Recommend criminally underrated/unknown soul ballads

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thanks too for thinking of me adam, however these days i appear to be more about novelty disco.

(that said just looking at Martin's list is making me cry)

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 19 September 2004 22:58 (nineteen years ago) link

i just made two itunes playlist for the drive to the inlaws. here are mine

70s soul samples
Bobby Blue Bland - Ain't no love in the heart of the city
George McCrae - I Get Lifted
Labi Sifre - I got the
Syl Johnson - I hate i walked away
Tom Brock - There's Nothing in this world that can't stop me from loving you
Outlaw Blues Band - Deep Gully
William Bell - I forgot to be your lover (really one of my fave songs ever!)
Johnnie Taylor - Love in the Streets (Ain't good as the love at home)
Glady Knight & the pips - The way we were (try to remember)
Five Stairsteps - Ooh Child
Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions - Let's do it again

80s soul samples
Cat Stevens - Was Dog a Doughnut
Don Blackman - Holding you, loving you
The Deele - Shoot 'em up movies
SOS Band - The Finest
Teddy Pendergrass - Love TKO
Patrice Rushen - Remind MeRose Royce - Love Don't live here anymore
NOrman Connors - You are my starship
Quincy Jones & James Ingram - One hundred ways
The Gap Band - Yearning for your love
Patrice Rushen - Forget me nots

― JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 20 September 2004 01:26 (nineteen years ago) link

70s: Millie Jackson - If You're Not Back In Love By Monday
80s: Shirley Jones - Do You Get Enough Love
90s: Temper Temper - Like We Used To

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Monday, 20 September 2004 08:45 (nineteen years ago) link

"Ain't Got Nobody to Give It To," Howard Tate

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 20 September 2004 08:48 (nineteen years ago) link

dead end street by lou rawls with david axelrods production. simply breathtaking stuff. opening with the best dialogue intro ever .. until the tension is let loose. a fantastic record.

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 20 September 2004 09:13 (nineteen years ago) link

ooh, forgot Millie Jackson's Loving Arms! That's great too.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 20 September 2004 09:26 (nineteen years ago) link

The Town I Live In - McKinley Mitchell
Tag Tag – Sam Dees
That's The Way Love Turned Out For Me - James Carr
If You Don't Love Me This Way – Mary J Blige
Sweet Feeling - Candi Staton

― wtin, Monday, 20 September 2004 11:03 (nineteen years ago) link

9 a.m. (The Comfort Zone) - Londonbeat

― Palomino (Palomino), Monday, 20 September 2004 11:34 (nineteen years ago) link

adam, you should check out that Country Got Soul comp. when i bought it, i was super, duper surprised that it wasn't country at all, but instead a great whiteboy soul comp. they're pretty expensive though ($20+), so if you want i can get you a copy.

― JaXoN (JasonD), Monday, 20 September 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Did anyone mention Joe Tex's "The Love You Save"? Or Solomon Burke's "Someone Is Watching"? Both great.

There's a lot of competition, but I'm inclined to say that overall James Carr owns this thread...?

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I think he's the greatest widely unknown soul singer, and most of his great stuff is ballads, so yeah, probably.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 20 September 2004 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd like to second Joe Tex's "The Love You Save", and add in Z.Z Hill's "Happiness Is All I Need" and James Carr's "A Man Needs A Woman" (which contains the line, "just like a fish needs the ocean, just like rough hands need a little lotion" - i mean, come on!)

