In a similar vein to an previous thread about US Garage bands, a couple of the posts there were actually European bands in a vaguely similar style. A couple here from Spain in their native tongue (one of which it has been pointed out is actually Philly Dog Around the World with different lyrics). The Sheila one was posted elsewhere on another forum (The Snake with different lyrics, but I reckon you could actually get away with playing this!). The Shocking Blue one is much more on the Psych side but in my defence I've heard this played at a soul night by a respected local DJ. Admittedly this stuff never really crossed over onto the Northern Scene but I reckon some of it could do? Anyone else got any more?

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 20186 yr by Timillustrator

Los Canarios- Spanish? . Massive early Wheel record on UK Major Minor

 

There are a few goodies that were cut in Sweden in the 60's (mostly by US folk visiting or who had relocated there) ...

King George & Harlem Kiddies --   Boo-ga Loo  7"  (Don Gardner song)

Don Gardner  & Dee Dee Ford  --   2 LP's + rare 45 on Sonet "Last Dance" 

+ this Motown cover with Don Gardner's band on backing .... think they went on to name a record label after this lady ...

Edited December 25, 20186 yr by Roburt

The uda side of that Swedish 45 .... taken at 100mph pace (but then just about every act in the 60's took the studio cut version & then sped it up to do it live).  This (speeding up the original) of course went down well with 60's UK mod club audiences who liked their speed soul ...

 

Edited December 25, 20186 yr by Roburt

Competition time! Guess the original tune this little pop tune here was 'inspired by':

 

Edited December 25, 20186 yr by Benji

'I'll Hold You'  Frankie & Johnny.  I have a German 45' that's similarly 'inspired' by Little Anthony's 'Better Use Your Head'  'it's called 'Was Wird Nun' by Maria Marky on Electrola.It's quite nice actually and would probably get plays if it was in English

 

Bobby Goldsboros' It's Too Late!   I enjoyed that,thanks for posting it. Nice version

On 24/12/2018 at 22:23, Rick Cooper said:

Los Canarios- Spanish? . Massive early Wheel record on UK Major Minor

 

Very nice, interesting name - they were apparently named after the Canary Islands where they were from. 

40 minutes ago, Michael V said:

Bobby Goldsboros' It's Too Late!   I enjoyed that,thanks for posting it. Nice version

It is, Dutch! (according to Google Translate) not far off the original but sounded Scandanavian to me at first. 

8 hours ago, Michael V said:

'I'll Hold You'  Frankie & Johnny.  I have a German 45' that's similarly 'inspired' by Little Anthony's 'Better Use Your Head'  'it's called 'Was Wird Nun' by Maria Marky on Electrola.It's quite nice actually and would probably get plays if it was in English

There were a few German language versions of UK hits too - I have "Sie Leibt Dich" (She Loves You) by the Beatles, and the Spencer Davis Group also did "Get War In Schoneberg" which is a pop song with the chorus being the tune of Little Latin Lupe Lu. 

There are loads of French-language covers of soul tunes, all sung in the native tongue and with lyrics completely unrelated to the original song. Here's Nicoletta singing a little ditty called "Live your life"...

 

 

And here's Paul Anka singing a tune called "Sei piu forte di me" (You're stronger than me). This pre-dates Rufus Lumley's version by two years.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 20186 yr by Amsterdam Russ

Bit of a cheat here... While this is a French-language tune, and is described as such in the vid, in reality it's actually French-Canadian. Probably only released in the French-speaking Quebec region of the country, the 45 – which comes with a picture sleeve – is a tough one to track down and is sought after on the Belgian Popcorn scene.

 

Returning to France, here's Claude Francois and his version of the Frankie Valli/Timebox classic "Beggin'"...

 

 

2 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

And here's Paul Anka singing a tune called "Sei piu forte di me" (You're stronger than me). This pre-dates Rufus Lumley's version by two years.

 

 

 

Well, that's a new one on me! Of course I love Rufus' better but I'd wonder if Anka did an English version? Thanks for posting!

6 minutes ago, Soul-Slider said:

Well, that's a new one on me! Of course I love Rufus' better but I'd wonder if Anka did an English version? Thanks for posting!

