Ask most soul fans to name the great American soul cities and you will hear Detroit and Memphis before anyone mentions the Windy City. That is a mistake. Chicago soul produced some of the most graceful records of the 1960s, a body of work built on sweet vocal harmony, horn charts that sound like they were written with a fountain pen, and a songwriter named Curtis Mayfield who seemed to supply half the city with hits. This guide covers where the sound came from, who made it, which labels released it and where to start if you want to collect it.
What makes Chicago soul different
Like the music coming out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, Chicago soul drew on gospel. The difference is in the temperature. Southern soul tends to push the singer to the edge of the microphone; the Chicago records of the early and mid-1960s usually pull back. Vocal groups favoured light, interlocking harmonies rather than call-and-response shouting, and solo singers were melodic and frequently pop-leaning. Writers on the subject, most notably Robert Pruter in his 1991 book Chicago Soul, use the term “soft soul” for this strand and “hard soul” for the rawer, gospel-drenched records that ran alongside it.
The other signature is the arranging. Johnny Pate was the city’s master of horns, writing the bright, punchy brass parts that frame so many OKeh and ABC-Paramount sides, while Riley Hampton was the go-to man for strings. Listen to a Pate chart and you notice how little clutter there is: short stabs, room for the rhythm section and a voice sitting comfortably on top. If you know our guide to the Muscle Shoals sound, compare a Fame session from 1967 with a Chicago record from the same year and the contrast is obvious within eight bars.
Record Row and the Chicago soul labels
Chicago’s record business clustered first along Cottage Grove Avenue between 47th and 50th Streets and then, by the early 1960s, on South Michigan Avenue, the strip that became known as Record Row. Chess was at 2120 South Michigan, and around it sat distributors, pressing contacts and rival labels. That proximity mattered: writers, arrangers and session players moved between companies constantly, which is one reason Chicago soul feels like a coherent style rather than a collection of house sounds.
Vee-Jay
Founded in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James Bracken, Vee-Jay was the city’s pioneering soul label, with Calvin Carter overseeing A&R. The record usually cited as the first Chicago soul hit is “For Your Precious Love” by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, from 1958. Vee-Jay went on to release Butler’s “He Will Break Your Heart”, Betty Everett’s “The Shoop Shoop Song”, Dee Clark’s “Raindrops” and Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl”, a US number one in 1962. It is also, famously, the label that signed the Beatles for America in 1962. Mismanagement caught up with it and Vee-Jay went bankrupt in 1966.
OKeh and Carl Davis
OKeh was a Columbia subsidiary, and its Chicago office was run by Carl Davis, the producer who did more than anyone to define the city’s sound. Davis had the good sense to lean on Curtis Mayfield, who wrote most of the OKeh material. Major Lance’s “The Monkey Time” (1963) is the template: a Mayfield song, a Pate arrangement, a light, dancing groove and a singer who never strains. Walter Jackson’s “It’s All Over”, Billy Butler’s “Right Track” and the Artistics’ “Get My Hands on Some Lovin'” all came out of the same OKeh operation, and several became staples of the British northern soul scene, which we cover in our northern soul guide.
Chess and Cadet
Chess is remembered for the blues, but under A&R man Roquel “Billy” Davis it was also a serious soul label. Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me” (1965) is the hit everyone knows, but the Chess soul catalogue runs deep: Billy Stewart’s “I Do Love You”, Jackie Ross’s “Selfish One”, Jan Bradley’s “Mama Didn’t Lie” and the Dells’ “Stay in My Corner”. Etta James recorded for Chess in both registers, the soft “At Last” and the much harder “Tell Mama”, which shows how porous the line between the two styles could be. Later in the decade, Charles Stepney’s adventurous arrangements on the Cadet subsidiary pushed the Dells and Rotary Connection somewhere close to psychedelia.
ABC-Paramount and the Impressions
The Impressions were a Chicago group on a New York label, recording through ABC-Paramount’s Chicago office. With Mayfield writing and Pate arranging, they made “Gypsy Woman”, “Keep On Pushing” and “People Get Ready”, records that carried the civil rights movement’s hopes in the gentlest possible language. Mayfield’s later solo work is a separate story, told in our ranking of the best Curtis Mayfield albums.
