The Northern soul tag has nothing to do with the music’s country of origin, the U.S. It refers, instead, to 1960s northern England, where DJs started igniting clubs with a brand of floor-filling soul. The sound’s unlikely roots are in the mid-‘60s British mod movement’s affinity for American R&B, and long after mods had become a memory, Northern soul DJs focused on the mid ‘60s as they dug deep for killer dance-floor tracks that had fallen through the cracks. Punchy horns, hard-charging rhythm sections, and sweat-soaked singers got clubgoers on the goodfoot in legendary discos like Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca, though they always saved room for sweet soul ballads so dancers could catch their breath. Sometimes singers on Northern soul classics were from the American South, though just as often they hailed from Chicago (Jerry Butler, The Impressions), or from the Detroit/Motown axis. One thing's for sure, they all made you move.