Lil Bob and the Lollipops, “Sweet Soul Swinger… & The Jin Singles” (Jin)

File this one in the category of Bayou Soul. Opelousas’ Camille “Lil” Bob was a singer/drummer whose horn-laden band worked the South Louisiana club/prom circuit, often playing seven nights a week during the 1960s. Best known for the copiously covered hit “I Got Loaded” (not heard here), he recorded these tracks in Ville Platte in the late ’60s. Largely containing covers from likes of Gene Chandler, James Brown, James Carr and Arthur Conley, this was the material that the Lollipops played hundreds of times on the bandstand. However an original (written by swamp popper Tommy McLain), “Who Needs You So Bad,” serves as the opener. The song is buoyed by a semi-early James Brown horn arrangement, and could be the best song of the lot.

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Speaking of Brother James, Bob recycles Brown’s pleading “I Found Someone” and the funky “Cold Sweat,” where Bob requests that the Lollipops “give the drummer some.” Also on the funky side is the dance floor filler “Sweet Soul Music,” done with a dash of St. Landry Parish. The most interesting track here is the treatment of “You Know It Ain’t Right.” The Joe Hinton hit actually served as the template for the South Louisiana standard “Kidnapper” (Van Broussard, Jewel & the Rubies, etc.). Certainly these various versions demand the comparison test by listeners. The sole true Lil Bob original “Peaches (You Got Love)” really is a sweet soul swinger. Hard to believe the original Jin single never took off. Fifteen tracks in all here that capture the South Louisiana soul sound of the ’60s. Would have loved to have seen and heard this band back in the day.