Stax Records was founded in 1957. It was the most prominent American record label for what became known as "southern soul," which had a more rough sound than soul music in the north, like that in Detroit (Motown) or Chicago. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Stax Records was the home to many soul stars like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Booker T. & the MGs, the Staples Singers, and many more.
You can read more about the record company at Wikipedia if you're not already familiar:
In 2017, the BBC put on a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Stax. It featured most of the Stax stars who were still alive all those years later - Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones. In addition, it featured some younger British soul stars who were influenced by Stax: Beverley Knight, James Morrison, and Ruby Turner. There also was Tom Jones, who was star back in the Stax heyday, and was still going strong 50 years later. The show was emceed by British pianist Jools Holland, and backed by Holland, his band, and his orchestra (frequently used for his BBC TV show).
This concert got rare reviews at the time, and deservedly so. Both the younger and older artists did well. This was a "last hurrah" for most of the older artists, due to the passage of time.
I've already highlighted the singing skills of Beverley Knight with a series of cover versions albums. I didn't include her covers here, since I knew I'd be posting this. So if you like those albums, there's more of her here to like.
I left off one song on purpose. The concert ended with an encore of "Sweet Soul Music." But it was done to start the show, and done much better. The encore seems unplanned, and frankly it wasn't very good, with too many people trying to sing lead vocals and tripping over each other. This concert is stronger without it.
This concert is an hour and nine minutes long. The sound quality is as good as you'd expect from the BBC, sounding like an officially released album.
01 talk (Jools Holland)
02 Sweet Soul Music (Tom Jones, Beverley Knight & James Morrison)
03 talk (Jools Holland)
04 Hard to Handle (Tom Jones)
05 talk (Jools Holland)
06 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (Tom Jones & Sam Moore)
07 talk (Jools Holland)
08 Soul Man (Sam Moore)
09 talk (Jools Holland)
10 B-A-B-Y (Beverley Knight)
11 talk (Jools Holland)
12 I Forgot to Be Your Lover (William Bell)
13 talk (Jools Holland)
14 Private Number (William Bell & Beverley Knight)
15 talk (Jools Holland)
16 Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd)
17 talk (Jools Holland)
18 Try a Little Tenderness (James Morrison & Steve Cropper)
19 talk (Jools Holland)
20 Green Onions [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones & Steve Cropper)
21 talk (Jools Holland)
22 I'll Take You There (Ruby Turner)
23 talk (Jools Holland)
24 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Tom Jones & Steve Cropper)
25 talk (Jools Holland)
26 Blues for New Orleans [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones)
27 talk (Jools Holland)
28 Walking the Dog (Sweetie Irie & Nadia Rose)
29 talk (Jools Holland)
30 Hold On, I'm Coming (Sam Moore & Beverley Knight)
31 talk (Jools Holland)
32 634-5789 (Eddie Floyd & James Morrison)
33 talk (Jools Holland)
I found a bunch of good photos of this exact concert (for once). I could have used a photo showing many different stars here, but each of them would be so small that you could barely tell who they are. I decided it was better to chose a picture with just three of the stars, to better show the spirit of the concert. This picture has James Morrison singing into a microphone, with Beverley Knight and Tom Jones looking on.
For the text, I used the Stax Records logo at the top, plus the BBC logo at the bottom. I also found special lettering for the Electric Proms, a series of special BBC summer concerts that ran for a few years.
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