Michael Edward "Mike" Cotton hit the UK professional jazz circuit with his trad jazz outfit The Mike Cotton Jazzmen in the 1950s. The Mike Cotton Jazzmen recorded three singles and one EP for Columbia between 1961 and 1963, prior to moving from jazz to a more pop / R&B oriented style and a band name change to The Mike Cotton Sound. They were regulars in the London R&B / Mod club circuit of the early sixties and in 1964 they released one single and their eponymous LP on Columbia, plus one single on Denmark's branch of the Metronome label. They would be releasing other 45s through 1965, and inn 1966 their style evolved again, entering the field of soul music and performing and recording as Lucas and The Mike Cotton Sound. Lucas was Bruce McPherson Lucas, an american singer who had previously been working with other bands in the Norwich area. The Mike Cotton Sound also acted as a backing band, both live and in the studio, for artists such as Sugar Pie DeSanto, Gene Pitney, Stevie Wonder, Doris Troy, The Four Tops and Solomon Burke. They also backed Mary Hopkin in her classic Postcard LP for The Beatles' Apple Records. Their brass section, which included Mike Cotton himself on trumpet and flugelhorn, joined The Kinks on their 1971 Muswell Hillbillies album and stayed with them until the mid 1970s, when Cotton returned to the jazz scene.

 Wah Wah offers the first ever official vinyl format reissue of The Mike Cotton Sound classic LP, released in a gorgeus front laminated sleeve with three backflaps, featuring 5 bonus tracks taken from non-LP singles and an insert with photos and liner notes.