ReviewOriginally scheduled for release on 24th April 2020, but postponed due to the Covid19 Pandemic, the innocuous title "Soul Voices" understates what this compilation really is, which as a collection of the type of recordings from the early and mid '60s that are commonly described as "Beat Ballads", "Big City Ballads" or, in "Northern Soul" circles, "Enders" (due to the fact that they are commonly played at "Northern Soul" venues to wind-down at the end of a session).
For those who don't know "Beat Ballads" were a variety of Soul Music, usually sung by men with "big" voices, that featured pounding (just below mid-tempo) beats, impassioned vocals, girlie-choruses and heart-rending lyrics. The height of the genre was during the 1962-66 period with well known, and commercially successful, examples including such records as "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson, "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin. Sometimes the girls and/or pop singers also got in on the act with songs such as "Walk On By" by Dionne Warwick or "I'm Gonna Be Strong" by Gene Pitney fitting the description nicely.
Needless to say none of the previously mentioned tunes are included and all of the "Beat Ballads" on here are sung by, usually "big-voiced", males. Some names are well known to '60s Soul fans (Ben E. King, Walter Jackson, Jimmy Radcliffe, Chuck Jackson for example), some are more obscure (Gene Burks, Clarence Pinckney), most tracks were originally released as singles in The US in the '60s, though 8 of them have only recently emerged from the vaults, including a rather splendid version of Dionne Warwick's "Don't Make Me Over" by Tommy Hunt.
Here is a selection of what you can expect on this CD ….