Soul pioneers....Dee Clark
Some of the early soul artists have been sadly neglected over the years. Maybe this is because they predated the soul revolution of the mid sixties and weren't recognised for what they were: soul pioneers. The Vinyl Word would like to celebrate some of these artists by featuring their records, with Youtube links.
Soul pioneer number one is Dee Clark, who had one of the sweetest soul voices of all time, very much in the Clyde McPhatter mould. He began with a group called the Kool Gents and took over Little Richard's live dates when he joined the ministry in 1957. As a solo artist with Abner, a subsidiary of VeeJay, he had a succession of moderate hits in the late fifties and early sixties, beginning with Nobody But You. In the mid 1970s he had a UK disco hit with Ride A Wild Horse, yet a decade later he was living in a hostel in Georgia. He died in 1990 aged 52.
Here are some of Dee's classic records. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH3BSN0gNcw
posted by Nick @ 9:09 pm
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I've always dreamed of starting my own vinyl collection haha
John Marriott said: 'Nice post on this fantastic artist Nick - always a big favourite of mine. Only just got around to reading Jerry Butlers book. Some great Dee bits in there.'
Quite agree that the great Delecta is woefully underrated. Perhaps it's because he was such a musical chameleon, so never really established a firm identity of style. "Raindrops" in 1961 on Vee-Jay was definitely his finest moment - fantastic vocal, helped by great production and sound effects. I think I first heard it at the time on Radio Luxembourg's 15-minute Top Rank show (yes, 15) and was suitably bowled over - and that was just on hearing the first minute and a half! I believe the UK "How About That" LP you picture was issued as part of Top Rank's BUY series, priced at 21/= - a competitor to Pye's Golden Guinea. Incidentally, buyers beware: there's an inferior remake of "Raindrops" that's snuck onto a couple of compilations recently.
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