Spanish soul? While some residual skeptic still raises an eyebrow, any devoted fan of the genre knows that few musical styles have borne more labels of origin. Great American cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Memphis, New York, New Orleans or even little Southern enclaves like Florence (Alabama) were glorious sources of unique forms of interpreting that great African American music during the 60s and 70s. The list is long: Southern, Motown, Philly, Latin, Chicago, New Orleans… depending on whether it came from here or there, and Northern Soul could come from anywhere as long as its rhythmic, palpitating beat fit the demands of the venues of Northern England from the 70s. Although it was known as blue-eyed soul when interpreted by white artists, obviously there was never a clear, official label of origin applied to the soul that our compatriots created from the mid-60s, but it was with this collection’s two previous volumes that it was internationally recognized that our soul was Sensacional. With the exception of England, no European country proved more vulnerable to the soul fever which, from the second half of the 60s, swept Spain from north to south. The passion for black music was so contagious here that nobody could resist it. It is certainly true that all of this was fostered by the extraordinary surge in tourism and the consequent boom of clubs in the large cities and, most especially, the Mediterranean coast. If the extraordinarily high demand for live music that these night clubs and discotheques demanded could not be met by local musicians, the solution was simply to turn to foreign groups (there were dozens drawn to our country) or to urgently recycle illustrious veteran bands marginalized by the new musical currents. On average this churned out rather amateurish results or watered-down soul, yet many of those acts applied such passion to their work that their scarce discographic legacy – today more than ever – sets dance floors alight, elates many hearts and demands the application of a proper label of origin in its thirst for exportation. Perfect and surprising proof of this was that this country would be the only one in Europe whose leading groups of the genre (Canarios and Pop-Tops) reached number one on the sales lists with their own tunes. Southern soul and the Tamla sound were the most consulted sources for our local musicians, but this collection also exhibits fascinating experiences between psychedelic soul, instrumental music, Afro-rock or gospel soul, although there are others that go beyond, or better said, that stay closer to home; songs whose origin is impossible to place beyond our borders, songs filled with echoes, twists and gimmicks that are absolutely Hispanic. The popular impact of soul was so broad and reached so many different audiences that the creativity of those musicians was diverse, pluralistic and uncontrollable; for some purists, blasphemy, without a doubt, but for the rest, absolutely free music.