Manfred Mann - Soul Of Mann Vinyl Record

Soul of Mann is a compilation nobody actually asked for, HMV's parting shot after dropping the band, and it accidentally reveals what the singles never had room to show.

Manfred Mann had spent 1963 to 1966 racking up hits like Do Wah Diddy Diddy and 5-4-3-2-1, but underneath the chart success sat a genuinely serious jazz combo, Manfred Mann's own Hammond work, Mike Vickers on sax and flute, Mike Hugg's vibraphone, all of it usually buried under Paul Jones' vocals. This 1967 collection strips the singer out entirely and gathers the instrumental sides scattered across three years of sessions, released right as HMV cut the band loose, which gives the whole thing an odd, unsentimental afterthought quality that somehow suits the music.

Their cover of Satisfaction turns Jagger and Richards into a vibraphone-led jazz workout, genuinely strange and genuinely good. My Generation gets the same treatment, unrecognisable from the Who's version and better for it. Sack O'Woe leans hardest into the jazz combo instincts the band rarely showed on record, and Bare Hugg remains the clearest showcase for just how tight this rhythm section actually was.

An accidental document, thrown together on the way out the door, that ends up making the strongest case yet for the band's actual musicianship.