Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Now that the golden ages of gospel and soul have passed and many thousands of recordings have slipped into the public domain (meaning any record company could re-issue them on CD without having to pay royalties) there has been a veritable flood of CDs and box sets targeted at record collectors and nostalgists. But few compilations have been as comprehensive (252 tracks crammed onto eight CDs, packaged in a well-illustrated book) or for that matter as ambitious in concept as 'From Secular To Sacred'. This project attempts to demonstrate how styles originating in the African-American church were, from the 1920s to the 1960s, gradually secularised by thousands of singers and record companies to create what has become known as soul music. On the whole it does a pretty good job though in truth it could have been better. One thing to say at the outset is that if you have bought all or any of the eight volumes in the series 'Soul Chronology' issued by History Of Soul you will find you already have some or all of these CDs.

'Wade In The Water: Soul Chronology 1' features tracks from the earliest period covered, 1927, through to 1951. In fact 21 of the 28 tracks here are gospel. My personal favourites are "Heaven Bound Train", a delicious piece of female a cappella sung by the Jackson Gospel Singers which, with its imitation steam train noises, is a rhythmic gem despite having no accompanists; and the uplifting "There's A Place" by Cora Martin which is a delight despite being rather preposterously described in the sleevenotes as being in the "classic female soul ballads style of a Mitty Collier, an Etta James or even a Janis Joplin." Other great tracks on this volume are by barrelhouse gospel piano pioneer Arizona Dranes and the mighty Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi while on the secular side Billy Wright's "Stacked Deck" and Little Miss Cornshuck's 'Try A Little Tenderness" sound great. On the minus side, despite his excellence Blind Willie Johnson with his gravel voice and slide guitar has no obvious link in what was to become the gospel into soul story while the lack of a track by the Father of Gospel, Thomas A Dorsey, is a peculiar omission.

'This Old Soul Of Mine: Soul Chronology 2' covers the period 1951 to 1954. Particular gospel standouts are "Somebody Touched Me" by Edna Gallmon Cooke, "Just Another Day" by the Soul Stirrers during the era when Sam Cooke was demonstrating his vocal brilliance, and the Davis Sisters' epic "Too Close To Heaven" while Ray Charles, the Drifters (with the wonderful ex-gospel singer Clyde McPhatter) and the 5 Royales (with another churchy lead singer, Lowman Pauling) all clearly show that the gospel-to-R&B/soul process was underway.

'Save A Seat For Me: Soul Chronology 3' kicks off with blues giant BB King. Like Roy Brown and Guitar Slim featured in earlier volumes, King had a lot of church in his vocal delivery as indeed did Little Richard. Richard's "Directly From My Heart" blues ballad was recorded a year before he screamed those immortal rock 'n' roll hits. Then there's James Brown & The Famous Flames whose "Please, Please, Please" million seller could have been a classic quartet recording save for the fact that there is no reference to God. There ARE some genuine quartets featured here too - The Sensational Nightingales, The Highway QCs with that most stunning of lead singers and the Swan Silvertones demonstrating that not all the quartets were prepared to switch to R&B.

'Yes Indeed: Soul Chronology 4' covering 1957 and 1958 is a mixed bag. Unwisely kicking off with Evelyn Freeman's not very good version of "Didn't It Rain" and the obscure doowop group The Ramblers it gets better with the entrance of Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers, the solo Clyde McPhatter (with his hit "Without Love (There Is Nothing)") and O V Wright who found critical acclaim as one of the great southern soul singers. Among the gospel gems is the Swan Silvertones' "O Mary Don't You Weep" (with its renowned "bridge over troubled water" improvised line that sparked Paul Simon) and The Impressions' "For Your Precious Love" (the beautiful gospel-tinged doo-wop track which launched a solo career for Jerry Butler). The odd-track-out here is by Bill Doggett, Bill being a popular R&B-cum-jazz organist whose instrumentals are clearly out of place on this set.

