This paper examines how in a curious and prolonged interchange,
soul music developed through innovations made by both Britons
and Americans--blacks and whites--to emerge as the colorful, powerfully emotive style
music fans treasure today. It traces the evolution of
soul from its African roots in antebellum America to the British Invasion of the early 1960s, following its transatlantic path several times over as the blues of Mississippi and Memphis influenced the Beatles and the Fab Four subsequently inspired the songs of Otis Redding. The musicians of the Stax-Volt imprint are featured, as well as the British subcultural phenomenon of Northern soul.