Female Soul

Where soul and R&B are concerned, Ace’s mostly male A&R team makes make no secret of its total admiration for the music of the fairer sex. We like to release as much of it as we can, as often as we can. If you don’t believe us, take an in depth look at the Ace website or our printed catalogue. You’ll find the titles of dozens of great compilations by some of soul’s foremost females from the past 50 years. That great declaration of admiration made by the Impressions and Jerry Butler almost 50 years ago is as true today as it was in the mid-60s – “The Woman’s Got Soul”.

The women we love recorded up north, down south and from coast to coast – as can be seen from the cross-section of releases just across the page – and always with an excellence to match and often exceed their male counterparts. There are no two ways about it, when it comes to singing about “the good, the bad, the hurt”, women have never been the weaker sex in soul music.

We could probably fill a whole edition of Sure Shots with fantastic packages by our soul girls, and still have plenty left over for the next one. Rather than do that, we’ll tantalise you with a representative selection, and leave the rest of the voyage of discovery to you. It doesn’t matter if you prefer your lady soulsters to sound sweet’n’teeny like Nella Dodds, sassy’n’saucy like Millie Jackson or gritty’n’gospel like Mitty Collier, we definitely have lots to suit you.

Let’s hear it for the girls!