Far Out 40: The perfect northern soul house party playlist
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(Credits: Far Out)
Northern soul’s footstomping rhythm has been keeping dancefloors going for over half a century, from the early R&B nightclubs of Soho to the golden age of Wigan Casino, and even into the modern day. Needless to say, then, that it makes for a pretty flawless house party playlist.
Picking the music is perhaps the hardest goddamn aspect of planning a party, or any event, for that matter. After all, there are so many variables to consider when constructing a party playlist: who will be at the party, will people want to dance, and, crucially, how cool will these choices make me look? It is a minefield which has led to the downfall of so many promising parties. Fear not, though, as northern soul might be the best possible route to go down in terms of a party playlist.
First emerging during the late 1960s and early 1970s in the cities of towns of northern England, the soul subculture is one of Britain’s most miraculous and long-lasting. Built upon a deep adoration for finding and sharing impossibly obscure American soul records recorded years prior, the northern soul explosion quickly became a way of life for a lot of young people, and many of them are still attending soul nights on a weekly basis in the 21st-century, shoulder to shoulder with the younger generation who are being exposed to that beating rhythm for the very first time.
So, why is northern soul the ideal house party music? For starters, the music is tailored for dancing. No matter how stubborn your guests are, the infectious basslines and commanding rhythm of northern soul can only be ignored for so long. At the same time, though, there are multiple different moods and tempos under the northern soul umbrella – they aren’t all high-energy, amphetamine-fueled stompers, there is a wealth of variety within the scene.
On top of that, northern soul music is, by design, rooted in the discovery of obscure and overlooked artists and labels, which will be sure to impress even the snobbiest of music nerds at your party. Yet, simultaneous to its tendency for obscurity, northern soul often draws from the pop-centric worlds of Motown and Stax, who ruled over the pop charts of the 1960s like no other. So, if you wanted to, you could easily slip a handful of mainstream Motown tracks in there to get the party going if needs be.
If you are looking for a place to begin the construction of your northern soul party playlist, we have given you a head start with our playlist of 40 essential anthems. Make no mistake, these are not 40 of the greatest or most obscure northern soul singles, and any northern soul purist in attendance at your party might just scoff at the “overplayed” nature or many of the tracks included. However, for a house party, you need an abundance of crowd-pleasers, so we have not held back.
In and amongst iconic northern soul anthems like ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’ or ‘Nothing But A Heartache’, there are one or two curveballs and slower, mid-tempo tracks in order to achieve the kind of variety needed for any decent party playlist.
Even for those who aren’t into soul music, there is something to enjoy with the original version of ‘Tainted Love’ and Just Brothers’ instrumental masterpiece ‘Sliced Tomatoes’, which formed the basis of Fatboy Slim’s ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ back in the 1990s.
So, if you have an abundance of unwanted talcum powder, a penchant for wide-legged trousers, and a desire to throw a house party, this is the playlist for you.
The perfect northern soul house party playlist:
- Frank Wilson – ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’
- Dobie Gray – ‘Out On The Floor’
- Chuck Wood – ‘Seven Days Too Long’
- The MVP’s – ‘Turnin’ My Heartbeat Up’
- Jackie Wilson – ‘The Who Who Song (Nobody But My Sweet Baby)’
- Gloria Jones – ‘Tainted Love’
- R Dean Taylor – ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’
- Dean Parrish – ‘I’m On My Way’
- The Flirtations – ‘Nothing But A Heartache’
- Shirley Ellis – ‘Soul Time’
- Sandi Sheldon – ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’
- The Jades – ‘I’m Where It’s At’
- Billy Butler – ‘Right Track’
- Al Wilson – ‘The Snake’
- Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon – ‘Breaking’ Down the Walls of Heartache
- Edwin Starr – ‘Time’
- The Originals – ‘Suspicion’
- Richard Temple – ‘That Beatin’ Rhythm’
- Bobbi Lnn – ‘Earthquake’
- Major Lance – ‘Ain’t No Soul (In These Old Shoes)’
- Holly St James – ‘That’s Not Love’
- Eloise Laws – ‘Love Factory’
- Ella Fitzgerald – ‘Get Ready’
- Edwin Starr – ‘Twenty Five Miles’
- The Shakers – ‘One Wonderful Moment’
- The Velvets – ‘I Got To Find Me Somebody’
- Yvonne Baker – ‘You Didn’t Say A Word’
- Terry Callier – ‘Ordinary Joe’
- Deon Jackson – ‘Ooh Baby’
- Tyrone Davis – ‘There It Is’
- The Vibrations – ‘’Cause You’re Mine’
- Lou Courtney – ‘Trying To Find My Woman’
- The Professionals – ‘That’s Why I Love You’
- Little Ann – ‘Who Are You Trying To Fool’
- Curtis Mayfield – ‘Move On Up’
- The Sheppards – ‘How Do You Like It’
- Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – ‘Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
- Just Brothers – ‘Sliced Tomatoes’
- The Trammps – ‘Hold Back The Night’
- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – ‘The Night’
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