Soul Searchin': 200 All-Time Favorite Soul Albums
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If you go by typical album canons, you would think there were only a small handful of great soul albums by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, and a couple live albums by James Brown and Sam Cooke. Considering the large scope of soul, that's a pretty miniscule sample. The argument is that aside from some exceptions in the 70s, it was a singles based genre in which albums were haphazard collections of singles padded by filler. This is partly true, especially for the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. He seemed to have little interest in issuing strong albums, spreading his best singles thin throughout several albums a year. Two of his best studio albums, Think! (1960) and It's A Mother (1969) are marred by out-dated tracks that clash with the revolutionary music. Sam Cooke and, during her nine album Columbia tenure, Aretha Franklin also suffered in varying degrees.
It was a combination of that presumption, and the fact that Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971) and Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life (1976) were almost unanimously considered two of the greatest soul albums, that kept me from digging deeper for many years. While both albums had some great lyrical moments, What's Going On sounded to me like noodly supperclub music, with light jazz arrangements that reminded me of music from "The Love Boat" and meandering vocal tricks that try to distract from the lack of hooks and melodies. Songs had more musical highlights, but was bloated beyond redemption with sacharine, trite ballads. If that was the best soul had to offer, why bother digging deeper? My opinion of those albums have softened somewhat over the years, but I maintain that critics have put far too much importance on them, while unjustly ignoring the richness of talent bubbling beneath the hits.
My revelation of how vast the soul catalog really is started in the early 90s with the incredible nine volume Stax box set, the Motown box, and brilliant collections issued by Atlantic/Rhino of Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge and Clarence Carter. With a properly blown mind, I ended up buying every album I could by favorites Aretha, Otis, Curtis and Al by the end of the decade. Peter Guralnick's book Sweet Soul Music inspired me to pick of collections of O.V. Wright, James Carr, Don Covay, Garnett Mimms, Joe Tex and others. After the binge of reissues, further treasures continued to be issued on CD for the first time throughout the 00s. That's when I started realizing that even these so-called second tier artists had a lot more to offer outside the compilations, with deep album cuts that were just as good as some of the hits. With more albums in print than ever, and MP3s available of out of print albums, I've been able to hear more albums in the last few years than I had throughout the 90s. At least 18 years after picking up the earliest reissues, I finally feel like I have heard enough to come up with a useful list of 200 favorites. Hopefully this list will convince some who still think there are only five or six classics, that there are easily more than a couple hundred classics out there, with plenty more I still haven't heard yet.
In a just world, or at least at Fast 'n' Bulbous, Donny Hathaway, Terry Callier and Bill Withers stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Gaye and Wonder, and even surpass them at times. Despite her range delving further into blues and jazz than most of the artists, Nina Simone gets her rightful place in the soul pantheon. Etta James and Irma Thomas's Muscle Shoals sessions nearly rival Aretha's best work. While recent hipster favorites Rozetta Johnson, Doris Duke, Shuggie Otis, Baby Huey, Betty Davis, Candi Staton, Bettye Swann and Swamp Dogg make the list, they don't quite measure up to underrated albums by James Carr, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Clarence Carter, O.V. Wright and Jimmy Hughes. And contrary to popular belief, there are some consistently great 60s Motown albums by The Temptations, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Martha & the Vandellas. Continue...
Comments (13)
Outstanding list! I am so happy you put in the time to put it together. Finally I list I want to see.
And I think you are totally right about pointing out that this was really a singles medium, as was Rock n' Roll til folks like the Beach Boys,Zappa, and The Beatles came along. Also, as Peter Guaralnick notes, Soul was a mostly a regional movement, with dozens of talented folks making singles only, so I think those bear exploration too.
Toussaint and Lee Dorsey don't make the list..maybe you consider NOLA folks in a defferent category, along with the Wild Tchoupitulaas and Wild Magnolias records. Folks like Eddie Bo were prolific too, but not on LP.
Also missing, outside of Motown and The Impressions are vocal groups,(perhaps on purpose) The Spinners-Pick Of The Litter, The Stylistics-First album or Round 2, or the Van Dykes-Tellin It Like It Is.
It seems like you definitely cut out patently R&B singers (Bobby Bland), which makes sense, since there were hardly any albums on them, but you definitely included Funk, so maybe Ohio Players (early), E,W&F (early to mid),Mandrill, Black Heat. But that's more of a boundary issue, as are folks like Eugene McDaniels or Gil Scott-Heron or Roy Ayers from the soul,jazz,funk school.
When it comes to the vocalists though, you nail it down most excellently, although some folks from Florida like Gwen McCrae, Clarence Reid, or Little Beaver might be worth considering. There are just so many great vocalists its hard to nail down, but I'd consider albums By Shirley Brown-Woman toWoman, Tami Lynn-Love Is Here and Now You're Gone, and my latest and fave, Stu Gardner-To Soul With Love.
My complaints aside, this is an outstanding list. My stuff is not bidding for anything near your top slots, just maybe begging for a spot in a top 300, dying to crack your 200.
Great post, done with typical Fn'B style,finesse, and panache.
Thanks for the recommendations! Here's a secret -- view source on my page and you'll see what didn't make my top 200, heh. I have Lee Dorsey compilations and a couple 70s albums, and one of the 1966 albums below might make the top 200 but I haven't heard them yet.
I'm not a big fan of the Spinners and Stylistics, but would listen again. I like Ohio Players and EW&F, but didn't quite make the list. Perhaps I'll show runner-ups when I finish. I haven't heard much Ayers, and I do have the McDaniels albums, but need to re-listen, as they didn't grab me when I first got them a few years back.
Maybe you could do a piece on compilations of singles by regional artists! I've heard the odd track by most of the ones you mentioned, but not whole albums.
I'll tell ya, this is an impressive list..To me the best comps are the label based ones, but I have just barely been getting into the incredible breadth of pure Soul records. I mean I have a lot of NOLA, and the big names, a lot of funk, a lot of JB, plenty of Stax and Motown,but I'm just beginning to scratch the surface. If I had to start in one place it would be with Ace records, they do a great job. When it comes to comps, if I see a city or label on it I buy it. Many are not great all the way through, but when a soul gem hits you, it hits hard.
Thanks again for doing this.
Good Folks for Soul:
Funky16 Corners
Sir Shambling
Georgia Soul Blog
Soul Detective
In Dangerous Rhythm
One other one..Alice Clark-Alice Clark (1972,Mainstream..great voice)
Epic! FnB is your furniture just piles of records?
I know it's sacrilege for soul collectors, but I don't do vinyl, heh. I've had three turntables break, took it as a sign, and only do CDs. I've got a custom made case and another one in the living room, and the rest in the office. Got room for a few more, but will definitely be investigating ripping to FLAC on a 5 terrabyte NAS server before long.
Wow. If you set that up on wifi can I move next door to you. :)
Oh I already do! I have a Squeezebox Duet set up for the 150,000 songs on my hard drive. All you'd need is Squeezebox and the password. I'd share with my neighbors but they prefer watching sports on the tube.
Those sad souls. They know not what they are missing. That is an amazingly large amount of tunes. Sounds like you have a really sweet setup. I am officially jealous. :)
Excellent list! but it begs the question, What about the Blues?
What about the Blues?
Looks like I need a revelation, although I've been checking out soul music blogs for a while. Hearing stuff in fits and starts. Which boxes (such as Stax) would you recommend?