WITH its iconic intro, meaningful lyrics and passionate vocals, Young Hearts Run Free is a song every heartbroken soul has belted out at one point in their lives.

And it is that song soul legend Candi Staton would chose to sing if she could only ever chirp out one tune for the rest of her life.

“Young Hearts Run Free was actually about my life story and the times I was going through,” the singer beamed.

She added: “It is a bittersweet song. It just kind of summed everything up in one song in three minutes.”

The classic will no doubt be among the hits the 76-year-old performs when she takes to the stage at the Electric Frog Summer Jam at the Riverside Museum on Saturday, September 3.

“I love Scotland,” she screamed.

She continued: “The Scottish crowd, there is nothing like them. They are so wild.

“When you get up on stage and start singing, they sing along with you

“They are jumping with you and they are screaming at you.

“It’s just amazing and I am standing there grinning from ear to ear.

“I love the Scottish fans and they do turn out in record numbers. Thank God for that. Every time I have gone I have always had a great crowd.“

It is very easy to understand why Candi attracts the crowd. Aside from her stunning voice, she has been behind some of the biggest hits on the dancefloor over the last few years including The Source collaboration You’ve Got The Love.

She has also adapted her sound, singing everything from house music to gospel.

She said: “I think the key to my success has been just singing and persevering. Never giving up, and always reinventing myself.

“I just love music. When you love music there is something special, it just seems to get into you.

“You just do it. I can’t explain exactly what pops you to do this but I know it just comes natural to me. “

And it’s that passion for music that has kept Candi as current today as she was at the height of her success.

She said: “I thought you know people will get used to me then they will just move on and they will get somebody else.

“I will just kind of fade into the darkness. But it didn’t happen that way.

“Instead people who never knew who I was now do because of the media and internet.

“I am gaining more and more fans as we go and I am so appreciative of that, it makes me feel really great.”

Despite her mainstream popularity, the American songstress still remains true to the sound she grew up with – gospel.

“It’s my staple, it’s what I started out with and probably what I will end with. I keep that there as hope,” she said.

She added: “I listen to gospel music all the time and I sing it.

“I just did another gospel album called Time to be Free. So I will always keep gospel music in my life.”

But her set at the Summer Jam will be as varied as the back catalogue Candi has given fans since she first launched onto the scene in 1968.

She said: “Fans can expect some of the old ones. They can expect You’ve Got the Love and Young Hearts Run Free.

“I am going to bring a little bit of all of it.

“I have something for everybody, and I am pretty sure you are going to enjoy it and we are going to have a great time.”

Having been in the music industry for several decades and experienced its digital changes, Candi believes the biggest change over that time has to be attitude.

She said: “You have different attitudes, you’ve got a different world and you’ve got different people in the world.

“When we were doing music in the 70s we didn’t have the rappers. We didn’t have all the different beats and stuff. We had just pure complete soul music. There is no way you can compare today’s music to the old days.

“We had real genuine songs, there was no digital and you felt it in your blood. You lived it.

“It was our life. We didn’t have a choice but to love it.

“And regardless of what we went through in the day time, when we got on the stage and took that microphone it all just disappeared.

“We got lost in our music and It is just amazing how It has changed now.

“You don’t see that kind of dedication or passion as it was back then.”

Catch Candi Staton at the Electric Frog Summer Jam and visit here for tickets - http://buytickets.at/ef/61698