8 Don Patterson Ballads

When I started collecting Don Patterson albums in the early 1970s, I'd buy them without hearing the music first on the radio. Always a daring move back then, since you couldn't return what you didn't like. If you sliced open the plastic, you owned it. The reason I made these purchases with such confidence is that Patterson nearly always included at least one ballad on his albums. That, for me, was where the action was. Patterson's intros on ballads raised the hairs on my arm. They were big, dramatic and juicy, as if he was using the Hammond organ to squeeze every last drop out of an orange. [Photo above of Don Patterson]

Here are seven Don Patterson ballads with knock-out openers, stuttering keyboard riffs and a real gone groove:

Here's It's Magic from Goin' Down Home (1963)...

It's Magic

Here's Trick Bag from Goin' Down Home (1963), with Paul Weeden on guitar...

Here's Theme for Dee from Patterson's People (1964)...

Theme for Dee

Here's The Good Life from Exciting New Organ (1964)...

The Good Life

Here's Love Letters from Soul Happening! (1966), with Vinnie Corrao on guitar...

Here's Embraceable You from Four Dimensions (1967)...

Embraceable You

Here's Stairway to the Stars from Opus DeDon (1968)...

Stairway to the Stars

And here's Starry Night from Donnybrook (1969)...