50 Years of Soul

50 Years of Soul. (A Year-by-Year Collection). By Various. For Piano/Vocal/Guitar. Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook. Softcover. 288 pages. Music Sales #AM991419. Published by Music Sales.

A compilation of soul and soul-influenced music, ranging from such classics as “Stand by Me” and Marvin Gaye's “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” to some surprising modern gems like Portishead's “Glory Box” and Duffy's “Mercy.” In the late 1950s black American music started to fuse the spiritual passion of gospel singing with the gritty sexual drive of rhythm 'n' blues. The result was called soul, Ray Charles was its early pioneer, and so this year-by-year soul collection kicks off with his classic 1959 call-and-response song, “What'd I Say.” James Brown, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke and Aretha Franklin all carried soul into the golden period of the 1960s and from then on the genre would be a permanent fixture in the international pop music landscape. So... get ready to enjoy 50 years of pure soul, the electrifying musical hybrid that never went out of fashion!