California Soul

Recorded in 1969 at Ter Mar Studios in Chicago for The Spice of Life, with Marlena Shaw backed by the Cadet session team and produced and arranged by Richard Evans and Charles Stepney. It was the signature cover from The Spice of Life and helped make that album Shaw’s defining Cadet release. The song became one of the record’s best-known tracks and a centerpiece of her late-1960s repertoire. It became Marlena Shaw’s most recognized recording and has remained a staple of sampling culture across hip-hop and electronic music. Its continued reuse has kept the song in circulation well beyond its original release era.