Name: Northern Souls Guilty Secrets / Various
Brand: Various
SKU: 18314086
Price: 12.46 GBP
Availability: InStock

Northern Souls Guilty Secrets / Various

Rating

Album: Northern Souls Guilty Secrets / Various
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Don't Stop Lookin'	More Info...
2)	You Touched Me	More Info...
3)	Can't Live This Way	More Info...
4)	Ten Miles High	More Info...
5)	Keeps On Burning	More Info...
6)	Seven Days of Loving You	More Info...
7)	Soulful Jerk	More Info...
8)	It's Too Late	More Info...
9)	I Struck It Rich	More Info...
10)	You've Come a Long Way Baby	More Info...
11)	You Sexy Sugar Plum (But I Like It)	More Info...
12)	Bumpin' and Stompin'	More Info...
13)	Elusive	More Info...
14)	On a Magic Carpet Ride	More Info...
15)	Put Me in Your Pocket	More Info...
16)	Hey Hey Bunny	More Info...
17)	Pushin' Too Hard (Feat. Sky Saxon)	More Info...
18)	Don't Let It Slip Away	More Info...
19)	I Can Take Care of Myself	More Info...
20)	Walk Tall (Like a Man)	More Info...
21)	Would She Do That for You	More Info...
22)	Run Baby Run (Back Into My Arms)	More Info...
23)	Daylight Savin' Time	More Info...
24)	Livin' Above Your Head	More Info...

Album: Northern Souls Guilty Secrets / Various
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Don't Stop Lookin'	More Info...
2)	You Touched Me	More Info...
3)	Can't Live This Way	More Info...
4)	Ten Miles High	More Info...
5)	Keeps On Burning	More Info...
6)	Seven Days of Loving You	More Info...
7)	Soulful Jerk	More Info...
8)	It's Too Late	More Info...
9)	I Struck It Rich	More Info...
10)	You've Come a Long Way Baby	More Info...
11)	You Sexy Sugar Plum (But I Like It)	More Info...
12)	Bumpin' and Stompin'	More Info...
13)	Elusive	More Info...
14)	On a Magic Carpet Ride	More Info...
15)	Put Me in Your Pocket	More Info...
16)	Hey Hey Bunny	More Info...
17)	Pushin' Too Hard (Feat. Sky Saxon)	More Info...
18)	Don't Let It Slip Away	More Info...
19)	I Can Take Care of Myself	More Info...
20)	Walk Tall (Like a Man)	More Info...
21)	Would She Do That for You	More Info...
22)	Run Baby Run (Back Into My Arms)	More Info...
23)	Daylight Savin' Time	More Info...
24)	Livin' Above Your Head	More Info...

Performer Notes

What sort of guilty secrets, exactly, could the Northern soul scene harbor? Did someone kill and bury a man at an all-night dance party in a heated argument over a particularly rare '60s soul 45? The secrets this compilation expose, however, turn out to be much more benign. Much of the Northern soul crowd is noted for its purism, but it seems that some unhip tracks -- many with only tenuous connections to soul, and some not even performed by African-Americans -- achieved some popularity at Northern soul events, at least before the guardians of good taste got wise to what was going on. This compilation gathers a couple dozen of the prime offenders, including songs by a surf combo (the Rumblers), a British blue-eyed soulster (Kiki Dee), a psychedelic garage band (the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard"), an Elvis Presley imitator (Ral Donner), girl group-styled singers, and pop/rockers with the mildest of soul tinges (Jay & the Americans, Keith). There's even some disco and, of all things, a 1966 hit by Bobby Goldsboro, a star one might think as far removed from soul of any kind as possible. The rhyme or reason as to why most of these songs picked up spins on Northern soul dancefloors remains elusive; by and large, they had good beats, but so do many other tracks that fall outside of Northern soul's rather strict parameters of rare, uptempo vintage soul sides. The result is, perversely, an anthology that might appeal to the general rock and soul fan more than the average generic Northern soul collection (and there are many such collections on the Kent label alone), even as it invites scorn from Northern soul diehards. It's really not that great a listen, and it's uneven, but it does have some good cuts, some of them quite rare and few of them very familiar, the hits by the Seeds and Goldsboro excepted. Though much of this is somewhat gawky white '60s pop/rock with a mild dash of blue-eyed soul, it has a the charm of guilty pleasure, at times sounding like a collection of songs that could have been hits with a different singer (like Johnny Vanelli's 1968 single "Seven Days of Loving You" and Mary Saenz's soulful 1964 girl groupish outing "Would She Do That for You"). Some of the artists are actual respected soul singers (Rodger Collins, Garland Green), but it's really the ones who seem like they got slipped onto a Northern soul turntable by mistake that make this interesting. ~ Richie Unterberger

Professional Reviews

Record Collector (magazine) (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] Judy Harris' frenzied 'You Touched Me' from 1970, mixing Southern soul grit with country-pop..."