ST Special: Long lost Phil Perry songs exit the vault

(April 23, 2025) Phil Perry is a legendary singer and songwriter who has wowed audiences for over a half century with his incomparably powerful tenor voice and falsetto. As a background singer for many soul and jazz greats, as well as as a lead singer, Perry has amassed a sizeable fanbase around the world — including many of his musical peers. He has also won two SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards in the process.

Deep soulheads know that Phil first came to international attention as the lead singer and principal songwriter for the classic R&B group, The Montclairs, known for a single great album in 1972. And now, five decades after that group split, Phil and his wife Lillian have discovered many long lost songs that Phil wrote while in his early 20s for what was supposed to be The Montclairs’ second album — an album that was never released. Some of these songs have been placed on the internet by Phil’s many fans, and now Lillian has prepared a nice playlist that includes so many of these lost gems.

Expect more “vault” releases to come on multiple formats. But here is the first playlist, which includes a half dozen tracks that show both Perry’s songwriting skills as well as the varied repertoire of The Montclairs.