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1. Kellee Patterson – Love You Just A little More (Shady Brook 45) Building up an increasing following, this obscure 1976  b side comes from an artist who, after signing for Motown in the late 1970’s, went on to find mainstream commercial success

2. Joe Gibbs & the Destroyers – Nevada Joe (Amalgamated 45) A Jamaican legend that had a good run at defining what reggae actually was for over twenty years. For my money, that clutch of Amalgamated 45’s released in the late sixties represents his most infectious material.         

3. France Gall – Laisse Tomber Les Filles (Phillips EP) A winning combination here, not only do you get a great slice of jazz inflected French ye-ye, you also get it from the pen of France’s greatest cultural icon..Sacha Distel, only kidding, Serge Gainsbourg himself

4. Tony Scott – What Am To Do (Escort 45) An intro that needs no introduction, but instead of going into Harry J’s familiar instrumental, Tony Scott appears with a vocal that give the track fresh appeal

5. Win Menfee – Running Around (Fraternity) Impossible to find out anything about this singer, apart from that this was a track released on the Cincinnati Label Fraternity. He’s doing a grand job here of accenting the R&B offbeat, creating a proto ska tune, despite being thousands of miles north of Kingston

6. Young Jesse – Mary Lou (Modern 45) Nobody quite knows the exact details of this 1955 jump blues track. Were the backing vocals by The Flairs or The cadets? And biographical details about Young Jesse himself remain pretty sketchy. But, man, this is a track that puts to shame those anodyne versions of the genre pumped out by the likes of Bill Hailey a few years later.

7. Little Rose Little – You Got The Love (Roulette 45) Maybe small is stature, but she gives this song a big, big voice, and with lines such as ‘Loving like a fire bomb,’ this really is an incendiary piece of mid sixties northern

8. Jesse Fisher – Your Not Loving A Beginner (Way Out 45) Coming from a musical family, his brother Richard sang in the doo-woop band The Jive Five, Jesse moved north from the deep South, settling in Cleveland in the late 50’s. He cut this soul funk crossover for the Way Out label in the early 70’s.

9. Eyes of Blue – Heart Trouble (Deram 45) After winning the Melody Maker Beat Contest in 1966, and the prize of a record deal with Decca, the Eyes of Blue must of thought they were heading for the top. Instead, the band continued to build a growing cult following but never achieved that elusive break through hit. Here they give a psych and freakbeat treatment to this perennial northern classic originally done by The Parliaments on Golden Word.

10. Big Maybelle – I Can’t Wait Any Longer (Rojac 45) Described as a ‘mountainous structure,’ in this current health obsessed climate Big Maybelle would probably qualify for inclusion on a Channel 5 documentary on obesity. But to put her in a proper historical context, Maybelle’s career spanned three decades, recording on labels such as Okeh and Rojac before here premature death in 1972. This is a belter from 1967, with great breaks and terse discordant strings that match the pleading, impassioned vocals perfectly.  

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1.Lester Sterling & Stranger Cole – Bangarang 

Two ska legends here; Lester Sterling, a founding member of the Skatalites, along with the celebrated vocalist Stranger Cole, team up too deliver a joyous slice of early reggae.

 2. G Keith Alexander - Sneakers   Alexander delivers a stern warning over the dangers of having a lover who wears sneaker. They ain’t just for keep fit so where’s he sneaking off to behind your back? Footwear never sounded so foreboding so ladies please make sure your fella is in sensible brogues!     

3. Archemedes Badkar & Afro 70 –Nimashaka The first of two Swedish entries and amongst a load of stuff brought back from my summer holidays. Late 70’s afro-beat, but with a dancefloor urgency reminiscent of uptight Latin boogaloo and a track which manages to body swerves the endless fusion noodling that can often spoil this kinda of material.   

4. The Heptones - You Turned Away   An interesting song; melodically its a pointer to the roots sound which would dominate 70’s reggae, but being made in 1970 it still has all the  pressure of classic skinhead reggae. 

