Sweatin' and Singin' Along

The recent heat wave prompted me to restrict my daily, half-hour treadmill time to the morning hours. This morning I scrolled the iPod to a soul and R&B playlist and found myself singing along.
The playlist opens with James Brown's incendiary "Get on the Good Foot," one of the funkiest songs I know.
Archie Bell & The Drells contribute "Tighten Up" (a great treadmill-walking song) and Junior Walker's "Shotgun" and Banbarra's 1975 classic scorcher "Shackup" follow.
By the eighth song, the playlist was cooking and so was I. It's still pretty humid in the mornings, so I had to close my eyes to keep out the salty beads of sweat.
I kept singing along, though, to a real sing-along classic. The eighth song is the marvelous "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'" by the Velvelettes (pictured).
By the time Little Stevie Wonder was blowing through his harmonica during "Fingertips, Part 1," the half hour had come to a close and I could return to the air-conditioned ground floor, capping a physical -- and vocal -- workout.