― jon pruett (jon pruett), Monday, 20 September 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Turning Over The Ground - Syl Johnson

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 20 September 2004 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link

criminally un/un soul ballad, reggae division:
George Faith "To Be A Lover (Have Some Mercy)"

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 20 September 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The Spinners, "Love Don't Love Nobody" -- wasn't much of a hit, but is grand.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 20 September 2004 20:06 (nineteen years ago) link

"Let Nothing Seperate Us," Arthur Conley.
"Rainbow '65," Gene Chander.
"I Don't Know What You Got (But It's Got Me)," Little Richard.
"That's How Strong My Love Is," O.V. Wright.
"That's Where It's At," Sam Cooke.
"Chained and Bound," Otis Redding (his best?).
"Prove It," Aretha Franklin.
"Wish Someone Would Care," Irma Thomas.
Third vote for "The Love You Save" (Joe Tex) and for "I Forgot To Be Your Lover,"

― Burr (Burr), Monday, 20 September 2004 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, and "It's All Wrong But It's All Right" by Percy Sledge.

― Burr (Burr), Monday, 20 September 2004 23:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Spinners' "Love Don't Know Nobody," yeah, amazing.

"Mimi," Al Green, found on his essential "Listen--The Rarities" collection.

Cheatin' ballad: Don Covay's "I Was Checkin' Out."

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link

i feel like al green is cheating, cos every ballad al touches turns to gold. if a martain came down to earth and asked what music he should stock up on, i'd suggest he get the complete al green catalogue 1972-1977.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 00:25 (nineteen years ago) link

yep. what's he know we don't? I say the entire Green catalogue '68-'77 or up until whenever "Belle Album" came out, that might've been '78? I've always liked the early, greasier Green stuff before he really hit his commercial stride, that's some fine blues. I've seen Al live once and when I lived in Memphis in the '90s I was out riding north of town near where he lives, stopped to figure out exactly where I was and there was Al near the gates of his place, leaned up against a truck talking to someone, right next to us. I just waved...hey, Al...

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link

i would have crashed the car

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 00:50 (nineteen years ago) link

he was just hangin' out, you know, which was so cool. my girlfriend wanted to go over and talk to him, but we settled for the wave and that was fine.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 00:54 (nineteen years ago) link

eleven years pass...

otis clay, "if i could reach out"
so many more, but i'll have to rummage through my collection

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, September 18, 2004

RIP Otis Clay

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2016/01/09/Soul-legend-Otis-Clay-dies-at-73/stories/201601090143

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 9 January 2016 18:01 (eight years ago) link

Seeing a co-bill of Otis and Ann Peebles was one of my best heaven on earth soul music experiences ever. RIP.

― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Saturday, 9 January 2016 18:19 (eight years ago) link

Saw Otis Clay, never saw Ann P... That would have been great

― curmudgeon, Monday, 11 January 2016 16:20 (eight years ago) link

saw otis make an unannounced appearance at a tribute concert to curtis mayfield that was hastily organized in early 2000, a few weeks after mayfield's death. he did "people get ready" and a few others, and even though the other acts (rebecca gates, etc.) were great, the phrase that comes to mind in re. clay's performance was "that's how it's done."

― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 21:04 (eight years ago) link

two years pass...

it's not a ballad, but i think irma thomas' "two winters long" should have been an absolute smash hit record. this was recorded in 1962 (!!!!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avfBh4Xv7tQ

― i remember the corned beef of my childhood (Karl Malone), Friday, 16 February 2018 23:22 (six years ago) link

for me it is in the pantheon of stone cold classics

― i remember the corned beef of my childhood (Karl Malone), Friday, 16 February 2018 23:26 (six years ago) link

That is nice. Love the interplay between Irma and the background vocalists

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 17 February 2018 17:14 (six years ago) link

very good indeed, the sound is perfect

― niels, Saturday, 17 February 2018 18:09 (six years ago) link

Mentioned upthread, but linking here for posterity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjhmwzf_mh0

George Jackson — "Aretha, Sing One for Me" (1972): https://www.discogs.com/George-Jackson-Aretha-Sing-One-For-MeIm-Gonna-Wait/release/2583751

First song I thought of when I saw the thread title.

― he doesn't need to be racist about it though. (Austin), Saturday, 17 February 2018 18:36 (six years ago) link

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