Sinner Strong - Don't Knock It b/w Nobody But Me (Serock - 1962)

This harmonica wailing slice of raw R&B was sung by the best 'white' soul voice in the form of a young fairly unknown singer called Joyce Harris, who relocated from New Orleans to Los Angles and cut this wailing piece of Rhythm and Blues in 1962.

I'd rank this 45 as a phenomenal piece early Soul music, the raw energy of the band and those amazing off-kilter vocals sung by Joyce Harris with such verve and passion, that this white girl could've sung any black girl off the stage, she was that impressive on this cut.

The A-side is the mover and shaker of this piece of wax, the B-side is more of a traditional gospel influenced R&B track, not my cup of tea, I kind of find over use of 'strings, horns and brass' in black music from 1957-68 a total yawn fest and song killer, with R&B and Soul Music, I only really dig the arse-shaking, head kicking, primitive songs with the odd exceptions to the former.

I first heard the A-side 'Don't Knock It' on the Crypt Records compilation 'T-Bird Party' years ago and decided to track down the 45, I've had the 45 in my collection for a couple of years now, It would be a good floor-filler if played at a Soul event, I feel.... I personally don't really know what 45s are considered cool today amongst that crowd of people??

Recently I was looking through my Soul, Doo-Wop and R&B records drawer and was amazed I even had a bunch of the stuff I had, this record was one of the one's I had totally forgotten about and thus I now feel somewhat compelled to write a blog about it and share the killer side.

Anyway dig the grooves.

Paul Messis