RFI: Psychedelic Motown

Jesus Christ @ the extra-ignorant Geir posts itt.

I guess by "old soul tunes" you mean old in 2022, because "Dresses Too Short" was more or less contemporary to the Airplane, and "Long As I Have You" would only have been four or five years old?
The first thing that came to mind was James Gang doing "Stop" by Howard Tate on their first album, and that song had only been out for a year. Also, the Beach Boys weren't heavy, but they did cover "I Was Made to Love Her" in 1967.

― Halfway there but for you

"Dolly Rocker, it's called Dolly Rocker
It's an old make of dress
Well, months old, you know
That sort of thing"

mccain otm re: vanilla fudge + "hard to handle." good jams.

Vanilla Fudge also did "Shotgun" (Junior Walker). Deep Purple did "River Deep, Mountain High" (Tina Turner). The Small Faces did "Every Little Bit Hurts" (Brenda Holloway). The Jimmy Page-era Yardbirds did "My Baby" (Garnet Mimms). Of course Janis Joplin/Big Brother did "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin) which became a hit + part of the classic rock canon, so I guess it's disqualified... likewise "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (The Temptations) by Rod Stewart with the Faces. Janis Joplin also did "Tell Mama" (Etta James) and various other soul tunes. The Who did James Brown songs and "Heat Wave" (Martha & the Vandellas) but that was early in their career. I thought the Velvet Underground might have done "Hitch Hike" (Marvin Gaye) but I guess they just swiped the intro of it. The MC5 did "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (James Brown).

"Of course Janis Joplin/Big Brother did "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin) which became a hit + part of the classic rock canon, so I guess it's disqualified"

no that's exactly the sort of thing i'm thinking of, i never heard the erma franklin version. a lot of the soul covers i _know_ them from oldies radio, but someone like garnet mimms, nah

the velvets were unique for the era in that they didn't _do_ covers, there's a recording of them doing "green onions" on the andy warhol tapes i think but that's about it.

It's interesting that Jerry Ragovoy seems to be involved with many of these songs as a songwriter. He wrote or cowrote the Garnet Mimms songs and "Stop" by Howard Tate and "Piece of My Heart."

His Wikipedia entry lists several other compositions of his that fit the original question.

Yes, that is interesting. Wonder if he and Rudy Clark ever crossed paths. #onethread

XP He played piano on the James Gang's version of "Stop" too.

Speaking of Rudy Clark, the Dead also did "Good Lovin'" (originally by the Olympics and popularized by the (Young) Rascals).

Ha!--The Olympics' "Good Lovin'" (which had different lyrics from the actual original by Lemme B. Good) was produced by Ragovoy!

Paul Butterfield (not the heaviest) did "Get Out of My Life, Woman"

Also covered by Iron Butterfly on Heavy.

(which is also not the heaviest)

Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield did "Stop" as an instrumental on Super Session.

Remembering too that they also did a straight vocal version of Gene Chandler's Curtis Mayfield-penned "Man's Temptation" on that same album.

...and speaking of Curtis, Vanilla Fudge did "People Get Ready" and later on Beck Bogert & Appice addressed "I'm So Proud".