The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 8

I suppose I first started collecting Soul singles in the 70s when I would buy the odd one here and there from mailing lists. Then, the Northern Soul explosion meant that every man and his dog seemed to have a list you could buy from. Northern wasn't my bag though really, even back then I seemed to have been drawn to Southern and Deep Soul. I would often buy blind from these lists, or maybe just on the strength of a slim mailing list description or write up in Blues & Soul. A Willie Hobbs single was bought in this way and so in a way became a sort of foundation of my collection. I put it in a cardboard sleeve and wrote on it “Recorded at Fame, Muscle Shoals”. Where did I get that information from? The single dates to 1971, I probably bought it around '75 so it must have come from some sort of retrospective magazine article.

Anyway, because of this, Willie Hobbs has always been a singer I have been drawn to, and the collection now houses six Willie Hobbs singles. I thought I had featured him more than once on Feel It but, apparently, not. His only appearance appears to have been back in 2009. At that point there were, evidently, three Willie Hobbs singles in the collection, all from his time at Seventy 7, and I featured them all.

So, it is about time he was given some more love. This is the most recent addition to the Willie Hobbs section in the collection, I bought it maybe three years ago now. The single pre-dates his time at Seventy 7. It was written by Bobby Womack, Jerry Butler, and Jimmy Holiday. Who recorded it first? I'm not sure, I think it was probably Jerry Butler as it appeared on an album of his released in 1968. Willie's excellent take on the song was released early in '69, and other covers followed not long after, including a killer version by Velma Perkins (Vee Allen) which I think only saw the light of day as a Twinight promo in 1970 and is very very rare.

Willie Hobbs – Yes, My Goodness Yes 1969