Sweet Summer Soul: Continental IV

Continental IV: Day By Day (Every Minute Of The Hour) and Running Away (From Love)
Featured on: Dream World [Collectables, 1991]

Astute followers of the Fuzz may have picked up that I’m British and therefore more than mildly obsessed with the weather on any given day of the week. Because the summer season tends to last approximately 3 days I always rush to fit in as much sweet soul music as possible into the time frame before sadly packing it away again along with the shorts and my dreams.

This music for moods tradition makes it even more astonishing to me that I haven’t previously featured anything by the Continental IV. Sweet, soulful, and also very very good, I’ve been a big fan of them ever since I first got hipped by London Lee back in 2004.

Led by the haunting falsetto of Freddie Kelly and produced by Bobby Martin, the band seemed to have all the right ingredients and timing to hit the big league but, for whatever reason, it never quite came together for them. Despite obviously having depth to their sound, as far as I can tell they only ever released a number of 7″ singles in the early seventies and it’s from a compilation of these that I bring you the two tracks featured today.

Day By Day (Every Minute Of The Hour) was the group’s first single and a great example of why the band should have been so much bigger than they were. Strings, Kelly’s falsetto and perfect harmonies over the heartbreak lyrics just make this a gorgeous listening experience. It’s ironic that, for music that is so sweet, I find it really hits home when blared out as loud as you can get it.

As well as being further proof of the group’s preference for including further details in brackets (five out of the ten songs on offer here follows this trend), Running Away (From Love) is a fine fine fine example of sweet soul.
A song that manages to be both effortless and yet pushes all the right buttons, it features horns, beautiful falsetto vocals, a change up in tempo for the rousing chorus and even a switch to double time drumming leading to the big finale. The real deal, this is magnificent soul music.

Here’s hoping the hot weather continues so I can keep on playing these out for a few weeks yet. No excuses for why it’s taken me so long to feature them on them on the site, it won’t happen again.