundered by Jay Z, Mos Def and Pete Rock.