Marvin cut an entire album of show tunes, Hello Broadway, and even while singing with his first duetting soul partner, Mary Wells, dipped into The Great American Songbook with a cover of Duke Ellington’s “Just Squeeze Me (Don’t Tease Me)” on their fine Together album. Even the great Marvin Gaye was inclined to don a tuxedo and croon jazzy ballads under the encouragement of Motown’s founder, Berry Gordy. It was handy for a soul singer to have a sideline in mainstream music, in case soul proved to be a passing fashion. Aretha Franklin’s early career was studded with jazz/lounge-oriented albums, and she tackled the likes of “Love For Sale” and “You Are My Sunshine.” She wasn’t the only soul talent to try the latter: the avuncular New Orleans character Lee Dorsey recorded it early in his career. ![]() Written by lyricist Mack Gordon and composer Henry Warren, it’s hard to believe that Etta’s soul-soaked performance could have come from the same pen that wrote “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo.” Her soul power transformed it: the song was hers from this point on.Ĭlick to load video 2: Marvin Gaye And Mary Wells: Just Squeeze Me (Don’t Tease Me) (from Together, 1964)Įtta wasn’t the only powerhouse soul diva to handle such unlikely material. In 1960 she cut her debut album for Chess, At Last!, and while the title song was a bluesy ballad on Etta’s larynx, it had been written for a 1941 Hollywood musical, Sun Valley Serenade, which featured Glen Miller’s Orchestra. Etta’s powerful voice saw her making R&B records at the age of 15, in 1954. She never knew her father, and her mother was 14 when she had Etta.Īs a girl, Etta loved singing, but was beaten into performing in public by an abusive choir tutor. Soul was never a straightforward affair, and the great Etta James was the living example of its complex roots. Let’s start at the birth of soul music, when it was gathering up its clothes from the bedroom of R&B and remembering what its mama said about never forgetting what it was taught in church. 1: Etta James: At Last (from At Last!, 1960) Here are 11 soul performances from The Great American Songbook that are guaranteed to delight your ears – and your heart. In return, soul has given this material a gospel-derived power and dancefloor-driven sexiness that it had lacked. For many fans, however, the most harmonious music since the 50s has been soul it too has been delighted to dip into this (imaginary) book packed with tunes derived from shows and Hollywood’s golden era: after all, these songs offer a sense of timelessness and dignity that confers a little class on an artist. ![]() Today, entire albums by rockers are devoted to its songs everyone from reggae singers to Rod Stewart love singing them. ![]() The Great American Songbook’s influence echoes down the decades, more than half a century after the rock’n’roll revolution first promised to put paid to its values of melody, harmony, and romantic balladry.
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