To the best of my knowledge, he didn't.

Just now, Amsterdam Russ said:

To the best of my knowledge, he didn't.

I better buy that one then! Discogs has picture sleeve too!

21 minutes ago, Soul-Slider said:

I better buy that one then! Discogs has picture sleeve too!

Yup, can't do without the pic sleeve. 👍

Another interesting Spanish one, a rather pedestrian version of A Little Bit Hurt, in English.

 

 

Edited December 27, 20186 yr by Timillustrator

Here in Spain there was a real soul fever in the 60's with live performances by Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex and others and some soul men who were regularly established here some years as Arthur Conley or Donna Hightower and appearing constantly on Spanish TV musical programs as "Voces de Oro" ("Golden Voices") or Carl Douglas & The Presidents,... concerts done by original ShowStoppers and clones or false ShowStoppers… and soul singers and bands originally from here as Los Canarios, Los Pop Tops of the famous "Mamy Blue" (their lead singer and songwriter Phil Trim also writed "Oh Lord, Why Lord?" for his group and was successfully covered by Brook Benton); there was also Los Bravos ("Black Is Black") and rock-funk bands as Barrabás ("Wild Safari") and  "lounge", "fusion" and instrumental soul musicians and writers as Juan Carlos Calderón ("Bandolero") and Augusto Algueró, married with actress and "folclórica" singer Carmen Sevilla. Here's his soul instrumental most famous, named in honor to Barcelona's "Sala Bocaccio":

 

Edited December 27, 20186 yr by josep manuel concernau robles

There seems to be a lot of it about on bootlegs, was that because they didn't break out of Spain at the time due to political reasons? This is another goodie, spot the original! 

 

Sapphires - I Can't Believe It - POLYDOR (Norway)

Norwegian group with a singer from the US.

 

Edited December 30, 20186 yr by Sebastian

14 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

Sapphires - I Can't Believe It - POLYDOR (Norway) 

Norwegian group with a singer from the US.

Excellent stuff, I like the way the backing vocals still sound Norwegian!

 

If we are "strictly", the year 1970 is the last year of the 60's decade and was the year the French Soul group Cane & Able started . Here's a very soulful track I have from my teens in a Epic LP called "Azúcar Negro" by various artists and copious notes by spanish music critical Diego A. Manrique. The track list includes hits from 1970 1972 by Cane & Able, Sly, Billy Paul, O'Jays, Blue Notes, Brenda & The tabulations, Free Movemnet, Brenton Wood & John "Rootman" Henry.

 

Her's Cane & Able track "Tired Of Bad News":

 

1 hour ago, Sebastian said:

Sapphires - I Can't Believe It - POLYDOR (Norway)

Norwegian group with a singer from the US.

 

Yeah, great that! Earl Wilson...

 

4 hours ago, josep manuel concernau robles said:

If we are "strictly", the year 1970 is the last year of the 60's decade and was the year the French Soul group Cane & Able started . Here's a very soulful track I have from my teens in a Epic LP called "Azúcar Negro" by various artists and copious notes by spanish music critical Diego A. Manrique. The track list includes hits from 1970 1972 by Cane & Able, Sly, Billy Paul, O'Jays, Blue Notes, Brenda & The tabulations, Free Movemnet, Brenton Wood & John "Rootman" Henry.

 

Her's Cane & Able track "Tired Of Bad News":

 

Maybe it's off topic but they relaesed two good albums at the beginnin' of the 70ies. Sort of Funkadelic meets group soul. Don't know if the first is the eponymous one or "Relating a message to you"? 

About Cane & Able I only knows that says in the liner notes on the album I referred before: they started in 1970 with a self titled album on Epic and they are from France-

Here's another spanish 60's "soul" artist, Manuel Alejandro with The Presidents (they were touring in Spain) in a Wilson Pickett cover:

 

Instantly identifiable cover version - 

 

The Yank: excuse me for my ignorance but until now I only knows the instrumental cover by George Benson on his WB 2 x LP "Livin' Inside Your Love"…!☺️

Don't worry about it- I didn't know about the George Benson version. We're all here to learn something.

