Soul singers: the women

Revolutions

Following on from the other thread, what about the female voices?

Love Candi Staton, and her self-titled is a brilliant listen from start to end.

fretmeister

Aretha’s “Young, gifted and black” is an amazing album. 

matt_sefton

Merry Clayton. Her performance on Gimme Shelter is amazing.

RocknRollDave

A timely opportunity to post this:

https://youtu.be/9PWz-NubVpM?si=l8fz7bzEk4kPy5eM

boogieman

Always loved Chaka Khan’s voice, especially with Rufus, this is a great live performance. Some excellent talk box work from the guitarist too. 

https://youtu.be/3Fbwok5caD8?feature=shared

Placidcasual79

Love me some Mille Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKFfO1gP_JM

and

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=millie+jackson+if+loving+you+is+wrong

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

For me, the queen of soul is Etta James. Always preferred her raspier vocals to Aretha's. (Still love Aretha though) 

Some equally good but slightly less well known singers of that era...

Carla Thomas:



Remarkably still going strong I believe!!



Mitty Collier:



Sugar Pie Desanto:

beed84

Gladys Knight all the way. She has soul in spades, a voice of gold and is absolutely faultless:

Midnight Train to Georgia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhnRyQCeqXI

It Should Have Been Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQSZMm9FPs

The End of Our Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Yqu9dGQLc

Revolutions

Amazing, @Dontgiveupyourdayjob - some new ones for me in there

And thanks to @matt_sefton @RocknRollDave @Placidcasual79 ;

@fretmeister ; - what's the best track from the album?

One more from me, Skip Mahoaney & The Casuals
https://youtu.be/6KY8l4TyImM

hollywoodrox

Not my particular genre but standouts for me are 
  Tina Turner
   Martha Reeves 
   Freda Payne
   Dianna Ross 
   Tammi Terrell 
    Mariah Carrie 
    Whitney Houston 

beed84

@boogieman ; I love Chaka Khan. Her album “Chaka” is superb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDWEH2GTnBQ

@Dontgiveupyourdayjob Etta James is top tier too, obviously. This is one of my favourite tracks of hers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-w-3hQ-YrU

Thanks for these threads Revolutions. I’m a firm believer that this genre was made for vinyl, and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy it. I’ll be taking a trip to the local record shop soon to pick up some of these greats 

hollywoodrox

hollywoodrox said:

Not my particular genre but standouts for me are 
  Tina Turner
   Martha Reeves 
   Freda Payne
   Dianna Ross 
   Tammi Terrell 
    Mariah Carrie 
    Whitney Houston 

https://youtu.be/AnotDBhBy7c?si=m0ExMFBDn5zsBjg1

https://youtu.be/XE2fnYpwrng?si=DsyVYS5fF7MyhI1v

https://youtu.be/Fco8oPGu5EY?si=913je6eM2KE4ZAFw

https://youtu.be/BVa-194roZ4?si=9INn9Bce3AdUKu3J

https://youtu.be/MJeuLdS3i6M?si=9Oth0NxsEDkBe5kQ

https://youtu.be/BEJmP8T07JU?si=7qVv_p0puuHCOlW4

https://youtu.be/eH3giaIzONA?si=hxSakRrFxte9vXwa

JezWynd

Millie Jackson's Caught Up LP, with the Muscle Shoals house band is an incredible concept album (the concept of running around with a married man). How can you deny the genius of lyrics like "the best part of being in love with a married man, is that when you go to the laundromat, you don't have to wash nobody's funky draws but your own".

Placidcasual79

JezWynd said:

Millie Jackson's Caught Up LP, with the Muscle Shoals house band is an incredible concept album (the concept of running around with a married man). How can you deny the genius of lyrics like "the best part of being in love with a married man, is that when you go to the laundromat, you don't have to wash nobody's funky draws but your own".

Yes! I posted the first track from this record. The band in this record is SOOOOOO tight....

I dont know who's playing on this but its sounds like a great studio band....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypFLiZlmPyw

Blueingreen

I saw Gladys Knight in 2017 and 2019.  Well into her 70s and the great voice still intact, easily the best female singer I've heard live.  Some of her repertoire is schlockier than I'd normally listen to but the voice and phrasing were so great I didn't care.  Favourite song - although probably only because "Midnight Train" is so over-familiar - "Neither One of Us".

earwighoney

One of my favourites

JezzaSnr

Couple more that surely warrant a mention!?
Jill Scott
https://youtu.be/4QCXr79Rkcw?si=Cf9JEQdqp5fzMPzQ

& Anita Baker. 

https://youtu.be/drKJxKyv5Eg?si=hCuRiDUDu7gdTud2

Was lucky enough to see Anita Baker sound checking at Wembley Arena in the mid - late 80’s. Breathtaking!

vasselmeyer

My missus and I love the feelgood "Great Pottery Throwdown" C4 TV series, and for at the final episode montage they played Aretha Franklin's "You're All I need to Get By" and I'd forgotten how wonderful it was: