Fire is a Willie Dixon tune, but I don’t think the Bluesman had any idea what Rick Hall and his crew in Alabama were going to do with it when they re-arranged it for Etta James. The song features some blaring horns and Ms. James’ always powerful voice matching the brass note for note. It’s a great, hard-edged Soul number. MORE

Viva Soul is best known for the track You’re No Good with its bouncy beginning before going into a trade off between a female duo and I assume Averne on vocals. The song is so catchy it demands repeated plays. MORE

The Soul Goes On starts off with one of my favorite Jerry Butler tunes, Never Give You Up, which also appeared on his Ice Man Cometh album. The song has a great arrangement with horns and a sing along chorus. Yes, My Goodness, Yes has much of the same feel, but a more soulful approach than the former, which was obviously aimed at the charts. MORE

A Portrait of Ray gets off to a real slow and melancholy start with Never Saw Naw. That mood continues on for almost the entire album until I Won’t Leave jumps off of the record. It’s got a big horn line and some real funkiness to its rhythm, which is tempered by Charles’ down home singing. The slick sounding A Sweet Young Thing Like You with some fine female back-ups follows that. MORE

Lorraine Ellison was from Philadelphia and got her start singing Gospel. She released a few albums, but Stay With Me is her best. It contains the great Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) with its slow and easy groove that shows off her strong singing. The dance tracks The Hurt Came Back Again and You’re Easy On My Mind are also good. MORE

Much of Norman Feels’ self-titled album reminds me of a mix of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On LP and Shuggie Otis. There’s no knock out tunes, but you can listen to the record from beginning to end, which is a rarity. It consists of long and lush Soul numbers with one seamlessly going into the next to create a unified sound from the opening to closing notes. MORE

If you didn’t see Curtis Knight on the cover of this album you could easily mistake Down In The Village as the product of a garage band from the 60s. The record is heavy with Rock influences like the opening title cut, Lena, and Give You Plenty Lovin. MORE

Gladys Knight And The Pips had left Motown in 1973, but that didn’t mean the label was done with them. They released A Little Knight Music in 1975 consisting of previously unreleased material that had been sitting in their vaults. MORE

All I Need Is Time was one of Gladys Knight’s last albums for Motown. The record has an unconventional cover for the label with a sketch of Gladys and her group sitting for tea outside. The record didn’t score any hits, mostly because of unremarkable song writing. MORE

By 1974 Gladys Knight And The Pips had left Motown and signed with Buddah. One of their earliest releases for their new label was the soundtrack for Claudine, a movie starring James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll. The song writing and production was by Curtis Mayfield. Together they got off to a great start, but then faded. On the first side there are tunes like Mr. MORE