The years 1959 and 1960 are covered by 'Singing From My Soul: Soul Chronology 5'. By now it is mainly proto-soul showcased here. And some of the gospel tracks like the obscure "Walk Around Me (My Lord)" by The Sensational Wonders aren't too good. But there is at least The Meditation Singers (with the wonderful Laura Lee) and the always reliable Swan Silvertones. An obscurity which is worth hearing is the deep soul "Here Comes The Fool" by Donoman & The Lakettes. And the set ends with Ray Charles' seminal two-part track - "What'd I Say" - which is probably the best single example of how gospel was in the process of being secularised for the R&B and pop market.

'Cigarettes And Coffee: Soul Chronology 6' is again a mixed bag. The fact that it starts with the jazz blues of Nina Simone's "Gin House Blues" and ends with those famed white Memphis session men who, as the Mar-Keys, hit with the instrumental "Last Night" shows that the compilers were clearly straying from their original brief as neither contribute anything to the sacred-to-secular journey. Rather, this is an unfocused selection of R&B hits (James Brown's "Think" and Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike") and R&B/soul obscurities (Ricky Lyons' "Have No Fear" and Johnny & Jackey's "Someday We'll Be Together"). However, gospel collectors might want to investigate the compilation for the Womack Brothers' "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" written by Bobby Womack before he took the twisted track to R&B/pop stardom and The Gospel Stars' "Behold The Saints Of God" from Tamla's first, and for many years, only, gospel release.

Soul Chronology's seventh volume 'Any Day Now' covers 1962 and takes its title from the Bacharach/David song which was a hit for Chuck Jackson. That track brings in another element in the sacred-to-secular story, how white songwriters and producers such as Leiber & Stoller, Phil Spector and Bacharach & David were bringing in orchestral elements to the soul mix. So alongside R&B groups singing secularised quartet music like the Falcons and the Kingpins (otherwise known as the Kelly Brothers) there were other musical elements coming into the mix. The most influential of all of course were the upbeat pop sounds played by skilled Detroit renegade jazzmen for the emergent Motown Records. So this volume offers hits like Brenda Holloway's "Every Little Bit Hurts" and Marvin Gaye's "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow". Even a touch of country gets drawn into the cross fertilisation picture demonstrated here by Arthur Alexander's "Anna".

The final volume 'Somebody Have Mercy' featuring 1962 recordings, begins and ends strongly. Track one "Catch That Teardrop" by the 5 Royales shows that the group, or at least front man Lowman Pauling, COULD have become a major soul star if he had had the right breaks. "Fingertips Pt 2" by Little Stevie Wonder closes the album and shows that even at age 11 Stevie was able, while omitting the God lyrics, to catch the call-and-response fervour of black church worship which in many ways recalled the frenetic excitement of the Isley Brothers hit from 1959, "Shout" (heard on Volume 5 here). It's a shame that on the final set 'From Sacred To Secular''s compilers couldn't have found room for a single gospel track. One inclusion might have been a track from Mahalia Jackson's 'Great Songs Of Love And Faith' which, when released in 1962, was good enough to win a Grammy.

This compilation offers an amazing 252 tracks, some of which recordings are amongst the finest ever made. As the whole thing is presented in an attractive book, such packaging putting to shame the cheap-and-cheerful box sets usually released by Christian companies, and at a bargain price (you can buy 'From Sacred To Secular' for just over £29 from Amazon) readers might have expected it to have been awarded a 10 square rating. I decided to knock off one square because of the inconsistencies inherent in the compilation. The inclusion of "Your Heart Belongs to Me" by The Supremes on Vol 8 rather sums up those inconsistencies. In her autobiography Dreamgirl: My Life As A Supreme, Mary Wilson wrote about the criticism the group found when they visited the UK. She wrote, "Though some critics called us 'sensational' others were claiming that we had gotten away from our 'roots'. 'Get back to church, baby!' one critic pleaded. . . The English held onto the misguided notion that a black who was singing and didn't sound like Aretha Franklin or Otis Redding had been corrupted in some way. And what was this church business? None of us had ever sung in church." Unfortunately the point that not all the African-American singers who recorded through the decades were crossing over from gospel roots to pop and soul doesn't seem to have registered with the 'From Sacred To Secular' compilers.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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