A beautiful collection of work by funky soul diva Spanky Wilson – a set that features her full Westbound album Specialty Of The House, plus a nice array of even harder-hitting singles! Spanky first rose to fame as a gritty singer mixing jazz and soul on a series of late 60s/early 70s sides with HB Barnum, but during her Westbound years she cleaned things up a bit – taking her already-rich vocals, and turning them towards fuller backings and more soaring soul that almost hit the heights of soul singers like Marlena Shaw or Motown artists of the time. Backings penned by David Van DePitte, Paul Riser, and others gave Wilson a nicely mature sound that was a good change from her aging style of previous years – but other singles still maintained a grittier, funkier groove too – allowing for a nice range of modes during these short years at Westbound Records. This CD's the first to give full due to these overlooked years in Spanky's career – and it breaks up the core album and intersperses some of the funkier singles, plus unreleased tracks – in a blend that sounds even better than the original records! 18 tracks in all – including the break classic "Kissing My Love", plus "Shake Your Head", "Non Stop Flight", "He Called Me Baby", "Easy Lover", "Spend The Night With Me", "Missing Pieces", "I Think I'm Gonna Cry", "Standing Room Only", "Love Song", "The Downer I Get", and "I'll Stake My Life On You Boy". CD

Includes bonus disc of other Specialty artists. CD

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Wonderful early work from the great Jesse Belvin – one of the key singers on the way to soul, heard here in some great recordings before his smoother sounds for RCA! CD

Features "Short Fat Fannie", "Baby's Crazy", "Dizzy Miss Lizzie", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Slow Down" and more – 22 tracks in all. CD

One of the coolest doo wop duos from the 50s – a pair of singers who arguably paved the way for countless male soul duets in the 60s, given their dynamic energy! Titles include "Jungle Hop", "Pink Champagne", "The Letter", "Mammer Jammer", "Koko Joe", and "Justine". CD

Titles include "Stange Things Happening", "Cry Baby", "Advice (For Men Only)", "Hunt Is On", "Louisiana", "Loose Lips" and "Get Way Back" – 25 tracks total. (Blues, Soul) CD

Includes 25 tracks. CD

A double-length set – overflowing with Little Richard classics from his early years on Specialty Records! Titles include "Hey Hey Hey Hey", "Baby Face", "Send Me Some Lovin", "Ready Teddy", "Slippin & Slidin", "The Girl Can't Help It", "Good Golly Miss Molly", "Long Tall Sally", "Rip It Up", "Lucille", and "Miss Ann". CD

A fantastic entry in this long running series – a batch of compilations that normally focuses on rare disco grooves, but which also features a fair bit of funky soul nuggets this time around! The groove is still mostly uptempo, but with all these wonderfully weird, wild funky elements in the mix too – not gimmicky tracks, but the kind of unusually-crafted cuts that are quite far from the mainstream – and which show that there were often some really amazing things happening in the farther reaches of the soul music underground at the end of the 70s! Plus, most of these cuts are impossibly rare – so much so that many are reaching our ears for the first time, via this excellent compilation – in a list of tracks that includes "Specialty Item" by MVP Cloudburst, "Give Me Love" by EKG, "Disco 2000" by Pleze, "Flashback" by Jeff Burns, "Dance Your Blues (part 2)" by Spellboun, "Forget Yourself" by Body Heat, "Say Raise Your Hand & Say McNasty" by McNasty, "Reflex" by Reflections, "Reaching For Our Star" by Sharon Revoal, "Space Ghost (parts 1 & 2)" by Jackson Lee, "Spend Some Time With Me" by Rideout, "Move On" by Frederick, "I'm Into Your Love" by Executive Jam, "Seeking" by Cash Money, "Give It Up" by Horizon, and "Twilight" by Firewater. (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD