What is northern soul?

Northern soul is among the most vibrant and bizarre music scenes to ever take root in the United Kingdom. During the early 1970s – for reasons that, even now, still seem fairly unclear – young people from the towns and cities of northern England found themselves dancing all night to the sounds of obscure and forgotten American soul records. Decades later, the scene is still going strong, with events up and down the nation occurring on a weekly basis. For newcomers, though, it can often be difficult to distinguish what exactly classifies something as being a bonafide northern soul record.

Originally, ‘northern soul’, as a term, came from the Soul City record shop in London, which later became a record label, too. For the uninitiated among you, the story goes that the shop’s owner, Dave Godin, caught on to the fact that music fans from the north would travel down to his shop in search of obscure, forgotten, and exceptionally rare American soul records. So, in answer to the demand, Godin coined the term ‘northern soul’ to describe the wants of these customers. If you were to take that at face value, therefore, you could suggest that any obscure soul single from that period could be considered northern soul.

Unsurprisingly, though, it is not quite that simple. There are countless soul singles from the mid-1960s onwards that were never hit singles and have since been lost to obscurity, yet they would never be considered northern soul. Northern records have a certain sound to them, usually typified by a high BPM rate, making them much easier to dance to, particularly with the added influence of amphetamines, which were rife through the northern soul scene of the 1970s.

You could certainly define northern soul as being anything that was played in venues like Wigan Casino, The Twisted Wheel, Blackpool Mecca, or any other iconic soul club across the nation. However, these clubs would also often play more mainstream soul hits by now-legendary artists like Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, or even Dusty Springfield. In fact, one of the most iconic records to arise from the northern soul scene was ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli, who could hardly be considered an obscure name within music by any stretch of the imagination.

A lot of the time, the northern soul movement placed the importance on record labels rather than on recording artists themselves. Relatively obscure record labels and imprints like Ric-Tic, Okeh, Golden World, Veejay, and Chess, among many others, became a hallmark of quality within northern scenes. It was through obsessing over these labels that the northern soul scene got many of its most renowned tunes, such as Sandi Sheldon’s ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’, originally released via Okeh in 1967.

Again, though, there are exceptions to this rule, too. Labels like Atlantic Records or even Motown produced their fair share of tracks that were then adopted by northern club nights. Ultimately, there are no strict parameters on what constitutes a northern soul record. You could uncover an impossibly obscure track with a high BPM on a suitable label like Okeh or Ric-Tic, and there would still be some bloke sat on a mountain of 45s patronisingly explaining to you how it isn’t a northern soul single for one reason or another. 

Northern soul music is often defined by its obscurity, record label, year of release, or instrumentation, but there are exceptions to virtually all of those identifiers. As a general rule, if a soul song is powerful enough to make you dance to it, then it should not be out of place at any northern soul event.

So, what is the biggest northern soul song? 

Although northern soul thrives on obscurity, certain songs did rise to the top of the pile, helping to define the sound of the scene. Among them, there are few more legendary than Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’. Originally recorded for Motown Records in 1965, label boss Berry Gordy ordered all copies to be destroyed. Of the 250 demo copies that were made in 1965, only two are confirmed to still exist – though it is thought that a handful more might be out there.

This obscurity, along with its infectious rhythm, made the song a natural fit for the northern soul scene. Although it is unclear just how one of these impossibly rare demos made it over the UK, much less how it found its way into the hands of a Wigan Casino DJ, the song came to typify the sound of northern soul. Thanks to various repressings, the song is much easier to come by at events in the modern day, but an original copy can still set you back a fortune.

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