Top 10 best Rare Soul/Groove LPs

[Bocanada]

Hi,

What are the top 10 (or 20 if you fancy sharing even more) best rare soul/groove LPs out there?

I'm looking for good rare soul albums, as opposed to albums that are just scarce or hard to come by.

I want to see if there's something that I'm missing

[Mal C]

Isn't rare a definition of scarce and hard to come by?  there are hundreds of semi known LP's that on the whole miss the glare of the collectors... are those the titles your after?

Soul Inc. ‎– Live! At The Cellar / Emblem
George Scott - Find Someone to Love / Maple
Lou Ragland is the Conveyor /
Mighty Ryders - Help us Spread the Message / Sun Geo
Leon Thomas - Blues and soulful truth / Flying Dutchman
Odyssey - Moest

Dont get hung up on Rare, the soundtrack to "Claudine" by Gladys Knight & the Pips is worth a tenner, but its a brilliant Lp better than thousands of supposedly rare soul Lp's..

Mal

 

[Bocanada]

Hi Mal – thanks for your answer.

I agree with you that some albums that are easily accessible are fantastic and quite cheap too. Some of the albums that are normally around in the rare groove scene, for example, are not that rare (think Donald Byrd). It's a brilliant LP though.

Leo's Sunshipp is not rare rare (like the Mighty Ryders you mentioned); but it's a brilliant LP from start to finish IMO.

There are a few that I don't know there, so thank you.

 

[Mal C]

I'll sort through the racks, come up with a larger list, I collect anything as long as I like it, so i maybe Northern or two step, these days its all Soul to me..

 

[Bocanada]

I normally gravitate towards mid to late 70s soul/funk. Anything with a nice groove does the trick.

For example, I know very little about soul tunes that have only appeared on 45s or 12" singles. 

Arnold Blair is an excellent example here.

[Geeselad]

Pleasure- joyous, on fantasy is a great example of the genre, if you can call the term that . 

[Bocanada]

2 hours ago, Geeselad said:

Pleasure- joyous, on fantasy is a great example of the genre, if you can call the term that . 

The first 3 LPs by Pleasure, "Dust Yourself Off", "Accept no Substitutes", and "Joyous" – are fantastic. 

Wayne Henderson's production is great. 

I don't know if you can call it a genre, but if you happen to know more albums with a similar vibe, let me know

Edited November 23, 2020 by Bocanada
Typo.

[Bocanada]

Btw, I just remembered that Pleasure was the backing band on Ronnie Laws' "Fever" – also produced by Wayne Henderson. 

Listen to "Let's Keep it Together" from that album. It's pleasure with the sax taken to 11

[Tomangoes]

Rare Stamps....

Heartstoppers...

Ed

[Fish Fingers]

Two albums I love , but are more modern soul than rare groove. 

Ronn Matlock - Love City. 1979

Randy Brown - Welcome to my room. 1978

On the rare groove side, I can immediately think of a couple of compilations I own that would seem to fit with your likes. 

Mastercuts - Classic Jazz Funk series

Mastercuts - Classic Rare Groove series (3 of compiled by Norman Jay) 

May be a good starting point to find tracks you like, then source the original artists albums. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Fish Fingers

[Bocanada]

Oh Fish Fingers, you absolutely nailed it with Randy Brown! Slow soul groover, very nice. Now I need to find myself a copy! Thanks. I love this kind of lavish production.

Love City is really good. "I Can't Forget About You" is an absolute classic.

[Dylan]

6 minutes ago, Bocanada said:

Oh Fish Fingers, you absolutely nailed it with Randy Brown! Slow soul groover, very nice. Now I need to find myself a copy! Thanks. I love this kind of lavish production.

Love City is really good. "I Can't Forget About You" is an absolute classic.

That’s Randy browns best LP but all his others contain great tracks

 

check out the Malaco label for some great 70s southern soul there are lots of compilations

Edited November 24, 2020 by Dylan

[Bocanada]

7 minutes ago, Dylan said:

That’s Randy browns best LP but all his others contain great tracks

I'll definitely check out the others.

Dexter Wansel's The Sweetest Pain and the "Life on Mars" LP are also fantastic and on the same kind of style.

[Fish Fingers]

Stand out track for me on Randy Brown - and one of my top 5 all time tracks. 

 

[Bocanada]

Sweet Magic by Lee McDonald is another excellent album. "I'll do Anything for You" and "We've only just begun" are brilliant.

Still in my wantlist. I've actually added a post in the Record Wants section, but haven't had any luck so far

Oh, and this one just came to my head too:

 

[Fish Fingers]

6 hours ago, Bocanada said:

Oh Fish Fingers, you absolutely nailed it with Randy Brown! Slow soul groover, very nice. Now I need to find myself a copy! Thanks. I love this kind of lavish production.

