It's What's Happening, Baby! That's the name of the 1965 television special hosted by influential New York disk jockey Murray Kaufman, a.k.a. Murray The K. Over the course of 90 minutes, the jocular, hep-talking Murray (who christened himself The Fifth Beatle as an early friend and supporter of the Fab Four) shared musical performances by the day's biggest pop and soul acts including The Supremes, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, The Righteous Brothers, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Rivers,
The classic Motown vaults are, once again, open. This Friday, the U.K.'s Caroline label will release the long-anticipated fifth volume of A Cellarful of Motown, the rarities series which last saw a volume in 2010. But this 2-CD, 43-song collection promises to have been worth the wait as it features previously unreleased and new-to-CD tracks from such household name artists as Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Gladys Knight and The Pips, and The (Detroit) Spinners
From folk to space-age pop and heartrending soul, Ace Records and its Kent Records imprint have got collectors covered with a number of recent releases. Wilson Pickett Sings Bobby Womack on Kent Records traces the many meetings of the two soul titans - 17 tracks, in fact, all recorded between May 1966 and September 1968 and culled from The Wicked Pickett's tenure at Atlantic Records. Although Womack's time as an artist at the New York label was short (just one 1966 single, "Find Me Somebody"
Cherry Red's RPM Records label has been doing a lot of Looking with its series of themed mini-box sets dedicated to such pop subgenres as freakbeat, mod, and girl group soul. The latest set in the Looking series, established in 2011, is Looking Stateside. This volume is dedicated to U.S. R&B Mod, Soul and Garage Nuggets, and contains 80 such selections on its three packed CDs. Though limited to American recordings, the focus is otherwise diverse. As the compilers explain in the thick