Little Eva sang the demo. The song was written for Dee Dee Sharpe but when Don Kirshner heard the demo he thought it was so good he used it to start his own label. Dee Dee Sharpe covered it on her All the Hits album and it was a chart hit in New Zealand.
Much much prefer the Little Eva version of "The Locomotion". We're in a stretch here of several #1s where I either have no memory of the songs from that time (e.g., Grand Funk's version of "The Locomotion"). or I don't care for the song very much. The latter happens a lot for me in 1974-1976. As a result, I have not been commenting in this thread that much lately. There are exceptions, and you will hear from me at the appropriate times.
Yeah, me too. I'm listening to it right now, and it's not terrible or anything. I often rant about people not liking From Genesis to Revelation only because it's not Foxtrot or Selling England; I shouldn't hate Grand Funk's Locomotion just because it's not Little Eva. It's alright. Bad Time though is great!
Debuting just in time for warm weather '74 cruising is the stone classic "Be Thankful For What You Got". The artist of course is William DeVaughn but it's been mistakenly attributed to Curtis Mayfield countless times. Heck, searching the song title brought up one attributed to Curtis and mistitled as "Diamond In The Back". It has 22 million hits, which dwarfs all the properly titled postings.
You're welcome. "Once You Understand" was slightly before my teenage years, so I've long puzzled as to it's moderate success. I know the older kids were driving their parents crazy with their wild Grand Funk records and long hair. The first chart run was over Christmas '71, so maybe parents were buying copies and putting them under the tree hoping to send a message - actually talking to each other wasn't really a thing for a lot of families in the '70s. Unfortunately, the last thing a kid wants to do after trying to stay awake during a boring educational film in a dark classroom is listen to a record that sounds exactly like one.
Here's one that didn't do much on the charts in '74 although it should have. Lou Christie managed a late 60s mini-comeback when he took I'm Gonna Make You Mine into the top 10. Five years later he covered a tune from the 1930 film Monte Carlo - Beyond The Blue Horizon. His soaring take borrows the arrangement Mike Nesmith used a few years earlier but IMO he takes things to another level. The song got another public airing with it's inclusion in the film Rain Man more than a decade later.
So I see Pharrell isn't the only one who's aped Curtis vocally . . . I have known about this record, I think (but I'm not sure) it was certified gold . . . and more important, I've had this for years. The label variant seen in that clip is from Indianapolis; my own pressing's a Hollywood . . . The background color on this in particular would ultimately rub off on Roxbury's then-distributor, RCA . . . after about early 1975, RCA would switch from yellowish-orange to that tan color (after a very hard to see light grey which, because of the way label backdrops are treated for drying, was very susceptible to discoloring) for their label design.
There was also this hit from Stevie Wonder, "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" . . . His performance on the first two verses was of the type that led to a song by another act from a decade from this, being mistaken as by him.
Incidentally, the actual 45 edit played back then, and on Roxbury single #BRB0-0236, sounded more like this:
Well, obviously I'm sure we all got a kick out of listening to that cheez whiz! It isn't any worse than a couple things that are going to pop up here! Thanks for posting.
Like several of the soul hits of that summer of 1974, I didn't really hear this one until the early fall for some reason. But, my local radio was all over it! It seemed like once they finally put it into rotation, they played it every couple of hours. But, they jumped in on the excellent tune by The Main Ingredient: "I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely" right away.
Yes, this^ is the correct single edit that was the U.S. Roxbury hit single. I don't know where that label used in the video came from, though. My Roxbury 45 had a lot more bass on it. However, After it showed up on Varese Vintage's CD "Totally Oldies Then 1", it had less bass and a lot more top end. I asked the engineer what tape he used and he told me it was straight off the first generation single master reel. I always use the one off an old THump Records CD comp because the sound of it matches my Roxbury 45.
I loved this when it came out. Sounded great on a stereo 45. I was pretty surprised they covered it being the kind of hard rock band they were, but I still thought it was great fun.
Mr. DeVaughn apparently re-recorded this some time in the early 1980's; I recognize the PRC Richmond, IN label type anywhere. Why they would've used that to go with the audio of the correct Roxbury 45 edit is anyone guess. From what I recall of my copy, Kendun Recorders cut the lacquers. They may've been the ones who retained the bass on that Roxbury 45.
You know, I was never really aware of this song until later that year when I discovered it on a K-Tel 1974 compilation. For some reason, the radio stations in my area (central Missouri) didn't seem to play it much (if at all). I noticed the same with Curtis Mayfield's Freddy's Dead, which I'd never heard of (when I lived in Kansas). I was shocked to see both songs scored high on the charts, without really ever hearing them. But radio can be odd... I don't think either received much airplay on so-called oldies radio, which isn't a judgement on the songs' quality, as radio programs very tight playlists. Be Thankful For What You Got made it as high as No. 4, which is impressive. TW LW TITLE –•– Artist (Label)-Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date) 1 3 SUNDOWN –•– Gordon Lightfoot (Reprise)-12 (1 week at #1) (1) 2 1 BILLY, DON’T BE A HERO –•– Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (ABC)-11 (1) 3 2 YOU MAKE ME FEEL BRAND NEW –•– The Stylistics (Avco)-15 (2) 4 5 BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU GOT –•– William DeVaughn (Roxbury)-9 (4) 5 7 IF YOU LOVE ME (Let Me Know) –•– Olivia Newton-John (MCA)-12 (5) 6 12 ROCK THE BOAT –•– The Hues Corporation (RCA)-6 (6) 7 9 HOLLYWOOD SWINGING –•– Kool and the Gang (De-Lite)-11 (7) 8 6 BAND ON THE RUN –•– Paul McCartney and Wings (Apple)-11 (1) 9 15 ROCK YOUR BABY –•– George McCrae (T.K.)-5 (9) 10 27 ANNIE’S SONG –•– John Denver (RCA)-5 (10)
There seemed to be a fair amount of mainstream rock acts that covered 60's hits by Black artists in the 70's, and this one by Grand Funk never really did anything for me. I thought the very BEST of that ilk was this one, which should have made it higher than the #9 position it held.
