Soul 66 From the Vaults of Atlantic/ Various - Soul 66 From The Vaults Of Atlantic, Atco, Calla, Loma, Reprise, Roulette, Stax, Volt & Warner Bros / Various

91-track box gathering hits and rarities from 1966: the year that soul music broke big. Key artists include Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam And Dave, Carla Thomas, Ben E. King, Arthur Conley, Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Darrell Banks, Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips, William Bell, Doris Troy and Mary Wells. 1966 has been heralded as a boom year for rock music, but it was also a peak for soul, the sounds coming out of Memphis, Detroit, New York, Chicago et al exploding into the US charts and influencing pop music in America and beyond. This box tells part of that story with tracks taken from legendary Memphis southern soul label Stax, New York's Atlantic Records, Warner Brothers' imprint Loma that became a favourite of the UK northern soul scene and more. There's northern soul floorfillers such as Darrell Banks' 'Our Love Is In The Pocket', The Marvellos' 'Something's Burnin', The Blossoms' 'That's When The Tears Start', Bobby Womack's 'Find Me Somebody', Mary Wells' Keep Me In Suspense', Charles Thomas' 'The Man With The Golden Touch', and Bobby McNutt's 'I'm Gettin' Ready'. This isn't just about hits, there's B-sides, obscurities and a couple of Loma tracks that were unissued until the 21st century. The focus may be mainly on the dancefloor but there's also room for a few deep soul numbers such as Jeff Dale's sublime 'A Suffering Pain'. Notes are by MOJO and Record Collector soul expert Lois Wilson. Mastering is by Grammy nominated archivist/producer Alec Palao who discovered The Marvellos' stomping 'I Need You' (featured here) when he digitised the Loma tape archive. Everything on 'Soul 66' is licensed from Warner Bros.