Jackie Wilson – I Get the Sweetest Feeling

The Great Jackie Wilson

“Listen – I Get the Sweetest Feeling – MP3″

Greetings all.

I hope you all had a most excellent weekend, as did I.
In addition to the usual attempts to hold exhaustion at bay, errands, grocery shopping and (if I’m lucky) some time with the records, my wife and I took our four-year-old son to his first movie. I’m happy to say that it was a gas. Some of my fondest memories of childhood have to do with going to matinees on the weekend, and no matter how many movies I watch on my iPod, nothing, I repeat NOTHING can replace the experience of watching a movie on the big screen.
If you’ve got small kids, you know how hard it is to get to see any movies in a theater, so the opportunity to go out (even if it is a Veggie Tales film) and share that experience with our son was pretty cool. Though he’ll probably never know the wonder of a double feature of ‘The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes’ and ‘The Vanishing Prairie’, I think he’ll get by.
In a completely unplanned segue, today’s selection also carries with it (at least for me) a cinematic connotation.
A few years ago my wife and I were watching an Irish film called ‘The Closer You Get’, and toward the end of the film today’s selection – then completely unknown to me – came on and I was just blown away. Fortunately the music credits at the end of the film were legible ( a rare occurrence) and I discovered – much to my soul fans chagrin – that the tune was ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ by the mighty Jackie Wilson.
I’m ashamed – yet momentarily humble enough – to admit to you that I slept on the music of Jackie Wilson for a long, long time. Though there’s no denying the power of a record like ‘Lonely Teardrops’ or ‘Higher and Higher’ (curse you Rita Coolidge), I was totally unfamiliar with much of Wilson’s catalog.
I looked for a longtime for a copy of this record (once even getting burned by a smalltime EBay lowlife), even going so far as to buy it on CD (Ohhh the indignity!!!) before this past Fall when I found a copy of the LP on my little digging interlude in Baltimore (thanks Vincent!).
Once the vinyl was in my hands, it was only a (brief) matter of time before I had to share it with you in this space.
As it turns out – and not a bit surprisingly – ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ is a longtime Northern Soul fave, so much so that the Soulies pushed it back onto the UK charts in 1972 (Wilson originally recorded/released the tune in 1968, the same year as versions by Erma Franklin and one by the Platters, which I’d love to hear). The record is contains all manner of Northern Soulie bait, including a very nice four on the floor beat, classy vibraphone and harp accents, tasteful horns and an absolutely wonderful, hook-filled melody (courtesy of none other than Van McCoy).
During the time I’ve been typing this piece I’ve listened to the song no less than a dozen times, and could probably go on listening for a few dozen more.
I hope you dig it as much as I do.
Peace
Larry

PS I updated the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive, and created a similar page for the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcasts. Check them out when you get a week or two…

PSS Check out this article in the New York Times wherein Lenny Kravitz send a little love out to Sharon Jones  the Daop Kings and the mighty Budos Band!!

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