Tiberius

As above, rarest format, best condition. This is OK unless there is some sentiment attached to one of your more common, lesser condition copies............in which case you may have to go for the option suggested by TattooDave.

Easily Jackie Wilson for me. As chalky has commented, as good as they may be, most of the artists listed don't come close.

Photo courtesy of The Sentinel, apparently Top Rank sometime in the 1970's.

That Royal Jesters Chévere LP is an odd one, with much of it sounding like live recording(s). The seller posted 2 of the more "funkier" tracks in the listing but I think missed a trick in that the best track, to my ears at least, is a sweet soul tune. It is a scarce LP though.

Indeed. Not my lucky week. Had an LP mailer arrive today, even though I hadn't bought any LP's recently. Thought I was on to a winner when I opened it to find the mega rare Frosty & The Fun Street Gang LP, which, as you will know, is full of killer Northern monsters. But no, inside was a damn 45.

Not a rare record but (what was) a M- copy of Bobby Freeman - I'll Never Fall In Love Again landed on the mat the other day but as soon as I saw the state of the box I knew there was only going to be one outcome.

As mentioned above, for a Windows PC, Audacity will do the job. It's free, extremely powerful yet quite simple to use. Importantly, there are numerous "how to" instructional videos on youtube to help, if needed, with any of the technicalities. Equally there are probably more than enough Audacity users on this site who could answer any questions you may have.

Derrick Harriott has already been mentioned & I posted Trial of Love in the Lowrider thread some time ago but it fits nicely into this thread too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VflIs8d0nsc

Oliver Norman did a good version

Here's a 45 I recently purchased by Class Act featuring Rita. It'd been a want for a while but I didn't want to pay too much. Rita is the wife of one of the founder members of The Magnificent Men, Bob Angelucci, and there's lots of info & band footage on the net. Incidentally, the 45 does not speed up, as the audio appears to a little in this video.

If ever a program needed reporting to OFCOM then this was it. Blue eyed Soul my ahrz.

For lovers of tech how about ELP laser turntables

My son, now in high school, has from a very young age always taken a great interest in my records. He'd often want to watch when I was playing them, especially as I lowered the stylus onto the wax. I've never let him use my turntable for fear of damaging an expensive stylus/record but promised, years ago, I'd get him his own record player but never did as I couldn't decide which to buy, vintage or modern. I did, however, give him an old singles case which had in it a few mixed 45's. Fast forward to earlier this year and with sons birthday on the horizon we asked what he'd like for his main present. "A record player" was the reply so that's what we bought him. I also grabbed some more 45's off the shelf to fill his old record case. He was chuffed to bits & comes home from school and plays his records first thing every night. Bobby Hebb Love, Love, Love gets lots of plays. As the record player has the usual 3 speeds, I kept hearing one purple labeled disc regularly being played at 78rpm and thought I'll have to have a listen to this at the correct speed. A couple of weeks went by and this record was having lots of plays, always at the wrong speed. By this point son was begining to take less care of his records, which were starting to be left strewn around his room out of their sleeves. When I picked them up one day I noticed the purple labeled "Pinky and Perky do soul" 45 and the mystery was solved, he'd been playing The Jackson Sisters Day In The Blue! "Er, can I have that one back please son?"

Christian, there are currently numerous copies for sale on Discogs. You may ask to contact the sellers to enquire about audio quality tho.

This is the case here in the UK too, so it's all too easy to slip over the threshold & incure a VAT charge, which then triggers the £8 "handling fee" levied by Royal Mail.

Original Bobby Thurston - Sweetest Piece Of The Pie LP sells for a good few quid and from a similar period in time Wee - You Can Fly On My Aeroplane.

The After Hours - I Don't Wanna Cry Probably with one of The Ethics slower cuts, Tell Me or Who In The World.

Tammi Terrell - All I Do Is Think About You. The lyrics are superb. "You made my soul a burning fire". What a great opening line.

Joseph Webster - My Love Is So Strong. A spoken intro that actually works imho. Many don't.

Love Committee were formally The Ethics. The Formations became The Corner Boys.

Some info regarding levels of cover and, lower down the page, what is needed to make a claim for loss/damage from Royal Mail - https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/319/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTAxOTUwOTM3L3NpZC9mVVJSRVNGNUJvSjhFNHc4JTdFczNXbjJQbHpDR1JMdHB1T19zY0tPd1kzeU1oT2lteTZueFF0cTNSSzZrZm5XZlhhMTZneFBuQm1DSzBacyU3RXZTV3hoQUdFekkxWUYycmJTUGNHQ2VyQlF5MGdXc1RGbGM4elp0MDRnJTIxJTIx

Pat Stallworth - Questions, what a great record that is. Bill Jacocks had posted it on youtube but it's been pulled by the look of it. I think a lot of copies have some surface noise like in the attached sample below.

Off the top of my head, would the Chattanooga label release of Bobby Boyd & the Playboys - You Don't Have To Be Crazy / Higher & Higher qualify as beong, one of, "rare/obscure/different"? I think the Scepter label release is fairly common but not so sure about the Chattanooga 45. Same label as the Playthings - When You Come Home.

A trend I would suggest is the upsurge in interest in the sweeter side of soul, certainly here in the UK, over the last few years. Sweet soul records have in the main become more "in demand", hence increased in value, plus there has been an increase in the amount of events playing these sweet / deep sounds. Whilst the interest has always been apparent I feel a marked increase has taken place over the last few years.

Both Richie Havens and Marvin Henfields versions of I Can't Make It Anymore. That must be a first.