Saturday Matinee: Joan Osborne in a great movie

My wife and I watched an excellent documentary a while back. It's called Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and I strongly recommend it. It's about a legendary group of Motown backup musicians called the Funk Brothers. The Funk Brothers backed up most of the major Motown artists for most of the 60's and 70's. They may have played on more number one hits than any other group of musicians.

Here are just a few of the songs they played on:

• Ain't Too Proud To Beg
• My Guy
• For Once In My Life
• I Was Made To Love Her
• The Way You Do The Things You Do
• Dancing In The Street
• Your Precious Love
• I Can't Help Myself
• My Cherie Amour
• Stop in the Name of Love
• You Keep Me Hanging On
• My Girl
• Shop Around
• Going To A Go-Go
• Get Ready
• Heatwave
• How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
• Baby Love
• Cloud Nine
• Ain't No Mountain High Enough
• Bernadette
• Mercy, Mercy Me
• Signed, Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours
• Where Did Our Love Go
• What's Going On
• Ooh, Baby Baby

Rather than just playing original recordings of those great old soul hits for the film, the producers reunited the remaining Funk Brothers and had them back up some contemporary artists doing cover versions. Here's a link to a video of Joan Osborne doing "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted". Osborne sang it as if her life depended on getting it right, and she did. It's an incredibly moving performance. Check it out.