SOUL thread. give it to me.

[MitchL]

Try Otis Redding's "Down in the Valley." Anything by him is great. His voice was made to sing soul.

[josh_x]

ElD,

Let's get it on : Way better version

[Rococo]

Hard to top this:

Big Mama thornton's version of hound dog with Buddy Guy on lead guitar. More blues than soul, but whatever.

Big Mama

[Conspir8or]

WFMU podcasts its Downtown Soulville show, a solid hour of vintage soul 45s both popular and obscure. Check Mister Fine Wine's playlist page and podcast link here.

Also, once a month another soul DJ on FMU subs for Fine Wine. His RealAudio archives can be found here.

As to specific artists, I like some of the Detroit Emeralds' work, particularly "Feel the Need in Me." Also, the original soul version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes is very nice.

[SEABEAST]

pretty sure michael buble doesn't actually have a soul, let alone soul

[SZEppi]

For a great new voice with a ton of soul, try Jamie Lidell's album 'Multiply' Amazon page.

Here's him in some live performance
Multiply live

Stay clear of any of his other albums though... His older stuff is more techno-electro related music and completely different from the Multiply album.

Edited to add links

[TiK]

One of my all-time favorites: The Reverend Al Green, and my favorite song of his (even though they're all damn good):

Love and Happiness

I second the previous recommendation of Solomon Burke. One of my favorite Solomon Burke songs: None of Us Are Free (can't find a good version of his on youtube)

Another favorite of mine is Marva Whitney. She's categorized more as funk but then funk and soul are pretty much sister genres, so I'll include her.

Marva Whitney - Things Got to Get Better (who's that bad-ass cat in the shadows directing the band...)

[4thashortiez]

Sam Cooke is the absolute king and if there is a prince it is Otis Redding.

My personal favorite soul recording of all time is Otis' posthumous album: "Remember Me". It contains alternate recordings of many of his classics. The alternate records just blow away the commercial ones. Otis liked to do 4 or 5 takes of a song with varying degrees of soul. The people making this compilation tried to use the most "soulful" versions of a song. Right off the top of my head I can say that he has 4 of my top 10 favorite songs of all time of any artist, all on one CD:

-Remember Me
-Send Me Some Lovin (much slower than the commercially released version)
-Come to Me (the piano and guitar on this track are amazing, definitely my go to sad song.)

On all three of these, you really get the feeling that he was singing to an old lover and that his heart actually felt the pain conveyed in the songs.

-The Dock of the Bay (on this take, he actually makes the seagull and ocean sounds that were digitally put in to the real version of the song later. It is FAR superior to the commercially released track but was not released because he messed up the whistle part.)

Link to my favorite album of all time. Before I bought this I hadn't bought a CD in 3 years.

Try a Little Tenderness

My favorite Sam Cooke Song- Tennessee Waltz

[Mister Z]

Give it up for Manhattans - Shining Star

Can't beat that chorus.

[hanimal]

Don't really have anything to add but this summer at Bonnaroo I saw Cold War Kids cover "A Change Is Gonna Come". Pretty cool.