Billy Butler - The Right Track

Released back in October 2008, a tremendously exciting project for Northern Soul fans everywhere. We've done a deal with Wienerworld, a major music DVD company, and the same company who originally released our classic documentary "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", and we have now released the definitive DVD box set. A five disc set of 200 performances called "Northern Soul's Greatest 200 Floorfillers". This uses some songs from "The Strange World Of Northern Soul" which are completely re-edited, so they look fresh and sparkling new. All the previous video effects done in the 1990s are gone forever, consigned to history. Plus loads and loads of never before seen videos, many of which have sat in the can untouched for many many years. Plus some newly recorded tributes to the classics. If you ever went to Blackpool Mecca or Wigan Casino, this is the must-have purchase of the year. In putting together this box set, we have nearly all the biggest all time blockbusters, "Out On The Floor", "Night Owl', "I'm On My Way", "Time Will Pass You By", "Blowing My Mind To Pieces", "Do I Love You", all sung by the original singers. We believe this will go down in history as the greatest Northern Soul DVD collection of all time. Here, Chicago legend, Billy Butler, sings his Northern Soul monster classic, "The Right Track", on Okeh Records. This is another performance filmed for my now somewhat notorious documentary, "The Strange World Of Northern Soul". Billy is Jerry Butlers younger brother, so naturally Jerry and Curtis Mayfield were both major influences in Billys early development as a singer/songwriter. Mayfield supervised and Carl Davis produced his first session at OKeh on 8 May 63, and they co-wrote his first recording Found True Love that was arranged by Johnny Pate. Curtis provided Billy with songs like Nevertheless, You're Gonna Be Sorry, Does It Matter and Im Just A Man for his early OKeh sessions. But, it was a re-working of the Impressions I Can't Work No Longer that gave Billy Butler his biggest chart success when it hit #6 on the US Billboard R&B Chart in June 65. The insistently uptempo Right Track made #24 on the US Billboard R&B Chart in July 66 and became the song that he's best known for in Europe. Billy parted company with OKeh and his group the Chanters in 67 to pursue a solo career with producer Carl Davis at Brunswick. His solo efforts made no commercial impact during the next two years but Billy put out some great records starting with the superb Love Grows Bitter. Billy disappeared back under cover writing and performing with the Ice Mans Band but between 1963 86 he made great records for the OKeh, Brunswick, Fountain, Mercury, Memphis, Uni, Pride, MGM, Curtom and Trumpet labels. I filmed and interviewed over three hundred people and 131 artists performing their Northern Soul classic songs, for the six disc DVD box set extravaganza, "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", with twenty four hours of footage, including some rare footage of the Motorcity reunion. The project started in 1997, was released on VHS tape and premiered to 1300 people at the King George's Hall in Blackburn in July 1999, then took four more years to refine and re-edit into its DVD release in 2003. A life's labour of love. So, in 1998, after much searching, and the most massive amount of detective work imaginable, we tracked Billy down to make this one and only one-time performance especially for us, for our ground breaking Encyclopedia Britannica of Northern Soul, and I am so glad that we did.

Added 1 May 2026