a Kind of Loving 1962

Ray Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even more to devise a new form of black pop by merging '50s R&B with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the '60s) country. Then there was his singing; his style was among the most emotional and easily identifiable of any 20th century performer, up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He was also a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of his 1950s and '60s work, however, can't obscure the fact that he made few classic tracks after the mid-'60s, though he recorded often and performed until the year before his death.

SoulMusic Records is proud to present a first-of-its-kind compilation of recordings by renowned singer/songwriter Barbara Lewis spanning her six years with Atlantic Records (1962-1968) and her brief one-year tenure with Reprise Records (1972). Known the world over in particular for her timeless classics, "Hello Stranger" and "Baby, I'm Yours", the Michigan-born chanteuse's distinctive brand of sweet soul brought her much acclaim in the mid-60s, resulting in a total of five Atlantic albums. This beautifully-packaged collection, sequenced in chronological order of recording session, includes the first CD release of a number of tracks from both the 1964 LP "Snap Your Fingers (Barbara Lewis Sings The Great Soul Tunes)" and the 1966 album, "It’s Magic"…

The Very Best of Otis Redding wasn't the first Otis Redding compilation but it is the best of the single-disc collections, distilling the high points across his career (up thru the posthumous hits "(Sitting' On) The Dock of the Bay" and the heartbreaking "I've Got Dreams to Remember") in 16 tracks, every one a musical milestone and a soul music high-point of one kind or another.

One of the most interesting and difficult-to-categorize singers in '60s pop, Gene Pitney had a long run of hits distinguished by his pained, one-of-a-kind melodramatic wail. Pitney is sometimes characterized (or dismissed) as a shallow teen idol-type prone to operatic ballads. It's true that some of his biggest hits – "Town Without Pity," "Only Love Can Break a Heart," "I'm Gonna Be Strong," "It Hurts to Be in Love," and "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" – are archetypes of adolescent or just-post-adolescent agony, characterized by longing and not a little self-pity.