    First released version was Young Holt Unlimited's version of "Soulful Strut". Then came Barbara Acklin's 

version "Am I The Same Girl". The song was covered by Dusty Springfield and Swing Out Sister -  I'm

sure other versions exist. 

Motown cover - 

 

We can consider Ossie Lane as "60's european soul"? She is from New Orleans but was established in UK and also performed live in Spain (Costa Brava, Platja d'Aro) in many concerts (she made covers of Pickett and Sly among others) one of wich was recorded and published by spanish label Edigsa.

4 hours ago, josep manuel concernau robles said:

We can consider Ossie Lane as "60's european soul"? She is from New Orleans but was established in UK and also performed live in Spain (Costa Brava, Platja d'Aro) in many concerts (she made covers of Pickett and Sly among others) one of wich was recorded and published by spanish label Edigsa.

I guess so, it's a pretty loose definition. A lot of "British" 60's soul was Americans based in the UK - Geno Washington, Herbie Goins, PP Arnold. Interesting point about Les Surfs posted by The Yank above - were a Madagascan group which was, of course, a French colony up until the 60's. Which was a similar position to Jamaica which only gained independence in 1962 and of course, Jimmy Cliff, Jackie Edwards, Jimmy James and Carl Douglas were all born in Jamaica and all made singles which had some NS success. 

Edited December 31, 20186 yr by Timillustrator

 

Tages were a fine pop band out of Sweden. This version of 'Dancing In The Street' will, no doubt, divide people but I like it.

On 01/01/2019 at 16:11, Firecrest said:

Tages were a fine pop band out of Sweden. This version of 'Dancing In The Street' will, no doubt, divide people but I like it.

Not bad, in a similar vein what about this one: The Hep Stars the original band of the two blokes out of ABBA doing a not too bad version of Reach Out I'll Be There. I'd be interested to know who the black female vocalist was? She doesn't sound Swedish particularly although she sings in Swedish on some of the later bits (probably skip the rest it's Swedish folk influenced oompah pop with a bit of psychedelia thrown in).

 

Edited January 9, 20196 yr by Timillustrator

22 hours ago, Timillustrator said:

I'd be interested to know who the black female vocalist was? She doesn't sound Swedish particularly although she sings in Swedish on some of the later bits (probably skip the rest it's Swedish folk influenced oompah pop with a bit of psychedelia thrown in).

 

 

The female vocalist is Charlotte Walker (a.k.a. "Lotta"), she was married to Hep Stars vocalist "Svenne".

Charlotte had earlier been in the Philadelphia group The Sherrys ("Put Your Arms Around Me", "Pop Pop Pop-Pie", "Slop Time" etc.).

Only Benny Andersson was in Hep Stars. Bjorn Ulvaeus was a member of Hootenanny Singers.

6 hours ago, Sebastian said:

The female vocalist is Charlotte Walker (a.k.a. "Lotta"), she was married to Hep Stars vocalist "Svenne".

Charlotte had earlier been in the Philadelphia group The Sherrys ("Put Your Arms Around Me", "Pop Pop Pop-Pie", "Slop Time" etc.).

Only Benny Andersson was in Hep Stars. Bjorn Ulvaeus was a member of Hootenanny Singers.

Thank you! I'll check them out as well. I believe Bjorn Ulvaeus was in the Hep Stars for a short period, he joined in early 1969 although both he and Andersson both left in August 1969 (Wikipedia so it could be wrong). He doesn't seem to be in that clip though which says it was 1969.

Edited January 10, 20196 yr by Timillustrator

How I have miss one of my favorite 60's UK jazz-soul songs, the cover of the standard "On A Clear Day" by The Peddlers (the vocals by, I think, Roy Phillips and the Hammond is da bomb!). I have had on a vynil compilation and recently again in CD by another comp. by italian Irma Records:

 

There seems to be a lot of German stuff out there too, more inclined to sing in English. Three compilations called The In-Kraut are interesting - varying from the Teutonic to the pop. This has a nice organ solo. 

 

 

Edited January 12, 20196 yr by Timillustrator