Groove Me – A Celebration of Classic Soul and R&B

A fairly recent collection—well, that’s how I feel about 1991—it’s probably one of the newer records I have—20 R&B and Soul hit songs by a variety of artists. I’ve got a few of these odd compilation records—perhaps put out by record companies to capitalize on their catalogs, most likely not sufficiently compensating the artists within. I suppose if the record was coming out now, I’d feel weird about it, and for good reason, but seeing how it’s but an artifact which I bought for probably $3 at an antique mall, I mostly feel lucky to get a couple of very clean vinyl discs (shoved into one flimsy cover) of uniformly great music for makin’ love, or… you know, washing dishes, cleaning, researching more great music. I know a lot of the songs and most of the artists, but not all. The first song is (surprise) “Grove Me”—by King Floyd, which I had a single of, way back, and always put on homemade cassette mix cassette tapes—that’s a great song. Other artists here are: Barbara Acklin, Tyrone Davis, Marvin Gaye, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Brook Benton, Detroit Emeralds, Bloodstone, The Dells, William Bell, Jean Knight, Bobby Womack, The Staple Singers, The Dramatics, Denise LaSalle, The Temptations, The Delfonics, Brenda & The Tabulations, The New Birth, and The Five Stairsteps. One song each. Any of these songs could lead you to a complete obsession with a recording artist’s career, so I guess the record does kind of function as an advertisement. Or a great listening record. The cover is a large black and white photo of a couple sitting on a sofa, on a date, presumably enjoying this music. It’s an odd photo in that it really looks like a private snapshot rather than a studio setup! (But there are photo credits—plus, if it was a snapshot, who’s the third wheel?) What is particularly notable is the stark design on the woman’s sweater, which looks to me like no pattern in Heaven or on Earth—perhaps houndstooth on acid—I’d buy it. At any rate, I intend to use this record if ever I replicate that scene (with or without the sweater), but I’d have to, somehow, figure out how to initiate dating—seems unlikely at this point—but worth the old college try.

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