For every rare 45 costing three or four figures, there are as many, if not more that fetch only a few pounds and are familiar to most who have only a passing interest in the genre. There are a significant number of collectors in our little “scene” who seem to adhere to the ideal that “It must be expensive and unheard of in order to be good”. Now while I have in the past, and probably will again in the future spend what some of my friends refer to as “silly” money on rare 45’s, I still regularly buy singles that only fetch a few pounds because……drum roll please……..I ACTUALLY LIKE THEM!!
I try not to let price influence my musical taste, If I hear something I like, I will endeavour to do my best to get my grubby paws on it, but like most of you I have bills and a mortgage to pay which tends to restrict how frivolous I can be when it comes to shelling out some hard earned beans on vinyl. I guess my point is that a lot of collectors / Dj’s out there overlook a lot of the good stuff because there are more copies about, or it didn’t hit that triple figured reserve the last time it went to auction.
Today’s choice is a 45 that falls into the cheap and easily obtainable category, but this has to be up there, in my humble opinion, as one of the most energetic and frenzied records ever made!
‘Shout’ by The Isley Brothers is a cut from 1959 which the majority of you will be aware of (If you aren’t, where have you been hiding???). Released on RCA this is undoubtedly a great party record and once dropped on your turntable, will have your guests working up a sweat on the dance floor!
Firstly, what you have to realise about this slice of goodness is that its pretty much fifty years old and put simply ….They just don’t make records like this anymore!
The Isley Brothers line up originally consisted of Ronald, O’Kelly Jnr and Rudolph Isley, but they added members of their close and extended family over the years as well as a little known guitarist by the name of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix toured with the group in the early 60’s (It’s also rumoured that the tour band included a young Elton John on piano as well)
Originally a gospel group, they branched into Doo-Wop, Soul, Funk and even Disco during their long career. They have given us classics like ‘Twist And Shout’, ‘Summer Breeze’ and ‘It’s Your Thing’, a record which has been covered, reworked and tweaked to death! ‘Shout’ was notably covered by The Beatles(who named the Isley Brothers as a big influence) and also Lulu, who had a massive hit with it five years after the Isley’s original release.
‘Shout’ came about after the Isley Brother’s got their big break opening a show for Jackie Wilson. They decided to perform a version of ‘Lonely Teardrops’(A Jackie Wilson Hit) and improvised parts of it with the cry of “You make me wanna shout”. An RCA scout was in the audience watching and after the show practically dragged the brothers to the studio to record the cut. It went on to sell close to a million copies (a huge amount at that time) and made #47 in the charts.
I find it hard to decide which side of the 45 I like best, so I’ve stitched both parts 1 and 2 together, the split comes in the vocal break down at around 2.15minutes in.
I’ll let you make your own choice as to which is the better side!
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