Listen: Let The Good Times Roll / Shirley & Lee ShirleyLeeGoodTimes.mp3

There’s nothing like an original pressing and company sleeve when it sounds like this. There are probably a heap of accurate adjectives that apply here, like juke joint, chitlin circuit or barrelhouse RnR. I hope so, cause that’s how I hear it.

This being Shirley & Lee’s biggest hit (#1 RnB / #20 Pop: 1956), it was a drastic change from their earlier sweetheart, call and response sound and releases. Indeed, they were for a while coined as ‘Sweethearts Of The Blues’.

Years later, Sylvia Robinson, who went on to start Sugarhill Records, signed Shirley Mae Goodman and together they had a massive hit with ‘Shame Shame Shame’ as Shirley & Company on her All Platinum imprint.

Listen: Let The Good Times Roll / Slade SladeGoodTimesRoll.mp3

Covered by many: The Righteous Brothers, Barbra Streisand, The Searchers, Joe Strummer, Harry Nilsson, The Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Freddy Fender, Buckwheat Zydeco, The Animals, Fishbone and George Clinton, my favorite version clocks in via a working class glam rendition by the almighty Slade.

I sure hope Shirley Mae Goodman and Leonard Lee, who also wrote their biggest hit, got the publishing.

Listen: Pillow Talk / Sylvia SylviaPillow.mp3

Sylvia Robinson, owner and creative force behind Sugarhill Records, where rap began according to many. Makes sense she’d be the Lil Kim of her day. Every track was sexually provaocative. ‘You Sure Love To Ball’ (now there’s a long lost term: ball), ‘Had Any Lately’, ‘He Don’t Ever Lose His Groove’ and not forgetting this one, ‘Pillow Talk’, the hit (#3 Pop / #1 RnB). Word is she’d originally written ‘Pillow Talk’ for Al Green, who apparently turned it down for being too risqué, and against his religion.

I wish I could scan the PILLOW TALK album sleeve, it’s almost as good as James Gilstrap’s LOVE TALK for bad photography and complete lack of visual appeal – making both essential art. Google them.

An early example of prototypical disco, the vocals are replete with moaning and heavy breathing, predating Donna Summer’s orgasmic inflections on ‘Love To Love You Baby’. Although the album version of ‘Pillow Talk’ runs about a minute longer, fear not – the simulated climax is included on the 7′ ending as well. Even so, this was all over pop radio in spring ’73 – believe it. I was insatiable for it. By summer it had reached the UK, so I got to hear it constantly all over again.