Aretha Franklin

Track: "Baby, I Love You" (B5)
Album: Aretha Arrives
Format: LP
Label/Info: Atlantic 8150 (mono) / SD 8150 (stereo), 1967. Also Sundazed reissue, LP 5136. Pure happiness in a song, and a family affair with background vocals from sisters Carolyn and Erma -- and of course all that Atlantic magic: Muscle Shoals musicians and Tom Dowd engineering.

Archie Shepp

Track: "There is a Balm in Gilead" (B1)
Album: Blasé
Format: LP
Label/Info: BYG Actuel 529.318 - 180 Gram. Recorded in Paris in 1969 with Art Ensemble of Chicago stalwarts. Jeanne Lee on vocals. Truly sublime.

Johnny Hartman

Track: "Charade" (A1)
Album: I Just Dropped By To Say Hello
Format: LP
Label/Info: Impulse! AS-57 (Stereo) 1964. A particularly tasty track featuring guitarist Kenny Burrell. Up there with with the audiophile ear candy of Dusty Springfield's "The Look of Love."

Neil Young

Track: "Tonight's the Night" (A1)
Album: Tonight's the Night
Format: LP
Label/Info: Reprise MS 2221, 1975. A rocking tribute that contains what is probably my single favorite sung word, "Bruce Berry was a working man. He used to load that Econoline." Sing it with me, Econ-o-line...

Can

Track: "You Doo Right" (side B)
Album: Monster Movie
Format: LP
Label/Info: Liberty/United Artists reissue UAS 29094. Originally released 1969. "Made in a castle with better equipment" in a world and time all its own. Great blindfold test for the uninitiated.