5.Solar Plexus - Det Är inte Båten Som Gungar – Det Är Havet Som Rör Sig Not a body building guide to look great on the beach this summer, but in fact the name of a respected Swedish progressive rock band. Other stuff on the LP is lumpy but this is great funked up psych 

6. Duke Of Burlington - Flash  Doubtless a one off studio project and a 45 given different monikers when released in different countries; Duke of Burlington in Sweden, The Marquis of Queensberry in Germany and so forth. A moody instrumental that merges the seemingly incongruent influences of groovy 60’s soundtracks with nascent kraut Rock 

7.Christine Perfect - No Road Is The Right RoadOne of the two singles from her only solo album. She’s probably better known as Christine   McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s keyboard player, rather than a performer in her own right. Here, however she’s kicking Fleetwood butt with this great jazzy soul blues number. 

8. Sammy Davis Junior - In The Ghetto  Sammy, the song and dance man who could do it all and was still doing it on his 1970 LP ‘Something For Everyone.’ Could have picked a few tracks from this album, but there’s something special about this familiar cover, with its tight, mid-tempo groove and Sammy’s poignant monologue. It’d bring a tear to a glass eye. 

9. The Poets - Baby Don’t Do It (I Am Somebody Edit) 

Heroes of Freakbeat and arguably the best Scottish band of the 1960’s. Took a while to track this down, well for the right price anyway. This was the band’s single for Andrew Oldham Loog’s immediate label, before they returned to Decca.     

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**Mr. Divines “Top Ten” (September 2007)

1. The Coasters “Down Home Girl” (London LP) It’s 1973 and the doo-wop legends update their sound, revisiting an old Alvin Robinson Red Bird classic and tighten up the drum and bass. Sampled by some hip hop chaps on a tune that’s probably considered retro in its own right…

2. Lulu “Move To My Rhythm” (Atco 45) Lulu is shunted off to Memphis where the Muscle Shoals team get behind her on this down and dirty groover…

3. Sugar Pie DeSanto “Git Back” (Jasman 45) Hmmm, could well be a trend developing here. By 1974 Sugar Pie’s R’n'B hits must have seemed an eternity ago - here she’s backed by the Bay Area’s finest funk talents with most satisfying results.

4. Spanky Wilson “Easy Lover” (Westbound LP) Spanky’s “You” is a Modern Lovers time-served dancefloor smash, and now she’s back in the spotlight with the Quantic Soul Orchestra. Here we focus on a 1975 cut with soaring Love Unlimited style strings, invoking memories of Gloria Scott’s “A Case Of Too Much Lovemaking” - yup, it’s that good.

5. Timebox “Beggin’” (Deram 45) There’s a remix of this tune by some chap called Pilooski, which is threatening to become the underground anthem of the summer. Pity he chose the wrong version - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons original is all well and good, but UK mod squad Timebox rip it to shreds.

6. Tina Britt “You’re Absolutely Right” (Eastern 45) It’s northern soul time. When you’ve got Valerie Simpson, Nick Ashford AND Joe Armstead in the writers chair, you can’t really go too far wrong. And just to prove it, the flip-side ain’t too shabby!

7. The Skatalites “Beardman Ska” (Island 45) Did The Skatalites ever put a foot wrong? This is among my favourites, first heard remixed by the Bassbin Twins (like a classy Fatboy Slim, if you can imagine such a thing), now if I could only track down “Nimrod”…

8. Joe Gibbs “Hijacked” (Amalgamated 45) Nice rocksteady groover, which makes hijacking sound like a minor inconvenience and a good reason to put your feet up and enjoy a pina colada during your wait…

9. Bo Diddley “Bo’s Bounce” (Pye LP) Storming 1963 rock’n'roll instrumental with that unique Bo Diddley twang - ’nuff said!

10. The Heavyweights “Utterly Funky” (Spark 45) It’s that man Alan Hawkshaw letting rip at the Hammond on what sounds like a long-lost Mohawks out-take. A Cheeba Cheeba favourite at the Modern Lovers pre-club. Yes mi selectah!

Modern Lovers - last Friday of every month (Ego, Picardy Place, Edinburgh) visit: myspace.com/modernloversclub  or  www.modernlovers.co.uk

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