Soul
Here you'll find album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from soul artists and the labels that shaped the sound, plus vinyl reissue news as it happens. Soul's history runs largely through the 7-inch single: Motown, Stax, and Atlantic all built their reputations one 45 at a time, and that format still drives a dedicated collector scene built around rare singles and label variants rather than albums alone. The stories here cover how specific records were written, arranged, and recorded, the house bands and producers behind the sound, and why particular pressings remain sought after by people who collect soul on vinyl.
141 STORIES
How Summer Walker Made Heartbreak a Chart-Topping Story
Summer Walker's Still Over It arrived on November 5, 2021, via LVRN and Interscope. It turned her relationship with London on da Track into a dated, track-by-track account.
· 3 min read
How Justin Timberlake Turned Michael Jackson's Castoffs Into Justified
Jive Records released Justin Timberlake's debut solo album Justified on November 5, 2002, built on songs Michael Jackson had turned down from The Neptunes.
· 4 min read
Why Did Alicia Keys Call Her Album Here?
Alicia Keys wrote roughly thirty songs in ten days at a New York studio called The Oven. That burst became Here, her sixth album, released on RCA Records on November 4, 2016.
· 3 min read
Why Did Grace Jones Wait 19 Years for Hurricane?
Grace Jones released Hurricane on Wall of Sound in November 2008, her first album of new material in 19 years. She made it with Brian Eno and the Compass Point Allstars.
· 4 min read
Maroon 5: How Red Pill Blues Remade the Band
Maroon 5 released Red Pill Blues on November 3, 2017, as a seven-piece for the first and last time. The guest-heavy tracklist later produced the band's longest-running hit.
· 4 min read
Why Did Sam Smith Make The Thrill of It All So Personal?
Sam Smith followed a 12-million-selling debut with The Thrill of It All, released on Capitol Records on November 3, 2017. The album was built as a personal record rather than a pop sequel.
· 4 min read
Why Did Diana Ross Rush Out Everything Is Everything?
Motown released Diana Ross's second solo album, Everything Is Everything, on November 3, 1970. The rush shaped both its covers and its chart run.
· 4 min read
How Did Aya Nakamura's Second Album Change French Pop?
Aya Nakamura's second album, Nakamura, arrived on November 2, 2018, via Rec. 118 and Warner Music France and turned the French-Malian singer into one of French music's most visible voices.
· 3 min read
How Rosalía Nearly Went Broke Making El Mal Querer
Rosalía built El Mal Querer largely in a Barcelona apartment and nearly ran out of money doing it. The album, released on Columbia Records in November 2018, went on to win six Latin Grammys.
· 4 min read
Why Did Mariah Carey's Rainbow Turn Into a Label War?
Mariah Carey released Rainbow on Columbia Records on October 27, 1999, after publicly fighting the label over which song should be its third single.
· 4 min read
How Jamiroquai Hid 25 Songs From Their Seventh Album
Jamiroquai finished forty songs for Rock Dust Light Star but released only twelve when the album reached British shops on November 1, 2010.
· 4 min read
Chris Brown: How a 45-Track Album Beat the Doubters
Chris Brown released Heartbreak on a Full Moon on October 31, 2017, with 45 songs after RCA Records resisted the length. The album was certified gold within a week.
· 4 min read
Nelly Furtado's 'Say It Right' at 20
Nelly Furtado released 'Say It Right' on October 31, 2006, a late-night Miami studio experiment with Timbaland and Danja that became a worldwide hit.
· 4 min read
Britney Spears' Britney at 25
Britney Spears released her third album, Britney, on October 31, 2001. The Neptunes production and six co-written tracks marked her break from teen pop.
· 3 min read
How Michael Jackson's Invincible Got Buried by Its Own Label
Michael Jackson released Invincible on October 30, 2001, after four years and nearly 30 million dollars. Sony effectively abandoned the album within months of its release.
· 5 min read
How Ariana Grande Turned Healing Into Chart History
The opening track of Positions arrived draped in pizzicato strings and orchestral passages, while the lead single had already crashed onto the top of the Billbo…
· 4 min read
Why Did George Michael Refuse to Appear in Freedom! '90?
In October 1990, George Michael released Freedom! '90 without appearing in its video, letting five supermodels lip-sync the song while his old Faith props were destroyed on screen.
· 3 min read
David Bowie: How David Live Killed Ziggy Stardust
David Bowie's David Live, released by RCA Records on October 29, 1974, was recorded only after his band refused to play for the standard union fee. The musicians demanded 5,000 dollars apiece.
· 4 min read
Why Did Grace Jones Make an Album with One Song?
Grace to the Rhythm arrived in 1985 as Grace Jones's first album in three years, with eight versions of one song and a cover that called it a biography.
· 3 min read
How Prince's 1999 Turned a Stumble Into a Breakthrough
Prince's single '1999' stalled at number 44, but the album of the same name became his first top-10 LP and a double-album breakthrough.
· 3 min read
Why Does Amy Winehouse's Back to Black Still Hit So Hard?
Amy Winehouse released Back to Black on Island Records in October 2006, and the album went on to sell 20 million copies. Its mix of 1960s soul and raw confession still holds up two decades later.
· 4 min read
Stevie Wonder: How Talking Book Changed His Sound
Stevie Wonder released Talking Book on Tamla on October 27, 1972. Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil were associate producers on a sound built on clavinet and synthesizers.
· 4 min read
Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye: How a Joint Nearly Killed It
Diana Ross walked out of a Motown studio in 1973 when she found Marvin Gaye's session thick with marijuana smoke. Diana & Marvin still reached stores that October.
· 3 min read
Why Did The Rolling Stones Risk Ed Sullivan in 1964?
On October 25, 1964, The Rolling Stones played The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. The band was betting that raw blues could survive prime-time television.
· 4 min read