The 10 most underrated northern soul songs
Northern soul music is, by its very definition, underrated as far as the wider music industry is concerned.
The entire scene, from its earliest origins back in the late 1960s, has been built upon a fascination with obscure, overlooked, and otherwise ignored American soul records. Nevertheless, a select few records have certainly risen to the top of the northern soul scene.
Gone are the days in which northern soul was a secretive scene limited entirely to the nightclubs of northern England. Back in the 1970s, when the word began to spread about the mythical dancefloors of Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca, certain anthems from the scene became part and parcel of the musical mainstream. In fact, the likes of ‘Seven Days Too Long’ or Dean Parrish’s ‘I’m On My Way’ entered the pop charts back in the 1970s, after being reissued in the wake of northern soul’s success.
Skip forward to the 21st-century, and northern soul is again rising in relevancy, and its soundtrack certainly isn’t contained to all-nighters and exceedingly expensive record collections. You can hear the scene’s big-hitters – Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ being the prevailing example – used on everything from television advertisements to a Bruce Springsteen cover album. For a scene built upon obscurity, northern soul has certainly impacted the mainstream.
For those who know where to look, though, there is still an unimaginable wealth of incredible northern soul tracks which rarely receive airplay, a selection of which we have compiled here for your listening pleasure. Inevitably, this is not an exhaustive list of every northern soul tune that deserves to be played more often – if it was, it would include basically every soul star other than the likes of Frank Wilson, Gloria Jones, or, most troublingly, Al Wilson.
Nevertheless, these are ten tracks which seem to have consistently flown under the radar of northern soul’s mainstream acceptance, despite bearing all the hallmarks of infectious soul energy. Even at dedicated rare soul events, of which there are countless up and down the nation to this day, you would have to strike particularly lucky with the DJ to hear these underappreciated gems spun on the decks.
10 of the most underrated northern soul songs:
Ronnie Forte – ‘Nervous Breakdown’
Every self-respecting soulie knows full-well that you always check the B-side. Although, in the mainstream music industry, B-sides have always largely been composed of studio off-cuts and throwaway tracks which weren’t good enough to feature on an artist’s LP, northern soul boasts some truly spectacular B-sides which, in many cases, eclipse the plug side. Ronnie Forte’s only known single from back in 1966 is certainly one example.
Although the focus of Forte’s fleeting soul career back in 1960s New York is often pinned on the admittedly brilliant ‘That Was Whiskey Talkin’’, more northern DJs should take the time to turn the record over, because they will be greeted with a truly outstanding, uptempo stormer befitting of an oldies all-nighter. Plus, for a record which will set you back a minimum of £500 for an original Tarx pressing, why not maximise its playback potential by utilising both sides?
Derek David And The Barons - ‘9100’
Another example of an artist with only a handful of known recordings, and on an impossibly scarce record label at that, Derek David still remains one of northern soul’s best-kept secrets. In fact, it would be fair to say that a lot of dedicated soulies aren’t overly familiar with his work, either.
After all, ‘Autumn Leaves’ was never a dancefloor smash at any of the major northern venues back in the day, and its far more interesting B-side ‘9100’ has similarly yet to be rediscovered on a grand scale. It might not be the kind of high-energy stormer that fills dancefloors with ease, but that long-forgotten B-side, released on Pagan Records back in 1968 is some of the most enchantingly moody soul you can ever hope to hear.
Given its relative obscurity, though, this is one single which has yet to be reintroduced to the scene by the countless reissue labels and bootleggers out there, so you’ll be tasked with finding one of the few remaining original copies before you can give it a spin.
Bobby Newton – ‘Do The Whip’
American soul is no stranger to records which border on being novelty. Particularly in the wake of successes like Chubby Checker’s ‘The Twist’, seemingly every Tom, Dick, and Harry of the music industry was attempting to cash-in on a similar dance craze novelty track, which likely explains the creation of Bobby Newton’s ‘Do The Whip’. Over the course of the song, the Pennsylvania saxophonist talks the listener through the power of this supposed new dance, which unsurprisingly never caught on.
Nevertheless, the song itself is awash with the potential of a northern soul floorfiller. For starters, its opening is incredibly uptempo and bass heavy, and Newton does his best to evoke the vocal tones of a James Brown type with undeniably compelling results. Unlike some of the other inclusions on this list, the Mercury-released single isn’t likely to break the bank, either, so there should be no excuses for DJs not to give it the spotlight it so richly deserves.
The Afterglows – ‘I’m A Good Woman’
Motown perfected the art of having multiple different artists record the same songs back in the 1960s, but the practice always extended out to the wider soul scene, too. So, when northern soul hero and soul icon Barbara Lynn recorded her liberating stormer ‘I’m A Good Woman’ back in 1966, it was inevitable that some other artists would take a crack at the song too. A particularly good version came from San Francisco outfit Cold Blood during the peak of the hippie age, but this newly uncovered version by The Afterglows is equally worthy of note.
