Hump Day Hitslist: Solomon Burke and 60s soul

Every Wednesday, starting today, we're going to post a 5 song playlist, called the Hump Day Hitslist, to help get you through the despair of the middle of the week.  There will still be a wealth of great music coming to you via the regular posts, but this feature is more of a quick dose of happiness to remind you of how beautiful everything is.

On Sunday, one of the greatest soul singers of all time passed away, Solomon Burke, and it is in his honour that this inaugural Hump Day Hitslist is dedicated to the soul music of the 1960s.

Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through the Grapevine": Originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, this song would become a landmark song for Motown Records when it was cut by Marvin Gaye in 1968.  Its cultural relevance is due significantly in part to Gaye's updating of the classic soul sound with late-60s psychedelic undertones.  Just two years later, Creedence Clearwater Revival would also make this song a hit with their popular rock version.

Ben E. King - "Stand By Me": The most remarkable thing about this song is that King wrote it for The Drifters, who passed up the chance to record it.  With some leftover studio time, King was encouraged to lay it to wax, and the rest is history.  Not only did "Stand By Me" become a top-ten hit in 1961, it would reach #1 in the UK in 1987 as well, after the release of the popular movie of the same name and a prominent Levi's ad featuring the song.

Solomon Burke - "Cry to Me":  A 1962 ode to loneliness, and Solomon Burke's biggest hit.  A perfect song for your mid-week blues..."nothing can be sadder than a glass of wine alone."

Etta James - "At Last": Released by James in 1961, "At Last" was first recorded for the musical score to the 1941 film Orchestra Wives.  It became Etta James' signature song, and she'd remind the world by taking ribs at Beyoncé for singing it for President Obama and the First Lady during their first dance at the Inauguration Ball.  "I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whupped."

Sam Cooke - "A Change is Gonna Come": Released shortly after his death in 1964, "A Change is Gonna Come" was only a modest hit by Sam Cooke's standards (see "Cupid," "Chain Gang," and "What a Wonderful World").  However, "Change" is Cooke's most important song, as it extols the emotional toll taken by decades of oppression, while offering a message of hope to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  And boy, can the man deliver a tune.