Episode #11: Special Ladies

Happy 2010 everyone! As promised, I will continue to bring you diverse mixes once a week that I hope (re)introduces you to great music.

This week I chose to honor the great female vocalists, mostly of the R&B/soul/blues persuasion. There are some obvious heavy hitters here, such as Aretha, The Sparrow Edith Piaf and the High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone. The tracks are ordered relatively chronologically with some modern day standouts with remarkable voices included to balance out the list.

While singers such as Norah Jones, Erykah Badu, and more recently Neko Case have garnered serious acclaim and firmly established themselves as voices of their respective generation, other promising careers have stalled. Lauryn Hill has practically fallen off the map and Amy Winehouse may still have a storied career if she can somehow straighten her life out. Either way, I like to think of this mix as a kind of progression of the diva and to illustrate quite nicely that it’s not just a man’s world.

Give it a listen and enjoy.

Track listing:
1) La Vie en Rose (3:08) – Edith Piaf
2) Can’t Buy Me Love (2:39) – Ella Fitzgerald
3) The Very Thought of You (2:47) – Billie Holliday
4) Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (3:15) – Aretha Franklin
5) Compared to What (5:16) – Roberta Flack
6) Please Don’t Let Me Misunderstood (3:51) – Nina Simone
7) Something’s Got a Hold on Me (2:50) – Etta James
8) Son of a Preacher Man (2:29) – Dusty Springfield
9) Midnight Train To Georgia (4:35) – Gladys Knight & The Pips
10) Get It While You Can (3:28) – Janis Joplin
11) Workin’ Together (3:32) – Ike & Tina Turner
12) On & On (3:46) – Erykah Badu
13) Sweetest Thing (4:41) – Lauryn Hill
14) I Wish I Was The Moon (3:35) – Neko Case
15) You Know I’m No Good (4:17) Amy Winehouse
16) Not Too Late (3:32) – Norah Jones