“On The Soul Side” was kents first compilation LP drawn from a catalogue other than Kent/Modern. A superb collection of mainly big budget 60s soul sides sourced from the Capitol, Liberty, Minit, Imperial and United Artists family of labels, only a quarter of the tracks on the LP have since appeared on Kent CDs. With an extra 10 like minded soul songs added, it means that no more than 15 % (approx) are likely to be in even the most avid Kent fan’s collection. For nostalgic souls the first 16 tracks are sequenced as on the LP. Reliving those numbers brought home how good a collection of soul this was. The opening bars of Patrice Holloway’s ‘Love And Desire’ are brimming with instrumentation and backing singers, with her terrific vocals topping it off. Patrice also contributes the fabulous previously unissued ‘The Thrill Of Romance’ one of my faves from her ‘Stolen Hours’ session, a must for 60s soul fanatics. The collection storms on to more uptempo, metropolitan soul classics from Little Anthony, Bobby Sheen and Jimmy Holiday with Clydie King. We then move south to Memphis for Homer Banks’ brass fuelled ‘A Lot Of Love’ and Bobby Womack’s ‘What You Gonna Do (When Your Love Is Gone)’. Deeper into the south we hit R&B central, one of my fave musical citys New Orleans for crucial dance discs from Benny Spellman, the Showmen and Earl King. Let’s not forget the ballads, Kent was always an all inclusive soul provider. From the original LP we have monumental, smouldering songs from the O’Jays, H.B. Barnum and Garnett Mimms, while Marv Johnson, Lou Rawls and Merry Clayton are fitting additions to the much loved genre. White soulsters Ginger Thompson and Timi Yuro are joined by blue eyed soul brothers the Magnificent Men whose LP track ‘Nobody Treats Me The Way You Do’ is a highlight of late 60s Chicago soul written by Marvin Smith, arranged by Sonny Sanders and produced by Carl Davis top notch credits. Los Angeles also featured heavily on the LP with numbers from Gene McDaniels, Jimmy Holiday and several already mentioned. Additional West Coast gems on the CD come from June Jackson with the cute dancer ‘It’s What’s Underneath That Counts’ and Clydie King with the beautiful and poignant soul song ‘If You Were A Man’. New York was home to ace composer Ellie Greenwich who penned the Exciters’ ‘Do-Wah-Diddy’ with her husband Jeff Barry and later covered Jon Hendricks’ raucous ‘I Want You To Be My Baby’. Sylvia Robbins cut the groovy ‘Don’t Let Your Eyes Get Bigger Than Your Heart’ in NYC after she had split from her singing partner Mickey Baker. She would go on to become the successful owner of the All Platinum label and the first to release hip hop records.Its all in the booklet a great read!
AMM
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The Tasters!
21 comments:
There are not bad Kent compilations. Thanks for review, P.
Kent label at its best, thanks for this review
This is a great cd from Kent , Thanks AMM .
Thanks AMM for the story too with all the little details.
The booklet beckons......NICE!
I prefer the soul side nowadays too, have been (too) wild all my life ;) Thanks for that! ☮️✌🏻☀️
I am ready, willing and able to enjoy this! 🕺
Thanks, AMM!
That's enough to complete the Kents. Thank you AMM.
Pierre
Always enjoy these Kent Soul collections...many thanks for the review.
Awesome On The Real Side Album AMM,Thank you
Another Kent gem. Cheers AMM.
Thanks AMM for another Klassic from Kent!
thanks a lot for this AMM
Another great Kent record, thanks a million AMM!
Another great kent comp!! thank you AMM
Reb
This was one of the first Kent comps I bought on vinyl lo these many decades ago. So good to see it again.
Looks like a load of good stuff here.
used to have this on LPn thanks for reviewing AMM
Thanks for the review AMM
My ears are ready for this Kent collection. Some solid names. Thank you AMM.
Thanks AMM i got this on vinyl at the time but this is icing on the cake will all the extracts
Cheers Pedro
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