You gotta start with James Brown:

A Soulful Christmas was released in 1968 which was a key transition time for JB as his work took on more of a political punch and his sound moved to the stripped-down vamps that would result in hits like Mother Popcorn and Funky Drummer (just to mention a few) in the years to come. After the death of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, Brown performed shows in Boston and Washington DC that were heralded for calming racial tensions and encouraging black pride within a non-violent context. Brown then recorded “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”, a civil rights anthem that saw its first release on this album. The other stand-out track is “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto”, which includes a shout out to Hank Ballard (“The Twist”, “Finger-Popping Time”, etc.) who was an early influence on Brown’s raucous sound and co-authored the song.

Much of the rest is good Christmas background music – original songs with Christmas themes and licks from Christmas songs woven in. There’s a lot of vibes, which I suppose sound sort of like bells. Anyway, this is a great record for R&B fans in the Christmas season.

Next up is Looking Back, a compilation of recordings from the SAR label in the early 1960s. As the back cover of the record recounts, the label was run by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander. Sam did a heck of a job as a producer and got some outstanding gospel and R&B performers onto wax.

Most R&B fans will be familiar with The Valentinos, aka The Womack Brothers, who, having watched the travails of Cooke and others who crossed over from gospel, decided to rename themselves for the pop/R&B market. Their biggest and first hit, “Looking for a Love”, was a reworking of a gospel song by the Womack Brothers, “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” (also on this compilation) and got to #8 on the R&B charts in 1962. It was later the first chart hit for the J. Geils Band, who recorded it for their 1972 LP The Morning After.

More famous is “It’s All Over Now”, which the Rolling Stones famously released as their first number one hit just before the Valentino’s version came out in 1964. The story is that Bobby Womack was not happy about the Stones stealing their song – until he got his first song-writing royalty check for it. The Valentino’s version is quite different than the Stones’ and is more similar to renditions by Ry Cooder and The Grateful Dead

Half of the album tracks are gospel cuts, leading off with R. H. Harris with His Gospel Paraders singing “Somebody”. Harris was a huge figure in gospel music who led the Soul Stirrers in the 30’s and 40’s (Cooke joined the Soul Stirrers as lead singer in the 50’s). The three songs from the Soul Stirrers here are after Cooke had left, and feature Johnny Taylor on “Stand by Me Father” and Jimmy Outler on “Looking Back” and “Time Brings about a Change”.

Many non-gospel fans will know Johnny Taylor for such later funky songs as “Who’s Making Love”; but Outler never had much of a secular singing career. He is a powerful singer with a rough, appealing voice in the Wilson Pickett vein. His performances here are a treat.

And finally, we have a male singing duo, the Simms Twins (Bobby and Kenneth) in the tradition of duos from the fifties such as Marvin & Johnny, Don & Dewey, and Robert & Johnny. They remind me of a sweeter version of Sam & Dave; a little bit of the Impressions, and also a duo from Jamaica, The Bluesbusters (see below) – here’s a record of theirs I got a few years ago – check them out!

Finally, we have Time Waits for No One by Eddie and Ernie. This is a compilation on Cairo Records (as is Looking Back), and features a duo that never really made it on the national record scene.

There are some similarities to The Sims Twins duo featured on Looking Back, but Eddie and Ernie were on the scene just a couple of years later, and have more of a Stax/Volt sound. They are often compared to Sam and Dave. They were based in Phoenix and seem to have spent a good deal of their career there, eventually joining a local group, Phoenix Express in 1971.

The songs are worth a listen, especially “Time Waits for No One” and “Falling Tears”. I feel like the songwriting is not that strong on some of the cuts; maybe in the right hands they might have made it bigger.

Next Up: Jazz . . . .and then I’ll get to what everyone (i.e., no one) is waiting for: comedy and novelty records.