Lockdown Week 8 – brings tracks 40-31 in the blues countdown!
As I’ve been DJing since 2007, and have had a pretty steep learning curve in that time, this will probably throw up some bizarre choices and guilty secrets. Where possible, I’ll put in links where you can listen to the tracks.
These are not necessarily my all-time favourite tracks, though it’s probably not far off it, and I can’t promise they’re all the best blues dance tracks ever. They’re just the ones I’ve played the most over the last thirteen years.
I’ve created a Spotify playlist to host all the tracks (or all the ones on Spotify anyway) – so each week, I’ll add the tracks for the week. You can listen to it here!
| Track | Artist | Album | Time | BPM | Plays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | The Jazz In You | Gloria Lynne | The Best Of Gloria Lynne (Digitally Remastered) | 2:25 | 96 | 29 |
| A beautiful jazzy blues number from Glloria Lynne, who use to share a stage with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles Listen on Spotify |
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| 39 | Do I Move You | Nina Simone | Blues | 2:47 | 54 | 29 |
| You can’t really go wrong with Nina Simone – especially not with songs like this gorgeous slow blues. Listen on Spotify |
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| 38 | Black and Tan Fantasy | The Solomon Douglas Swingtet | Swingmatism | 5:06 | 85 | 29 |
| Solomon Douglas’ fantastic take on amazing the Ellington classic. Listen on Spotify |
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| 37 | Tobacco Road | Lou Rawls | Black & Blue & Tobacco Road | 4:02 | 86 | 30 |
| A great track for raising an atmosphere – from a quiet gentle (but fun) opening, it builds and builds and builds… Listen on Spotify |
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| 36 | The Weed Smoker’s Dream | Hugh Laurie | Didn’t It Rain | 4:18 | 76 | 30 |
| The oh-so-talented Hugh Laurie on piano, with Gaby Moreno’s gorgeous vocals. Listen on Spotify |
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| 35 | The Death of J.B. Lenoir | John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers | Crusade | 4:20 | 71 | 30 |
| John Mayall has often said that no-one has influenced his work more than J. B. Lenoir, hence this beautiful, mournful tribute. I never play this in a set without including at least one of Lenoir’s songs – it just doesn’t feel right otherwise. Listen on Spotify |
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| 34 | Spoonful | Howlin’ Wolf | The Collection | 2:46 | 117 | 30 |
| A song so influential they’ve even named a wonderful blues event after it. Written by Willie Dixon – a great song, with lyrics that never get old. Listen on Spotify |
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| 33 | If You Live | Mose Allison | Mose Allison Sings (Remastered) | 2:27 | 120 | 30 |
| A fun gentle song, with some great breaks, from a man described as “one of the finest songwriters in 20th-century blues.” Listen on Spotify |
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| 32 | Baby Cakes | Quincy Jones & His Orchestra | Quincy’s Got a Brand New Bag | 4:02 | 66 | 30 |
| I call songs with this kind of rhythm as “heartbeat songs”. Love this one – gentle, soothing, rhythmic (and apparently featuring an organ solo from Ray Charles) Listen on Spotify |
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| 31 | I Am the Cool | Screamin’ Jay Hawkins | Best Of Bizarre Sessions | 4:17 | 104 | 31 |
| This is probably the ultimate bragging song. Vintage Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and it’s essentially vocals and raw guitar – and so much fun… Listen on Spotify |
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