The Heart and Soul of the 60s gathered at The Cutting Room (the hip Flatiron District art-and-performance-space club co-owned by Chris “Mr. Big” Noth and Steve Walter) to croon the praises of the DVD release of Miramax Home Entertainment’s concert documentary, Only the Strong Survive: A Celebration of Soul. The Who’s-Who-of-Soul evening was hosted by Cyndi Lauper and the film’s co-producer and narrator/interviewer Roger Friedman (Foxnews.com’s gossip columnist extraordinaire).

Husband-and-wife film-making couple Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker masterfully documented the film’s reunion concert of living legends from the Memphis Soul Music Scene during the 60s and early 70s, artfully merging on-stage footage and close-ups with priceless behind-the-scenes reminiscences (coaxed by Friedman) from these household-name artists of the Memphis-based Stax/Volt and Hi Records. The film, an official 2002 selection at both the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, brings together concert and musical segments (filmed on location between 1999-2001) from icons such as Jerry “The Iceman” Butler (whose classic cut gives the film its title); The “Oh, Girl” Chi-Lites; Isaac “Shaft” Hayes; Ann “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” Peebles; Sir Mack “Mustang Sally” Rice; and Rufus (the “world’s oldest living teenager”) Thomas, who sadly passed away as the film was completed, and to whom the documentary is dedicated.

On release night, we spotted actor Melvin Van Peebles and Strong stars Mary “Supreme” Wilson, Sam “Soul Man” Moore, Rufus Thomas’s daughter Carla “Gee Whiz Look at His Eyes” Thomas (known as the “Queen of Memphis Soul”), Eugene Record (of The Chi-Lites), and Wilson “In the Midnight Hour” Pickett.

You heard it through the grapevine: Forty years on, these legendary artists still define the word cool.