Love City is really good. "I Can't Forget About You" is an absolute classic.

I love the lavish productions too.

I could post quite a few of those up here, but not necessarily Rare Groove and not necessarily from an album. 

Most in a similar vein to Randy Brown. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Fish Fingers

[Bocanada]

8 minutes ago, Fish Fingers said:

I love the lavish productions to. I could post quite a few of those up here, but not necessarily Rare Groove and not necessarily from an album. 

Most in a similar vein to Randy Brown. 

What qualifies as a "rare groove" track keeps changing, so share them anyway. Perhaps I should change the topic of this thread and make it a bit more inclusive, ha.

As per non-album tracks, I know very little about songs that were only released on 45s or 12s. In fact, I was thinking of creating another thread to discover good tunes that have only made it to 45s/12s, always favouring 70s+ songs (not so much the earlier 60s stuff).

Edited November 24, 2020 by Bocanada
Typo.

[Fish Fingers]

OK then... 

A few of my personal favourites to kick off. I am assuming you will know some of these - but you may not given your lack of knowledge outside LP releases. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Fish Fingers

[Geeselad]

32 minutes ago, Bocanada said:

What qualifies as a "rare groove" track keeps changing, so share them anyway. Perhaps I should change the topic of this thread and make it a bit more inclusive, ha.

As per non-album tracks, I know very little about songs that were only released on 45s or 12s. In fact, I was thinking of creating another thread to discover good tunes that have only made it to 45s/12s, always favouring 70s+ songs (not so much the earlier 60s stuff).

Back in 87 or so I used to see these boxes of ' rare grooves' on markets and shops around london. Usually full of JB related stuff and hot wax, if you were lucky a jackson sisters. The term as you say is constantly revised.

[Bocanada]

@Fish Fingers – there are some really good tunes there! I don't think I know them. Thanks for the list.

"Make it last forever" by Donna McGhee is another one of those really really good albums. Also, both Milton Wright LPs too. All of them still in my wantlist.

@Geeselad – I'm sure those were the days; when you could find a Jackson Sisters LP in a record shop! The only time I saw one of those was in Japan and the price was quite hefty!

I guess I never bought 45s or 12s because, internally, I need to have my picture sleeve! I don't know if you've seen the J. Rocc episode of Crate Diggers, where he tells the story of Madlib not buying 45s  Check it out. It starts at 8:12.

 

[Tomangoes]

Nice record cleaner. Makes Bubs Jumper antiquated...

Ed

[Fish Fingers]

@Bocanda

I love this edit of the Donna McGhee classic. 

Also, if you aren't aware of Willie Hutch, I would highly recommend. 

[Bocanada]

@Fish Fingers I'm not familiar with Willie Hutch's entire discography, but I do have The Mack OST, which I love. Any specific albums I should check out?

Kenny Dope and Louie Vega are great. 

[Dylan]

29 minutes ago, Bocanada said:

@Fish Fingers I'm not familiar with Willie Hutch's entire discography, but I do have The Mack OST, which I love. Any specific albums I should check out?

Kenny Dope and Louie Vega are great. 

I didn’t know the street sounds track until after bucketheads those house samples started me looking back for the originals.

[Bocanada]

@Dylan I didn't even know it was a sample when it came out. Found out several years later, and didn't even know that mishearing and/or misinterpreting something to give it a new meaning had an actual word: mondegreen. Fascinating

I think I've got The Bucketheads 12".
 

[Dylan]

11 minutes ago, Bocanada said:

@Dylan I didn't even know it was a sample when it came out. Found out several years later, and didn't even know that mishearing and/or misinterpreting something to give it a new meaning had an actual word: mondegreen. Fascinating

I think I've got The Bucketheads 12".
 

Same here it was a couple of years after buckethesds.  We didn’t have the internet then to provide us with all the answers.

[Geeselad]

2 hours ago, Dylan said:

I didn’t know the street sounds track until after bucketheads those house samples started me looking back for the originals.

 

While we're on the subject, hardly s rare groove but I just love it. 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HJMw8cUGjwI

[Bocanada]

1 minute ago, Geeselad said:

 

While we're on the subject, hardly s rare groove but I just love it. 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HJMw8cUGjwI

You're not the only one!

Rumour has it that, when I was a child, I use to walk around the streets with a portable cassette player and a box full of cassettes playing Chicago 

[Bocanada]

Here's another excellent groover by Chicago:

 

[Sutty]

13 hours ago, Bocanada said:

@Fish Fingers I'm not familiar with Willie Hutch's entire discography, but I do have The Mack OST, which I love. Any specific albums I should check out?

Kenny Dope and Louie Vega are great. 

