Sandi Sheldon: How the northern soul scene uncovered music’s most underrated singer
Northern soul was a scene that thrived on uncovering the obscure and forgotten. Throughout the industrial towns and cities of northern England during the early 1970s, groups of young people became utterly infatuated with obscure and unheard American soul music, mostly from the decade prior. This seemingly miraculous movement led many previously forgotten or retired soul stars, like New Jersey vocalist Kendra Spotswood, to witness an unexpected resurgence on the dance floors of the north.
You only need to hear a few seconds of Spotswood singing to know she was always destined for musical greatness. The sheer power of her voice was virtually unparalleled when she began to establish herself during the early 1960s. Due to the fickle nature of the music industry, particularly during that period of soul history, the vocalist never seemed to make it big.
At one point in 1964, Spotswood was given the opportunity to join the noted girl group The Shirelles. By all logic, that should have been her chance to make it big within the music industry. After all, the band were among the biggest names of the girl group era, boasting multiple top-ten hits and a fanbase that included The Beatles, among various others. Due to a contract debate, however, Spotswood never got the chance to record anything with the band and was relegated to being a touring member of The Shirelles.
Undeterred by her failure to make a name for herself within the line-up of The Shirelles, Spotswood made the decision to record as a solo artist. Quickly, she was offered a contract by Okeh Records, an utterly essential record label within the history of soul and a particular favourite among northern soul obsessives. With Okeh, Spotswood put out two singles between 1967 and 1968, ‘Touch My Heart’ and ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’, the latter of which was released under the pseudonym Sandi Sheldon.
The exact reason for using a pseudonym remains largely unclear, but the likelihood is that the record label thought Sandi Sheldon would be more marketable than Kendra Spotswood. Ultimately, that ended up being false, as neither of those singles made any impact on the American soul scene, never mind the Billboard Hot 100. So, after almost a decade of trying to make it as a recording artist, Spotswood relocated from her native New Jersey to Atlanta to live an ordinary life away from music.
Years later, unbeknownst to Spotswood, ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’ became a colossal hit within the northern soul movement in England. Although there are conflicting reports about how a copy of the obscure single eventually landed into the hands of northern soul DJs, the track quickly became a regular floor-filler at Twisted Wheel in Manchester and various other dancefloors across the north of England. It did not take long, therefore, for soul obsessives to try and track down this mysterious Sandi Sheldon.
Given that the Sheldon name was a pseudonym and only ever used on those two little-known Okeh singles, finding Spotswood was no easy task. After decades of mystery and investigation, which only seemed to increase the popularity of those Okeh singles, DJ and northern soul obsessive Ian Levine finally managed to connect the dots between Sandi Sheldon and Kendra Spotswood. After contacting the vocalist, Levine, who was a regular DJ at Blackpool Mecca back in the heyday of the northern soul scene, convinced Spotswood to return to performing.
So, in 2002, Spotswood—or, as she was known by soul fans, Sheldon—travelled to England and performed her first concert since she had walked away from the music industry all those decades prior.
“I had absolutely no idea anyone even knew that song,” Spotswood told Spectropop around that time, “Then I discovered that the record had been enjoying an underground following over here in England for thirty years, and people had been trying to find me. I haven’t been in hiding or anything, but I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, some years ago. Well, now they’ve found me, and I’m really excited to be back.”
There concludes one of the great mysteries of the northern soul movement, but that certainly has not put a stop to the popularity of ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’. Visit any half-decent northern soul night up and down the country, and you are more than likely to hear the track at some point, thanks in part to various bootlegs and reissues that have been made over the years – an original copy could easily set you back £1,000 in decent condition.
The fact that Spotswood’s track is still filling dance floors over 50 years on from its original release is a testament to the captivating, timeless quality of her voice. There are few vocalists, even in the soul scene, who can match her infectious quality and, even if her true identity had never been uncovered, that 1967 track would always have been a defining anthem of the northern soul scene.
