Artist	Song
Ray Charles	I Got A Woman (1955)
The "5" Royales	I Need Your Lovin' Baby (1955)
Little Willie John	Need Your Love So Bad (1955)
Ray Charles	Hallelujah I Love Her So (1956)
The "5" Royales	Mine Forevermore (1956)
James Brown	Please, Please, Please (1956)
Little Willie John	Uh Uh Baby (1957)
Ray Charles	Ain't That Love (1957)
The "5" Royales	Dedicated To The One I Love (1957)
Sam Cooke	You Send Me [demo version] (1957)
Sam Cooke	Just For You (1957)
The "5" Royales	Think (1957)
Ray Charles	That's Enough (1957)
Sam Cooke	Win Your Love For Me (1958)
The "5" Royales	Tell The Truth (1958)
The "5" Royales	Don't Let It Be In Vain (1958)
Sam Cooke	Love You Most Of All (1958)
Jackie Wilson	Lonely Teardrops (1958)
James Brown	Try Me (1958)
The Falcons	You're So Fine (1959)
Jackie Wilson	That's Why I Love You So (1959)
Marv Johnson	Come To Me (1959)
The Drifters	There Goes My Baby (1959)
Ray Charles	The Night Time Is The Right Time (1959)
The "5" Royales	It Hurts Inside (1959)
James Brown	Good, Good Lovin' (1959)
James Brown	I'll Go Crazy (1959)
The Isley Brothers	Shout (1959)
Jackie Wilson	I'll Be Satisfied (1959)
Ray Charles	What'd I Say [Parts 1 & 2] (1959)

Comment:

I find it strange that 'Fifties Soul' is a largely overlooked sub-genre - especially when so many of the stars of the more familiar Sixties Soul era recorded substantial amounts of their work during this decade. Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and Ray Charles had all enjoyed long and successful careers before the Sixties started and their early material features here alongside The "5" Royales, whose failure to find the same fame and fortune as their fellow Fifties soul-mates belies the quality and importance of their recordings. Bizarrely enough, this CD contains the third version of "Dedicated To The One I Love" to feature on mixes I've submitted recently - but this is the original version, with great guitar playing from Lowman "Pete" Pauling - a big influence on Steve Cropper (...it's funny the way my record collection fits together!) Just for the record, I've chosen to include the demo version of "You Send Me" since I find it a lot more soulful than the (slightly sacharine sweet) single version. Sometimes history (and in this case Ray Charles) play a big part in dictating the track-listing on a mix like this. You couldn't ask for a more appropriate opener than 1955's "I Got A Woman" and "What'd I Say" is the perfect climax to the story of Fifties Soul. Of course there were other key moments in the development of Soul Music which followed, but they belong to a different decade, a different story, and almost certainly a different CD!

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