Shakin' Fit!

1960s soul music wasn't just Motown, earnest gospel-filled ballads, and dancefloor rabble-rousers. There were also quite a few soul performers who treated the music as fun, first and foremost, taking a somewhat looser and goofier approach than the stars that had long careers. This 29-track CD is a good document of soul music as pure fun, by singers who never had a hit (Don & Dewey are the only marginally recognizable names here), and who owed stronger debts to the honking R&B music of the '50s than most other soul performers. Some of these are downright funny novelties (the Five Du-Tones' "The Chicken Astronaut," Emanual Laskey's "Welfare Cheese"); a great deal of these are novelty-tinged dance tunes that verge on silly, in the best sense of the word ("The Frog," "Skin the Cat," "Sticky Pig Feet," "The Cow," "The Chicken Scratch"). This could have done with some decent liner notes (there are virtually none), but it's a good deal for soul fans looking for some totally overlooked and fun-filled rarities.