• Track Listing

The San Francisco Bay Area was not known as a centre for urban soul productions in the 1960s, yet judged on the contents of Hitsville West, the R&B-mad region was just as capable of generating fine sophisticated soul sounds. An adjunct to our recent Kent collection Moaning, Groaning, Crying, this compilation focuses on the more polished local soul recordings, and in doing so necessarily includes virtually the entire catalogue of the renowned Villa label. The imprint is a legend amongst northern soul fans for the instrumental monster 'Double Cookin'. Recently discovered master tapes turned up not one but two vocal versions of this great stomper. Along with the original track, both are included here. One is the stupendous '(Just a Little) Faith & Understanding' by the Magicians, which has already become the talk of the northern circuit. As usual, the package features detailed liner notes based on interviews with many of the participants, and a selection of photos of these rarely-seen artists.