Album: Various Artists, The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973 (Kent)

Established by producer Rick Hall in 1961, Florence Alabama Music Enterprises became the epicentre of the Southern Soul boom during the '60s, as labels like Atlantic and Chess sent their artists south to access some of that Muscle Shoals Sound, a potent funk groove which many admirers (and singers) were surprised to learn was performed by white musicians.

 Soul giants like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin had their careers re-oriented at the studio, while even The Osmonds secured their breakthrough hit "One Bad Apple" there. This 3CD set charts the studio's output through its heyday, and the parts played by writers like Dan Penn and George Jackson, musicians such as David Hood and Roger Hawkins, and head honcho Rick Hall himself - a genius still, in his eighties, directly involved in music. That's not dedication, that's pure soul.

Download This: You Better Move On; Land Of 1,000 Dances; You Left The Water Running; Sweet Soul Music; Patches