More vintage Northern Soul! Completely puerile, innocent and bouncy, naive lust/love/like fare. What could be better, on a nice rainy Saturday? Freddy Kelly was an artist on Detroit’s gr8 indie label of the 50′s and 60′s, Twirl Records. The horn section work on this track is to die for, as are the teen-beat tom-tom fills, and the vocal, which soars nicely over the top like a food-colored maraschino cherry on a mound of sugar and cream. The key change up a whole step to set up the last verse is such a perfect cliché, you’d miss it if it weren’t there. Looking forward to hearing more from these Twirl Records comps. This is pop.

Freddy Kelly
“Then I Met You” (mp3)
from “Twirl Records Story Volume 1″
(Twirl Records)

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Del Shannon, baby! This classic side was a hit in the winter of 1961, just a few months after Shannon’s “Runaway” became an international number one smash. Recently re-released digitally, this old school, live-in-the-studio recording has lost none of its shine. A pissed off goodbye song that captures a timeless human emotion.

Del Shannon
“So Long Baby” (mp3)
from “Twirl Records Story Volume 3″
(Twirl Records)

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Can you imagine a song title and band name more fun than “Time To Rock” by The Five Teenbeats? No, you cannot, Boris. This is the beat, man, this is swingin’, this is crazy cool. From a hot collection of northern soul gems from the 1960′s out on Twirl Records, here’s a 45 RPM vinyl instrumental side with pretty near every hook that had the kids hoppin’ then and now.

The Five Teenbeats
“Time To Rock” (mp3)
from “Twirl Records Story Volume 2″
(Twirl Records)
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