Get Involved blog

Betty Harris - Trouble With My Lover

Been after this record (Sansu 480) for ages and was super excited to find a mint DJ copy of it up for auction on eBay the other week. I won it! It’s Betty Harris’ brilliant cover of Ride Your Pony - the Allen Toussaint penned ditty that Lee Dorsey had a hit with in 1965 on the AMY label. But I’ve posted the flip of the record up here - Trouble With My Lover (also written by Toussaint) - because it’s really floating my boat right now.

Solomon Burke - Be Bop Grandma

Solomon Burke’s granny gave him a guitar as a Christmas in 1954 and two weeks later he’d written his first song, the aptly titled Christmas Presents From Heaven. “She was my greatest encouragement,” Burke says of his Grandma who sadly died before he got to write another song. “She would make me listen to the radio: classical, country, jazz, Paul Robeson, Count Basie. And she told me to copy them and learn to phrase and project a song. She was my teacher. I never had no music training. She gave me the promise of a new life, not just as a singer, but as a person alone in the world with nothing but Jesus.”

Burke actually recorded this song in 1959 but Atlantic released it in 1960 after signing him and the flip, the A-side, Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms) reached #7 on the R&B chart and #24 on the pop charts. In 1961, London records pressed it up as Burke’s very first UK release but I’m loving this original Atlantic pressing I found in Sounds That Swing the other day. Check the guitar intro and break. Rock Grandma, Rock!

Barbara Lynn - Don’t Be Cruel

Found this delightful cover of Elvis’ Don’t Be Cruel by Barbara Lynn (Jamie 1244, 1963) in JB’s last week. Lynn’s voice is incredible and her slowed-down, piano led version of the Elvis classic sounds effortless. Good summertime spin!