Before Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell created The Sound of Philadelphia, Jerry Ross created the sound of Philadelphia. The Philly-born producer-songwriter-entrepreneur penned hits for Diana Ross and the Supremes and The Temptations and produced chart-toppers by Bobby Hebb and Shocking Blue, but only now has his remarkable legacy in pop, rock-and-roll and soul been celebrated on disc. Ace has recently issued Some Kinda Magic: The Songs of Jerry Ross, a 24-track compendium of Ross'
Summer is finally here, and Real Gone Music has a bevy of offerings due on July 29 which should make your vacation even sunnier! The label is throwing a beach party, sixties-style, with the original stereo soundtrack to How to Stuff a Wild Bikini featuring screen legends Annette Funicello and Mickey Rooney and “Louie, Louie” rockers The Kingsmen; celebrating true California royalty with an expanded edition of “Mama” Cass Elliot’s Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore (sorry, Cass!) featuring previously
If there's such a thing as a First Family of Soul, it might as well be the combined Houston/Warwick clan. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933, Emily "Cissy" Drinkard sang gospel with her family as part of The Drinkard Singers, which counted Cissy's sister Lee Warrick among its members. Marie Dionne Warrick was born in 1940 to Lee and her husband Mancel; Delia Mae "Dee Dee" Warrick followed in 1942. Though The Drinkard Singers remain an important part of the history of gospel music, said to