All of them from 73-78, the couple before on RCA and then after those dates have tracks on but are less consistent. You’re in for a a treat if you’ve never heard Ode To My Lady or Color Her Sunshine

his material wouldn’t be classed as rare groove tho

cheers Sutty

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Sutty
.

[Keamus]

Totally agree on Willie Hutch. All his LPs are essential. One of the few artists who I own more LPs of than 7"s.

Current guilty pleasure is his version of The Way We Were from Ode to My Lady set

[Dylan]

36 minutes ago, Keamus said:

Totally agree on Willie Hutch. All his LPs are essential. One of the few artists who I own more LPs of than 7"s.

Current guilty pleasure is his version of The Way We Were from Ode to My Lady set

Bobby Womack is another artist where it’s easy to own more LP’s than 45’s an obvious choice but a great artist to delve into his work.

[Keamus]

That's true. Got a pile of Dells and Jackie Wilson LPs, but also got loads of 7s too. Sorry I know a bit off topic!

 

[Bocanada]

I heard several tunes from Bobby Womack, Across 110th Street of course – fantastic!

For Dells I have the one that includes No Way Back.

@Sutty – thanks for the Willie recommendations. I'll have a listen.

[Dylan]

It’s hard to know where to begin with bobby there are so many I’ll just put this one up as a personal favourite.

 

[Fish Fingers]

I'll throw this into the ring as my favourite for Bobby Womack.. 

 

[Bocanada]

@Fish Fingers classic!

[Concrete]

for soul John Edwards on Aware takes some beating 

[Dylan]

George jackson also deserves a mention.  This CD is superb this track is the highlight for me.

 

 

[Soulstrutter]

On 25/11/2020 at 11:21, Keamus said:

Totally agree on Willie Hutch. All his LPs are essential. One of the few artists who I own more LPs of than 7"s.

Current guilty pleasure is his version of The Way We Were from Ode to My Lady set

Absolutely nothing to feel 'guilty' about as far as I'm concerned ...  his arrangement and delivery is superb.  Been a long time fav!  For any poor soul not familiar with it:

 

[Bocanada]

I'll definitely check out more Willie H – unfortunately his discography in Spotify is incomplete.

How about something like this? The change and arrangement at 3:16 is fantastic. That bass line!

As all of you can tell, I need my groove

[Fish Fingers]

9 hours ago, Soulstrutter said:

Absolutely nothing to feel 'guilty' about as far as I'm concerned ...  his arrangement and delivery is superb.  Been a long time fav!  For any poor soul not familiar with it:

 

One of the reasons 'Easy does it' is maybe my favourite all time record. 

Great lyrics, vocals and percussion - but his guitar playing throughout the track just sets it apart for me.

Coupled with the heavenly strings, it's pretty unique imo. 

Sorry to go off topic! 

 

[Steveh73]

11 hours ago, Bocanada said:

I'll definitely check out more Willie H – unfortunately his discography in Spotify is incomplete.

How about something like this? The change and arrangement at 3:16 is fantastic. That bass line!

As all of you can tell, I need my groove

Great to see Here Comes The Sun posted - makes a change from the somewhat overplayed Overdose of Joy. In a similar vein, have a listen to We Belong Together from the Trying To Get To You album.

Edited November 27, 2020 by Steveh73
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[Bocanada]

@Fish Fingers – that's a really good tune!

That's a good recommendation, @Steveh73 – I liked it. Although it doesn't have the "surprise element" Here Comes the Sun has towards the end. 

Overdose of Joy is excellent, but I agree that it's an easy choice. Phenomenal tune though!

I still need to get me a copy of the Chi-Lite's "I Like Your Lovin'" album. So many good tracks there.

Man, this is never-ending!

[Modernsoulsucks]

Last things I bought were these although more 2-step than rare groove.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Modernsoulsucks

[Geeselad]

On 23/11/2020 at 17:42, Bocanada said:

 

Can't see what this is if not rare groove. Hard one to pigeonhole this one, but it certainly grooves'. 

[Bocanada]

@Geeselad – I have a WLP of that album, I really like it.

I prefer this one instead, which has a sound very similar to that of The 3 Pieces and Ace Spectrum!

 

And I really like the cover art too

[Geeselad]

12 hours ago, Bocanada said:

@Geeselad – I have a WLP of that album, I really like it.

I prefer this one instead, which has a sound very similar to that of The 3 Pieces and Ace Spectrum!

 

And I really like the cover art too

Really sits in the middle of funk and soul this album.

[Bocanada]

A personal favourite from The 3 Pieces album

For me, this album is definitely in the top 10 of rare groove albums.

[Geeselad]

Surely this fits the bill. Basically the acid jazz guys just tried to recreate this sound. So much like JK it's unreal.