Get Soul in Your Life

Oh, Aretha. This track is off her 'Young, Gifted, and Black' record which has been living permanently in my car since I purchased it 3 weeks ago. How much do we love soul in this household? How does a dolphin love the ocean? How does Ice T love Coco? Oodles, my friends. Oodles.

Who do we dote on the most? Here are the usual suspects in our spinning lineup for the Lesch/Mackenzie residential record player:

1- ARETHA FRANKLIN Think
Aretha came into my life during my last birthday. I was moping since we were no longer in NYC (we'd just gotten back from a month long trip) and was a total Debbie Downer. B decided that some Queen of Soul would perk right me up. 'Soul '69' and 'A Best Of' later, I was back in the game and ready to jump into the ring. If you haven't experienced Aretha, I'd suggest either a 'Best Of' or 'Young, Gifted, and Black' which is a record everyone on the planet should own right this second.

2- Sly & The Family Stone Sing a Simple Song
Just get the Essential Sly & The Family Stone and you will be the life of any party worth going to. Need proof? Click the link. The End.

3- Stevie Wonder I Believe (When I Fall In Love)
OK, you know that amazing song that plays through the end credits of High Fidelity? This is it. This is Stevie Wonder before he wrote 'I Just Called To Say I Love You;' the dude actually had credibility! I picked up his 'Talking Book' record, which has this track on it, when I picked up 'Young, Gifted, and Black' and my ears have been spasming with joy ever since. It's a terrific record with so many great songs, well worth every penny I paid for it.

4- Bill Withers Use Me 
Withers also wrote 'Ain't No Sunshine,' 'Lovely Day,' and 'Just the Two of Us,' however it is solely due to this track that I think he is The Man. For a period of about 5 years I put this track on every last mix I made, I was adamant that people should listen to this song at least once, if not several hundred times. He has a lot of other songs that are brilliant, but please just listen to this one for now.

5- Marvin Gaye Ain't no Mountain High Enough    
You know when you first hear a David Bowie greatest hits collection for the first time and you go "No way! He wrote that?" for about every single song? Well, you sort of do that when you hear a decent collection of Gaye's earlier work. Then you can go "Well I'll be darned! Did he write that as well?" So it'd probably be a good idea to pick one up some time this week. Just sayin'.

My illustrious partner and music professional, B, always checks out a site called All Music any time he decides to get into an established musician. Their site is frightfully well organized and tremendously helpful, especially if you're unsure which records are worth listening to in a daunting discography. We often use it while music shopping since we have the interwebs on our highly intelligent cellular phones, and you should too.