3 Classic Soul Hits From 1960 You Can’t Stop Singing

There’s something about classic soul hits that makes them feel like they’ve always existed. Melodies and lyrics so eternal they seem to be of nature. Perhaps soul music speaks to the essence of what makes us human—the shared experiences of joy, grief, love, and heartbreak. Of course, any genre can speak to these things. But any music worth its salt must have soul. Yet the perception of “soul” is an abstraction. Difficult to define but easy to feel. And I think you’ll feel these soul hits from 1960. I don’t think we’ll ever stop singing them because, in a way, we’ve always been singing their sentiments.

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But enough armchair philosophy from me, crank these eternal tunes and sing along.

“At Last” by Etta James

Glenn Miller and His Orchestra first recorded “At Last” for the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade. Two decades later, Etta James, with an improvisation on the original melody, recorded the definitive version of the tune on the title track to her 1960 debut album. Blending R&B, jazz, blues, and pop, James became a star and is widely recognized as the world’s first soul diva. Though you can’t stop singing “At Last”, good luck matching the emotion of James’s husky voice and soaring range.

“Georgia On My Mind” by Ray Charles

For 30 years, artists such as Hoagy Carmichael, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, and Glenn Miller had been performing Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind”. But Ray Charles’s 1960 rendition became a blockbuster hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. A fitting anthem for the Georgia native, who was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1930, the year the song was written. Carmichael and lyricist Stuart Gorrell penned a tune that’s both Georgia’s official state song and one of the best-known American standards in history. But you don’t have to be from the Peach State to croon this one.

“Chain Gang” by Sam Cooke

Many songs speak to overcoming hardship. However, life behind bars offers a unique perspective on punishment, loss of freedom, and how a society administers justice. There’s a long line of prison tunes, from Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” to Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”, highlighting these experiences. While on tour, Sam Cooke encountered a group of prisoners working on the highway. They inspired Cooke to write “Chain Gang”, with its iconic background vocals mimicking the grunting laborers. Cooke’s hit offers a glimmer of hope that someday, some of these prisoners may finally go home.

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