Northern Soul
The 7 Best Northern Soul
Tracks of All Time
Not a style anyone recorded — a style of listening. Northern English all-nighters from 1970 built a canon out of failed American soul 45s, prizing a fast four-four stomp and obscurity itself as a value.
- Origin
- Wigan and Manchester, England, 1970
- Tempo
- 120–140 BPM
- Also known as
- wigan casino, rare soul, the twisted wheel
- Tracks
- 7
- Updated
- 2026-08-31
Listen to the whole list
Play it through here →One record after another, with the verdicts
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Opens the list on YouTube as a playlist you can save to your own account. We never see your account, and nothing is stored here. 1 of these records have no verified YouTube link yet, so they are left out rather than guessed at.
Number 1: Dobie Gray / Out on the Floor
1966
A song about dancing all night that flopped in America and became a commandment in Lancashire. The Wigan anthem, and it sounds like it was written for the room it found.
Number 2: Frank Wilson / Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
1965
A Motown producer's one attempt at singing, withdrawn before release. Two copies are known to survive; one sold for a five-figure sum, which is the scene's economics in a sentence.
Also on Sung to Someone
Number 4: Jimmy Radcliffe / Long After Tonight Is Over
1965
One of the three records that closed the Casino at eight in the morning, and the most desolate. Nobody who was there talks about it casually.
Number 5: Gloria Jones / Tainted Love
1964
A B-side nobody bought, resurrected on the Northern circuit, and then turned by Soft Cell into a global synth-pop hit. The original is faster and considerably angrier.
Also on Sung to Someone
Number 6: Yvonne Baker / You Didn't Say a Word
1966
Intro, chorus, and no time wasted. Northern soul favoured records that start at full speed, and this is the purest example of the preference.
Number 7: Tobi Legend / Time Will Pass You By
1968
The last of the Casino's three closing records. A warning about wasting your youth, played to people who had spent the night doing exactly that.
Also on Dancing to Bad News