I'm tempted to just post this list and suggest you head straight to the links ... there are some really good videos this time.

1. Fontella Bass, "Rescue Me." Her mom sang gospel with the Clara Ward Singers, her husband was avant-garde jazzbo Lester Bowie, but she's best known for this fine soul hit.

2. Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band, "I'm a Woman." I couldn't find video of this, one of Maria Muldaur's early signature songs. But I was able to find a few snippets of the young Maria belting it out with the Jug Band.

3. Joe Tex, "Hold What You've Got." This video, from a Shindig! compilation, includes Major Lance, Tina Turner, and Marvin Gaye along with Tex. "Listen fellas, you know, it's not all the time that a man can have a good woman that he can call his very own. A woman who will stay right there at home and mind the children while he's gone to work. A woman who will have his dinner cooked when he comes home."

4. Lovin' Spoonful, "Fishin' Blues." I love pretty much every version of this old folk song, but I think I love the Spoonful's the best. No video, so I linked to Taj Mahal, who ain't bad, either.

5. Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row." Right now I can't read too good, don't send me no more letters, no. Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row.

6. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, "Zorba the Greek." I've written about this before. You start with a Jewish trumpet player, put him together with a band made up of non-Hispanics, call them the Tijuana Brass and play mariachi-influenced music. Then you add a movie based on a Greek novel, written in Greek by a Greek author, and cast a Mexican-American as the title character. Have the fake-Mexicans play the music from the movie starring the Mexican-as-Greek, and what do you have? A song that is still played regularly at American baseball games, several decades down the road. The video is a medley ... "Zorba" comes just after the five-minute mark.

7. Barbara Lewis, "Make Me Your Baby." Wonderful second-tier soul singer whose songs are covered to this day.

8. The Miracles, "Tracks of My Tears." That guy at #5 called Smokey Robinson one of the great American poets. Most people probably thought he was kidding. He wasn't.

9. The Who, "The Kids Are Alright." This video just cries out for an OMG! The band is impossibly young, the camera work is as random as this list, Moonie doesn't seem to be playing his drums, which is OK since it's synced. The whole band shows the excitement level of Entwhistle.

10. Wilson Pickett, "In the Midnight Hour." There are some smooth soul singers on this list, there are some shouters on this list, but no one matches the Wicked One when he's at the top of his game, and you don't get any closer to the top than "In the Midnight Hour." The video has Wilson teaming up with a rocker who, over the years, has somehow managed to be simultaneously as unfunky as is possible and as soulful as possible.