Arguably, it’s a bit of a cop-out to cite this one as being underrated, given that it was only released fairly recently, after being reduced from the vaults of producer Bill Silva by the folks at Kent Records, but while the other versions of the track seem to receive regular rotation at northern soul events, I’ve yet to encounter The Afterglows’ stellar recording in the wild.
Jenny Rock – ‘Le Train Pour Memphis’
Although there are a select few British voices and ‘blue-eyed soul’ stars who managed to break into the northern soul repertoire, the scene is largely consumed by American soul, which should come as no surprise since that’s where the sounds of soul first originated. However, if you cast your net a little further, there is a great deal of foreign-language soul to sink your teeth into, and Jenny Rock’s ‘Le Train Pour Memphis’ is a brilliant example.
A French-Canadian cover of Rufus Thomas’ Stax soul classic ‘The Memphis Train’ – which, bizarrely was released a year after Rock’s version, in 1968 – the Quebec vocalist renders the track in an infectious blend of ye-ye energy and soulful power, with that slow, chugging intro making it a perfect brooding floorfiller to begin a set with.
Chris Clark – ‘Love’s Gone Bad’
Santa Cruz vocalist Chris Clark represents one of the greatest missed opportunities in Motown history. Initially, she was brought on board Berry Gordy’s ship as a proposed answer to the success of Dusty Springfield, but the label quickly lost interest in Clark’s career, and she was resigned to releasing tracks on the VIP imprint, where she struggled to gain much traction.
Underrated and forgotten Motown has always been the bread and butter of northern soul DJs, but Clark’s ‘Do Right Baby Do Right’ often soaks up the spotlight, whereas the follow-up single ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ remains largely in the shadows. In spite of its captivating groove, Clark’s gorgeous vocal quality, and the songwriting power of Holland-Dozier-Holland behind it, the 1966 single remains woefully underrated both as a Motown anthem and a northern soul floorfiller.
Joe Bataan – ‘Chick-a-Boom’
Modern soul releases are rarely treated with the same reverence as the tried and tested tunes of the 1960s and 1970s, but this 2005 effort perfectly rides the line between old-school credibility and modern quality.
Joe Bataan is, of course, the undisputed king of Latin soul, and a lot of his early material from back in the 1960s and 1970s found an audience in the UK thanks to the more exotically inclined northern soul DJs spinning the likes of ‘Subway Joe’. It is worth remembering, however, that Bataan never went anywhere.
In 2005, he released Call My Name via Madrid’s Vampisoul label, marking a stunning return to form after his 1970s heyday, and ‘Chick-a-Boom’ is the arguable stand-out single from that renaissance record. With one of the greatest drumbreaks of his entire discography, and the Latin-infused grooves that he pulls off like no other, ‘Chick-a-Boom’ would surely have been adopted by northern dancefloors by now, were it not for that (relatively) modern release date.
Skull Snaps – ‘I’m Your Pimp’
A funk-fused track from early 1970s New York which almost seems tailor-made for northern soul dancefloors, The Skull Snaps’ ‘I’m Your Pimp’ has enough breaks, horns, and moody basslines to keep a floor moving all night long – not bad for a track which tops out at just four-minutes. Much like in the case of Chris Clark, though, this track often gets lost in the shadow of its more successful cousin, ‘My Hang Up Is You’.
Adding to its underrated nature, the song itself wasn’t initially released on the seven-inch format that northern soul is built upon. Instead, it was buried on side two of the band’s self-titled 1973 effort. Although various bootleggers have since rectified that clear error, ‘I’m Your Pimp’ still doesn’t quite hold the same reputation as some of the Snaps’ other northern anthems.
Linda Jones – ‘Last Minute Miracle’
As in the case of the Skull Snaps, Linda Jones’ utterly perfect track ‘Last Minute Miracle’ took far too long for DJs to discover, owing to the fact that it was never released as a single. Instead, it made it onto the tracklisting of her 1967 album Hypnotized, where only the most dedicated of soul obsessives would bother to find it, owing to the fact that northern DJs typically didn’t deal in LPs, preferring their seven-inch counterparts.
To its credit, ‘Last Minute Miracle’ has since been rediscovered, and it finally got its seven-inch pressing in 2005, via Warner. Even still, the track has never really reached the same widespread audience or respect as The Shirelles arguably inferior original version.
Spanky Wilson – ‘Fancy’
If Philadelphia vocalist and soul master Spanky Wilson is appreciated by the northern soul scene at all, it tends to be for her incredible cover of Cream’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, which has been reissued on seven-inch wax by BGP Records on a few occasions over the past few years, but that single barely scratches the surface of Wilson’s soulful power.
Originally released on her woefully underrated 1970 album Let It Be, ‘Fancy’ is another song which has never been given the single treatment, but its narrative of individuality, liberation, and, above else, dressing smart, certainly resonates with the dancefloors of northern soul, and its driving gospel-infused beat cannot help but get feet moving. For DJs willing to cart about a few LPs, Spanky Wilson is certainly an artist worth digging out.
