Get Down With It! The White Knight Of Soul 1959-72 - Wayne Cochran

Wayne Cochran is an obscure musician by any standards, and judged solely by the cover of this CD,  a musician with really, really scary hair. He does have a couple of (minor) claims to fame. For one, he wrote and performed the original version of the teen death drama "Last Kiss" (his version opens this CD).  He was also referenced in The Blues Brothers. But those are not the reasons that I bought a (somewhat expensive) CD of his and decided to review it here. The reason is that he is a phenomenal singer, definitely one of the 'blue eyes soul' voices of all time.

The songs are a mix of covers (some obvious choices, others not so much) and originals, with the originals mostly being written or co-written by Cochran. The majority of the material is uptempo, but there some nice ballads, such as "When My Baby Cries," complete with a soulful spoken section. Cochran must have recorded with a very talented horn section, as the horns are a highlight of many of his recordings, particularly on "Somebody's Been Cuttin' In On My Groove". It's a shame that Cochran never found a wide audience, at least this Raven Records CD does a great job of summing up his (mostly unknown) career.

And the man can DANCE! Check it out here. Pure James Brown footwork. Maybe a DVD of the man is needed.....

You can buy this CD here.

This CD is better than the cover may indicate.