Five of the rarest northern soul records of all time
Collectors of any ilk tend to lean towards the more obsessive side of the personality spectrum, but collectors of vinyl tend to tip that scale even further – admittedly, it takes one to know one. However, nobody else strikes fear into the heart of fellow collectors or pound-signs into the eyes of record dealers quite like northern soul collectors.
Emerging from the industrial cities and provincial towns of northern England during the early 1970s, northern soul was (and still is) a subculture built upon the discovery and spotlighting of impossibly rare, obscure, and overlooked soul singles, typically released via tiny independent record labels in 1960s America. As more and more DJs went digging through the basements, vaults, and vinyl crates of the United States, the dancehalls and clubs of places like Wigan, Manchester, Blackpool and Stoke became increasingly entranced by that beating rhythm,
Inevitably, though, those legions of DJs soon found themselves in competition, as everybody tried to one-up each other with increasingly rare, unheard singles. As a result, half a century on from northern soul’s heyday, the northern soul market remains one of the most obsessive and eye-wateringly expensive avenues of record collecting, with certain singles – dependent on specific pressings – fetching multiple thousands of pounds.
What’s more, those colossal sums are fetched only by the singles that actually come up for sale; there are many more that only seem to come up for sale once in a blue moon, and even then, only in questionable condition. So, while other record collectors debate spending a couple of hundred quid on a certain Beatles pressing, northern soul collectors are quite happy to hand over the equivalent price of a second-hand Volkswagen Polo on a singular slice of seven-inch vinyl.
In an effort to exemplify this enigmatic vinyl market, we have compiled five of northern soul’s ultimate ‘holy grails’, guaranteed to fetch thousands in the rare occasion that they ever come up for sale. While this list is certainly not exhaustive, and there are hundreds of other singles that command similar, or even higher, prices, these are five of the most sought-after, expensive, and impossibly rare singles within the scene.
Five of the rarest northern soul records:
The Salvadors – ‘Stick By Me Baby’
A horn-heavy, floor-filling anthem which perfectly captures the northern soul sound, ‘Stick By Me Baby’ has been one of the scene’s most iconic tracks since its early days, but the single originally hit the airwaves in 1967 via the Chicago label Wise World.
Although it is not known exactly how many copies were originally pressed, Wise World didn’t exactly have the same resources as Motown, Stax, or Atlantic, and its complete commercial failure likely culminated in only a handful of singles making it out in the world.
As a result, the single has long since been in demand by northern soul collectors, but the original 1967 pressing has proved far more elusive than most. The last time a copy made it to Discogs, back in 2018, it promptly sold for £1500 despite the seller’s trepidation over whether it actually was an original pressing or not. In previous years, copies have sold for as much as £4000 depending on condition, but bootleg copies and unofficial reissues have flooded the market in recent years.
Lou Pride – ‘I’m Com’un Home In The Morn’un’
Another horn-fueled example of Chicago’s soul mastery, Lou Pride’s ‘I’m Com’un Home In The Morn’Un’ and its blues-tinged sound was a natural fit for the northern soul scene, perfectly blending emotional weight with footstomping rhythm.
First filling talcum-sprinkled floors around 1975, the single can still get a crowd going today. For the most part, though, those modern DJs are relying on bootleg copies, because original pressings for this Suemi-released single make hen’s teeth look as common as muck.
Given that the single was already a northern favourite by the mid-1970s, there have been a multitude of bootlegs of the song, going back as far as 1976, which has often led to confusion over what is an original pressing and what isn’t. If you can find a true original, with its blueish-green label on proper vinyl rather than styrene, you can expect to fork over anywhere between £3000 and £5000 for the pleasure of owning it.
Damon Fox – ‘Packing Up’
At just under two minutes in length, this Philadelphia soul stomper from Damon Fox probably boasts the most expensive pound-to-second ratio of any northern soul single, but it has been a favourite of all-nighter disc jockeys for decades. Released as the B-side to the arguably inferior ‘Boney Maronie’ in 1966, on a financially-struggling Fairmount Records, some copies of the single are so rare that northern soul collectors still debate over whether they ever actually existed.
Originally, Fairmount issued one pressing for the East Coast market of 1966, with a blue-and-white striped centre label. That pressing alone is already frustratingly rare, with a copy selling on Discogs earlier this year for a whopping £6375, but there has been some talk of a much more elusive West Coast pressing, with a blue, black, and orange label. After extensive research, it appears as though that particular pressing never existed, and Fairmount stopped using that label design around 1963, but that hasn’t stopped certain hopeful soulies from keeping an eye out for it.
Lester Tipton – ‘This Won’t Change’
Detroit-born Leser Tipton could have never predicted his grip over the people of Wigan back in the 1970s, with his sole release ‘This Won’t Change’ becoming one of the most beloved and sought-after singles of the entire northern soul scene. Although multiple represses exist, notably a 1980 version on Grapevine Records and a more recent reissue from Deptford Northern Soul Club, an original 1966 copy on La Beat Records is the kind of find that northern soul collectors dream about.
Original copies rarely, if ever, come up for general sale, and it is not definitely known just how many copies still exist. Back in 2008, one copy sold for £4300, but there haven’t been many confirmed sales since then, although one commenter on Discogs claims that a copy sold in recent years for as much as £10,000 – so, the choice is yours, put a deposit down on a house or buy Lester Tipton record.
Frank Wilson – ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’
In addition to being northern soul’s arguably defining anthem, Frank Wilson’s lost Motown masterpiece ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ also earns the title of being one of the rarest and most expensive vinyl records of all time. For the uninitiated, the story goes that Motown boss Berry Gordy wasn’t impressed with Wilson’s recording and ordered all demo copies of the single to be destroyed.
As such, the single went unissued and locked away in the Hitsville vaults for many years, until it was reportedly rediscovered by Leeds-based Simon Soussan, who found it its way onto the turntables of Wigan Casino, where it became an instant classic. Since then, the single has been reissued and bootlegged a multitude of times, including an official UK issue by Motown back in 1979, but a handful of those ever-elusive original demo copies seemingly survived the cull back in 1965.
Although it is not known exactly how many of the demos survived, with estimates ranging from two to five, its scarcity along with the iconic nature of the track has made the single an ultimate northern soul holy grail. The last time a copy went up for auction, in 2020, it was sold by John Manship for a record-breaking £100,000. Not bad for a single which Berry Gordy threw in the bin all those years ago.
