Various

★★★★ Happy Times: The Songs Of Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham Vol 2 ACE. CD/DL

More deep cuts from the Muscle Shoals/Memphis duo’s gem-filled songbook.

Twenty-four key tracks from the songwriters who met in their teens and by their early twenties were chief architects of the Muscle Shoals sound coming out of Fame studios. Their songwriting was defined by a warmth and deep affinity with its subject matter, demonstrated on captivating pop (The Box Tops’ Happy Times), stirring country (Bobby Bare’s In The Same Old Way), but mainly soul; see Percy Sledge’s rejoiceful I Love Everything About You, June Conquest’s Northern dancer I Do, Arthur Conley’s scorching You Really Know How To Hurt A Guy and Jeanie Greene’s sublime I’ll Take Care Of You. Meanwhile, I’ll Be Your Baby by Spooner’s Crowd, an atmospheric instrumental in waltz time featuring Oldham on piano, was leased to Chess as the flip to his Two In The Morning 45 and forgotten about until now.