Ellis, Shirley
NORTHERN SOUL – SHIRLEY ELLIS & PATTI DREW
I hear the term Northern Soul applied so loosely and I’m still confused about the actual definition. Basically, it appears to me that if a black (especially female) artist of the 60’s was on the soul charts in America and had some soulful and danceable hits, they were called Northern Soul in the U.K. Later to be “rediscovered”, cherished, collected and ultimately found by Ian Levine to be re-recorded. HA!
The interesting thing about these ladies is two-fold. One is that they both had very limited discographies before leaving the industry. Patti had 4 albums and Shirley had 3. Yes, I have all of them in my collection. The other interesting tidbit is that they were on the charts at the same time – going in different directions.
In May of 1967, Shirley Ellis was on the Billboard charts with her final major hit, "Soul Time," which was at #67 on the Hot 100 and #31 on the R&B charts.
She doesn’t seem to have performed “Soul Time” on TV, but how about “The Name Game” on ….. MERV GRIFFIN!?!
That very same month, Patti Drew launched her solo career and landed on the Billboard charts with her re-recorded version of "Tell Him”, which was at #85 on the Hot 100 and #22 on the R&B charts.
I can’t find any footage of Patti performing at all on vintage TV, but here’s a quick interview with Dick Clark in 1968. Why not show her singing the song?
SHIRLEY ELLIS AUTOGRAPH
I was looking for a Shirley Ellis autograph FOR-EV-ER!!! Occasionally, one would pop up on eBay, but they didn’t match the elusive examples that I’d seen of her signature.
Finally, I saw an album signed by Shirley. It’s “The Name Game” – excellent! The dedication is to “Robby Bobby and Jackie” – EVEN better, it’s got my name on it! But it should have been “Bobby Bobby Bo-obby” – Won the auction for $102.98 in Feb 2026.
