Anthony White ~ Stop & Think It Over ~ Philadelphia International Records ~ 1976
from his Could It Be Magic album the title track of which was a cover of the Manilow song.
O’Jays ~ Livin’ For The Weekend ~ Philadelphia International Records ~ 1975
from the Family Reunion album written by Cary Gilbert with Gamble & Huff (the same team that wrote Me and Mrs Jones) it made 20 on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the US R&B – but I don’t think it got a single release here in the UK
Detroit Spinners ~ Mighty Love ~ Atlantic ~ 1973 (live)
written by Joseph Jefferson, Bruce Hawes and Charles Simmons
Bunny Sigler ~ Come On And Dance, Dance, Dance ~ Philadelphia International ~ 1976
Walter “Bunny “Sigler also got the nickname Mr Emotion. This track is taken from his “My Music “ album from the same year. Guess what? It’s an album track and there is no YouTube posting 😦 so to hear the track you’ll need to play our Podomatic Podcast CLICK HERE
The Futures ~ Ain’t Got Time Fa Nothing ~ Philadelphia International ~ 1978
From their “Past, Present And The Futures” album. Written by Charles Simmons and Joseph Jefferson – the team who also gave us The Spinners Mighty Love
The Main Ingredient ~ Work To Do ~ RCA ~ 1973
From their “Afrodisiac” album, the Main Ingredient with their cover of the Isley brothers track – you may remember I played the AWB version a few shows back.
A classic James Brown track starts off this trio of tracks linked to ‘the Godfather’. As previously mentioned, The album ‘The Payback’ was originally intended as the soundtrack to the film ‘Hell Up In Harlem’, but ended up being recorded by Edwin Starr, as JB’s contribution was said to be ‘not funky enough’ by the film’s producers. What!!! #1 US R&B, #26 BB Hot 100.
Maceo & the Macks – Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back).
One of James Brown’s leading sidemen, the saxophonist Maceo Parker dipped in and out of the JBs many times and had only just rejoined them when ‘the Payback’ was recorded. Eventually, in the early ‘90s he left for a final time to pursue a successful solo career. If you listen to the JBs ‘Hot Pants Road’ you’ll hear James Brown giving Maceo a sound check and it just so happens the the next track…
A.A.B.B. – Pick Up The Pieces One By One Identify Records US 1975.
As a repost to the success that the Average White Band had enjoyed, James Brown released this track under the pseudonym A.A.B.B., which stood for ‘Above Average Black Band’. Obviously, James Brown and the JBs were piqued for a second time when they released ‘(It’s Not The Express)It’s The JB’s Monorail’ after BT Express’s success too. I have to say, in both cases they were inferior to the ‘original’ hits they were meant to ‘show up’. If you listen closely to this AABB track, you’ll hear some audio bleeding from the horns on the original track from which it was recycled ‘The JBs – Hot Pants Road’.
Stevie Wonder ~ Golden Lady ~ Tamla Motown ~ 1973
The last track on side one of the Innervisions album – the Grammy album of the Year!
It was Stevie’s 16th album, and was released on 3rd August 1973 – that was just 3 days before he was involved in a car accident that left him in a coma for 4 days …
Al Green ~ Let’s Stay Together ~ Hi Records ~ 1971
Al Green has sold over 20 million records – a fair few of them were this one!
1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 1 on the R&B chart for 9 weeks, and 7 over here.
Shakatak ~ Steppin’ ~ Polydor ~ 1980
Where it all started – written by Bill Sharpe
THE PODCAST IS HERE ~ download it or stream it live … and please give it a like on Podomatic, thank you 😉
Johnny Guitar Watson ~ A Real Mother For Ya ~ DJM ~ 1977
Title track of his 1977 album, I think I remember him doing The Old Grey Whistle Test – it made number 44 over here.
Born in Houston in 1935 ~ passed in Yokohama in 1996 aged 61 – so he’d have been 42 in ’77. Watson died on stage on May 17, 1996, while on tour in Japan. According to eyewitness reports, he collapsed mid guitar solo. His last words were said to have been “ain’t that a bitch”, probably in reference to the song “Ain’t that a Bitch”.
Isley brothers ~ Listen To The Music ~ T-Neck/Epic ~ 1973
Taken from their fantastic 3+3 album, it’s a cover of The Doobie Brothers hit from the previous year, written by Doobie’s band member Tom Johnston.
Brothers Johnson ~ I’ll Be Good ~ A&M ~ 1976
If you mention the Brothers Johnson people automatically think of Stom and maybe Strawberry Letter 23, but there was so much more to their output. I’ll Be Good was a number 1 on the US R&B chart and 3 on the Hot 100.
The story goes that George Johnson, one of the two brothers, wrote the song after deciding to commit to a relationship with one woman, instead of “dating” several at a time. Produced by their mentor Quincy Jones, it was lifted from their debut album, Look Out for #1.
Dexter Wansell ~ The Sweetest Pain ~ Philadelphia International ~ 1979
Vocals by Terri Wells. Written with Cynthia De Mari Biggs, arranged produced by Dexter Wansell from the Time Is Slipping Away Album
Jean Carn ~ Free Love ~ Philadelphia International ~ 1977
Written and produced by Gamble & Huff with Bobby Martin handling the arrangement – from the days when she spelt her name without an e on the end. 23 R&B.
Archie Bell & The Drells ~ Let’s Groove ~ Philadelphia International ~ 1976
released in Feb 1976 and a number 7 on the US R&B chart from the Dance Your Troubles Away album which laos included Soul City Walk which was a hot over here. The writter producer credits go to McFadden & Whitehead with Leon Huff and Victor Carstarphen.
