San Francisco'S Uptown Soul / Various San Francisco'S Uptown Soul / Various CD

The San Francisco Bay Area was not known as a centre for urban soul productions in the 1960s, yet judged on the contents of Hitsville West, the R&B-mad region was just as capable of generating fine sophisticated soul sounds. An adjunct to our recent Kent collection Moaning, Groaning, Crying, this compilation focuses on the more polished local soul recordings, and in doing so necessarily includes virtually the entire catalogue of the renowned Villa label. The imprint is a legend amongst northern soul fans for the instrumental monster 'Double Cookin'. Recently discovered master tapes turned up not one but two vocal versions of this great stomper. Along with the original track, both are included here. One is the stupendous '(Just a Little) Faith & Understanding' by the Magicians, which has already become the talk of the northern circuit. As usual, the package features detailed liner notes based on interviews with many of the participants, and a selection of photos of these rarely-seen artists.

1. (Just a Little) Faith ; Understanding 2. We Got to Keep on 3. Dance (Holes in Your Soles) 4. Why Would You Blow It 5. I Can't See Your Love (For the Tears in My Eyes) 6. Love, Let's Try It Again 7. Times A-Wasting 8. Is It Love Baby 9. You're a Winner 10. Keep Your Hands Off (My Baby) 11. You Can Forget It 12. Feel Good All Over 13. Is It All Gone? 14. Why Did Our Love Go 15. Can You Qualify 16. Why Must You Cry (I Deeply Love You) 17. You Gotta Git 18. Trust in Me 19. I Can't Jerk 20. Why Do I Do These Foolish Things 21. Earthquake 22. I'll Always Love You 23. Where Was I 24. Double Cookin'