Chicago Soul ‘62 - Various Artists

In 1962, Black Music was making its transition from R&B to Soul and the Chicago music industry was exploding, producing thousands of records and dozens of new labels.

The two biggest black labels, Vee-Jay and Chess, led in the creation of the distinctive, smooth, Chicago soul brand with names familiar and not so familiar: the former with Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler and the latter with Mitty Collier, Etta James and Billy Stewart.

And yet it’s the smaller labels that make up the bulk of the Chicago story: Hawk with Geraldine Taylor, Lu-Cee with Roberta, M-Pac with Dorothy Prince and it's here that we explore some of the finest sounds of the era in this collection.