THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

530-Sam & Dave-Soul Man.

1967-Number 24 single.

Best Bit-At 0.08. Soul Music is a genre of music that originated in the African/American community throughout the United States in the 1950’s, and early 1960’s, but it was this songs title that made ‘Soul’ a household word, and known to a much wider audience.

‘Soul Man’ was co-written, and co-produced by the songwriting team of Isaac Hayes (1942-2008) and David Porter. Hayes was watching a television news programme in July 1967 about the ‘Civil Rights Movement,’ and the aftermath of the 12th Street riot in Detroit, Michigan. Hayes noted that black residents had marked buildings that had not been destroyed during the riots, mostly African/American owned and operated, with the word ‘Soul.’ Hayes related the scene to the story of Passover in the Bible, Hayes said,’It’s a story about one’s struggle to rise above his present conditions. It’s almost a tune kind of boasting, ‘I’m a soul man,’ it’s a pride thing.’

Isaac Hayes (see also best songs 398 and 1) came up with the title, but it was David Porter who wrote the lyrics describing what he thought a ‘Soul Man’ should be. Porter has said,’He didn’t have the fancy big city slant, but had the emotional thing happening inside of him that made people really love him.’ In 1971 Isaac Hayes was commissioned to write the soundtrack to the film ‘Shaft,’ in which Hayes describes the Soul Man’ John Shaft, as a bad mother……

Sam & Dave were the American singing duo of Sam Moore, and David Prater (1937-1988) Moore is a tenor, and Prater was a baritone, they formed in Miami, Florida in 1961, and remained active as a duo through until 1981. They were nicknamed ‘Double Dynamite,’ or ‘The Sultans of Sweat’ due to their all action live performances, and the American Soul revivalist duo The Blues Brothers were modelled on them. Together they released five studio Albums between 1966-1975, they also released a total of 32 singles between 1962-1977, of which three reached the Billboard top 40, and four charted in the UK.’Soul Man’ was taken from Sam & Dave’s third studio Album ‘Soul Men’ released in 1967. As they recorded on the ‘Stax’ record label, the instrumentation was provided by members of Booker T. & the M’G’s (see also best songs 906) as well as the labels session band the ‘Mar-Key Horns’. The songs very famous intro was written and played by Steve Cropper,(see also best songs 906 and 828) who was asked by Hayes to develop something, as he was struggling with the start of the song.

‘Coming to you on a dusty road, good loving, I got a truck load, and when you get it, you got something, don’t worry ’cause I’m coming.’