Brunswick and Dakar
Brunswick was another New York company that found its voice in Chicago. From 1966 Carl Davis produced for the label there, beginning with Jackie Wilson, whose “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” was their biggest collaboration. Davis later took control of the company and moved its offices to Record Row. Into the 1970s Brunswick and its Dakar subsidiary kept Chicago soul commercially alive with the Chi-Lites’ “Oh Girl”, Barbara Acklin’s “Love Makes a Woman” and Tyrone Davis’s “Turn Back the Hands of Time”.
The hard soul labels
Not everything in the city was silky. George Leaner’s One-derful, founded in 1962, and its sister imprints M-Pac, Mar-V-Lus, Midas, Halo and Toddlin’ Town specialised in the harder style: screamed vocals, melisma and grain. Otis Clay’s “That’s How It Is”, Harold Burrage’s “Got to Find a Way”, McKinley Mitchell’s “The Town I Live In”, the Five Du-Tones’ “Shake a Tail Feather” and Alvin Cash and the Crawlers’ “Twine Time” all came out of that stable. If your taste runs to deep soul, this is the corner of Chicago to explore.
Ten Chicago soul records to start with
- Jerry Butler and the Impressions – “For Your Precious Love” (1958)
- Gene Chandler – “Duke of Earl” (Vee-Jay, 1962)
- Major Lance – “The Monkey Time” (OKeh, 1963)
- The Impressions – “People Get Ready” (ABC-Paramount, 1965)
- Fontella Bass – “Rescue Me” (Checker, 1965)
- Billy Stewart – “I Do Love You” (Chess, 1965)
- Jackie Wilson – “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” (Brunswick, 1967)
- The Dells – “Stay in My Corner” (Cadet, 1968)
- Tyrone Davis – “Turn Back the Hands of Time” (Dakar, 1970)
- The Chi-Lites – “Oh Girl” (Brunswick, 1972)
That list is weighted towards hits on purpose. Once those are in your ears, the second tier, from Walter Jackson to Barbara Acklin to the Artistics, makes much more sense.
Curtom and the end of an era
Mayfield founded Curtom in 1968, after running the short-lived Windy C and Mayfield labels, which gave early breaks to Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson. Curtom moved with the times into funk, disco and soundtracks; Super Fly (1972) was its biggest seller, and it also released the Staple Singers’ “Let’s Do It Again” and Linda Clifford’s “Runaway Love”. Carl Davis, meanwhile, launched Chi-Sound in the mid-1970s, recording the Chi-Lites, the Dells and Gene Chandler alongside newer disco-soul acts. By 1980 the game was over. Mayfield closed the Curtom office and moved to Atlanta, Brunswick’s Chicago operation shut soon after, and the classic period of Chicago soul effectively ended.
Collecting Chicago soul on vinyl
The good news for collectors is that the big hits are cheap and plentiful as US 45s; “Rescue Me”, “Oh Girl” and “Higher and Higher” sold in huge numbers and turn up in every decent soul box. The expensive end is the OKeh and One-derful material that the northern soul scene adopted, where clean originals of the rarer titles command serious money. Condition is everything with 45s that were played hard at all-nighters, so check our vinyl grading guide before you pay a premium for anything described as VG+.
For albums, the Impressions’ ABC-Paramount LPs and the Brunswick Chi-Lites albums are the most rewarding long-players; much of the rest of the city’s output was singles-driven. Compilations and the specialist reissue houses fill the gaps, and several of the outfits in our round-up of soul reissue labels have mined Chicago catalogues thoroughly. For a fuller list of labels and acts, the Wikipedia entry on Chicago soul is a reasonable map, though Pruter’s book remains the serious reference.
Chicago soul: your questions answered
Who invented Chicago soul?
No single person, but Jerry Butler and the Impressions’ “For Your Precious Love” (1958) is usually cited as the first hit in the style. Curtis Mayfield as writer, Carl Davis as producer and Johnny Pate as arranger did most to shape it in the 1960s.
Is Chicago soul the same as Motown?
No. Motown was one Detroit company with its own house band and production line. Chicago soul came from many competing labels, including Vee-Jay, OKeh, Chess, Brunswick and One-derful, and generally sounded lighter, with more emphasis on vocal harmony and crisp horn arrangements.
What is the best Chicago soul compilation for beginners?
Start with a label-focused set covering OKeh or Brunswick, or a Curtis Mayfield songwriting anthology, since his songs run through so much of the city’s best work. Then follow whichever arranger or singer grabs you.