My Northern Top Fifty 50 - 46.

This post was inspired by Marie's recent postings over at the sadly closed Spreadin' Some Rhythm Around,  I say inspired what I really mean is stolen but then slightly changed as mine's is a top fifty not forty. The added tunes weren't intentional it was just that I couldn't whittle my favourites down any further, When I plagiarised the idea I decided that I would only include songs that I had on vinyl, restrcting it further to singles only and was going to take the further step to only include original singles but by doing so I would probably not have been able to come up with 40 as a lot of my "northern" singles are either re-issues or pressings. I decided to just pull out of the two boxes, around 400 singles, the best ones and then whittle it down from there. After this initial exercise I had just shy of a hundred singles piled up on the floor.

And then the fun began.

All the records had to be played sometimes two or three times then pitted against others, with the record then going into one of three piles, stick-ons, mibbie's and just not quite good enough. Eventually after a lot of hardship,  having to endure listening to a lot of sweet soul  music I eventually had fifty.

I'm not going to be foolish to say this is my definitive 50 favourite northern soul tracks as next week if I were to try and compile it again a few would be replaced but the top twenty, which we will get to eventually would not change, well not much anyway

So here is the first batch

50. Timi Yuro - It Will Never Be Over For You

Very classy blue eyed soul from the Italian-American singer. One of the great last records of the night. It was strangely for a northern soul in demand record only ever released in the UK.

49. Barbara Randolph - I Got A Feeling.

Mega upbeat feel good tune and one of only two Randolph released for the Motown subsiduary Soul.

48. Booker T and The MGs - My  Sweet Potato

A lovely quite laid back piece of instrumental soul released on Stax in 1966.

47 The Voices of East Harlem - Cashing In

A Blackpool Mecca favourite that was a current release when Ian Levine first spun it in the Highland Room in 1973.

46. Martha Reeves - No One There

I've loved this track since I first heard it on the Tamla Motown Connoisseurs cd that came out back at the turn of the century. An early 70s single which for some strange reason did absolutely nothing at the time. The song was written and produced by Johnny Bristol.