The Intruders ~ I’ll Always Love My Mama ~ Philadelphia International (Epic UK) ~ 1973
UK number 32 Spring ’74 Written by Gamble Huff McFadden & Whitehead
Jackson Sisters ~ I Believe In Miracles ~ Prophecy Records USA ~ 1973
Here’s a track that gained a cult status on the Rare Groove scene and subsequently had lots of younger House DJs singing its praises too. SFAIK this is the remix by Simon Harris. Gene page was the arranger.
Jackson 5 ~ Hum Along and Dance ~ Motown ~ 1973
First recorded by The Temptations and on their LP ‘Psychedelic Shack’ but sounding very different, the Jackson 5 got hold of it and made it into this powerhouse of a track. An early Disco track?
Here’s a later version from their 1977 TV show …
Billy Preston ~ Outa-Space ~ A&M ~ 1972
Another fine example of club/disco music from the early seventies that had a strong 4/4 beat and signalled the direction that dance music was about to take. In my first club residency, this was one of THE biggest tracks so different from the only other solo number we played by him at the time ‘Billy’s bag’ from 1965, prior to his involvement with the Beatles. It reached number 44 on UK chart.
Stevie Wonder ~ Living For The City ~ Tamla Motown ~ 1973
“Living for the City” is taken from the “Innervisions” album. As a single it reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the US R&B chart, in the UK it reached number 15. The slow bass synth groove was provided by the enormous TONTO modular synthesiser.
Here’s the full version as featured in this weeks show
There is loads of stuff on the Web about Living For The City, here’s some stuff I found …
Regarding the Tonto synthesiser … Tonto is an acronym for “The Original New Timbral Orchestra,” the world’s first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer, designed and constructed by Malcolm Cecil – Tonto’s Expanding Head Band was a British electronic music duo consisting of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. Despite releasing only two albums in the early 1970s, the duo were (and still remain) influential because of their session work for other musicians.
Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the song at number 104 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
The song is very famous for its story-telling format. Here’s an insight into the making of the track … In an interview broadcast in 2010 on UK radio station Radio 4, producer Malcolm Cecil revealed how they made the last verse obtain the raspy, angry vocal sound they were after: “We had to get find a way to get the vocal rougher and harder, sound like someone who’d been through some real shit, so we decided the only thing to do was try and get Steve real angry and get his voice hoarse, so when we were recording that vocal for the last verse again we kept on doing stuff that would get him angry and one of the things he hates is stopping the tape, you know if he doesn’t say stop the tape in the middle of a vocal then… well, we broke that rule! We kept on stopping the tape, “Come on Steve, you can do better than that, this is shit” and I was really shirty with him, and we got him hoarse, we wouldn’t give him tea, he likes this tea with no milk in it, with the lemon to clear the throat, We didn’t give him the tea. (Laughs) He was getting real upset; I think he’s still upset with me about that, but we got a great track!”
A boy is born in hard time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that aint so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city!
His father works some days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floors for many
And you’d best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city!
(Instrumental)
His sisters black but she is shonuff pretty
Her skirt is short but lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she’s got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city!
Her brothers smart he’s got more sense than many
His patiences long but soon he wont have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
Cause where he lives they dont use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city!
(Instrumental)
(Living just enough for the city)
Living for the city yeah
(Living just enough for the city)
Living for the city yeah …
Released on Motown subsidiary label Rare Earth records in the US and Tamla Motown in the UK. R Dean Taylor was born in 1939 and raised in Toronto before joing Tamla Motown in the mid-sixties as a songwriter, artist and producer.
According to his own website… “When “Indiana Wants Me” was released, the content was controversial. We had to remove the police siren to get airplay in California. That’s why there are some versions without the sound effects.” AND “Motown hired independent promotion man, Al Valente to work the record. He decided to release the promo copies for the radio stations on red vinyl.”
It was a big hit reaching number 5 in The US and 2 in the UK.
First Choice ~ Armed And Extremely Dangerous ~ 1973
Recorded for, and released by, Philly Groove Records in the US and licensed by Bell in the UK. It was written by Allan Fleder and Norman Harris number 11 US R&B chart lead vocal by Rochelle Fleming. We played the Tom Moulton remix.
~ 1983
Taken from the multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning ‘Can’t Slow Down’ album released on Motown. Number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 9 on the UK Top 40.
Featuring the distinctive rock guitar from Toto’s Steve Lukather – the rumour is that Lukather sat down in the studio and the engineer played the basic tracks of the song, for him to hear for the first time, so he could plan his part. As the music played, he jammed along on his instrument. At the conclusion of tune, he said to the engineer, “okay, I’m ready for a take.” The producer replied, “That was a take”! The track also features Richard Marx also features on backing vocals.
PLUS, as promised in the JFSR chat-room on Thursday afternoon, here’s Lionel’s UK advert from last year for Walker’s Crisps
Hi , we are Paul Leighton and Stevie Q from the original Martines team, and numerous other venues around Hampshire, and we are back playing music from the soundtrack of our lives.
This blog will give you a flavour of what we'll be playing, celebrating club classics from old school to new cool.
We hope to start with weekday residencies at a couple of pubs/bars so that you can take a break from "the norm", and hopefully a club night too. Also, we intend to put together some really special one-off events at some of the larger venues in the area.
If you know of a venue, promoter, business or individual that might be interested in booking Gold please let us know.
To see a video of us talking about the project just select Vlog in the categories below or search Vlog.
CLICK HERE it’s the Podomatic Podcast
Gold 