At first the obscure 45 You Are What My Heart Needs from the small label from Smyrna, GA sounds as if it’s going to be a competent version of Otis Redding's That's What My Heart Needs. But after a couple of verses Rickey Andrews abandons the song and goes into an extended vamp on which he screams and hollers like a man possessed. The musicians behind him - the Chances Are band - respond by getting busier and busier as he ramps up the intensity. Check out the bass and organ especially. But they can't really keep up with this extraordinary vocal performance. Perhaps that's why the song was re-titled. One for the deep fanatics only. The rather messy funk flip has got some admirers.

Rickey's version of Johnny Taylor's The Next Time is an energetic toe tapper featuring some fine screaming vocals. But the self penned Take Me Back is a very strange track indeed. Over a dead slow rhythm he talks and cries (literally) his way through the number accompanied by a male chorus and an unnamed lady who puts the occasional line in. He calls on the horns to help him - but I can only hear a trumpet. Maybe the others got lost in the rather muddy mix. Some soul fans like these spoken sides and some loathe them. When they're as good as this one I'm in the former camp.

Both Bosko Asanavic and Brian Poust (see Links) wrote to me mentioning the RWA 45. Brian also linked me to his excellent Georgia blogspot here  - where his article on Rickey describes his membership of the Fabulous Denos before his all too brief solo career. I'm grateful to both Brian and Bosko as ever.