Solomon Burke - Silent Night (Savoy SCS-0002)

Silent Night

As I was saying over on The B Side, this amazing record was picked as the most soulful of all Christmas songs by Karl Tsigdinos over at Deep Soul Heaven, where he said:

"This may well be Solomon Burke’s greatest recording – it certainly ranks in his top three performances and should be in every Soul fan’s collection. (This track hasn’t yet been reissued on CD, but, happily, the 12-inch EP it comes from can be had cheaply enough on eBay.) This is a superb example of Burke the churchman, singing almost unaccompanied for the first couple of minutes, save for the exhortations of the 'congregation', which seem to spur him on to ever more soulful heights. Then the choir and band join in and Solomon raises his game even further, bringing us up and down with the mastery that makes him one of Soul music’s greats. We are thoroughly wrung out when he finally wishes us peace in the song’s fade-out."
Amen.

Merry Christmas, Everybody!