Though the one of James Brown's "My Thang" was a Canadian label, pressed by RCA in Smiths Falls, ON. I recognize those fonts - and the rim print - anywhere. I go by which is the best representation of a single, regardless of country, if the domestic falls short . . .
In the case of the JB record, it was the only one I could see that was the 45 RPM length, or good sound.
More cool stuff from the Love Maestro although my two favorites singles haven't made an appearance yet. One will be up shortly but the other will be awhile. Yeah baby.
If there are no more comments, i'll move it along. It seems like the comments in this thread are diminishing.
Well, it is hard to fathom in today's time, how much Barrymania had penetrated and permeated the U.S. during 1974. He was doing gangbusters then on the charts - his own records, Love Unlimited's, and The Love Unlimited Orchestra's. Plus, his scoring one movie (Together Brothers) and acting in another (Coonskin a.k.a. Street Fight). Paradoxically, though, while he fancied himself a writer, producer and spotter of talent first, it was as an artist (which aspect he was most reluctant) that he made his biggest fame. I remember reading a 1974 article about him in Sepia magazine, and it spotlighted some of the other acts he was producing, including Jay Dee (one of several aliases used by Jackie Lee a.k.a. Earl Nelson of Bob & Earl fame). Some records he turned out for others in '74 included a record by Tom Brock entitled "If We Don't Make It Nobody Can"; "Just As Long As We're Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)" and "What Am I Gonna Do" by Gloria Scott (ironically, she was on Casablanca, to which White's 20th Century masters would go in the wake of 20th Century Records' dissolution in 1982); and Mr. Dee's "Strange Funky Games And Things" (on Warner Bros.). In the case of the Brock single (which I've heard, and there was definitely more grit to the arrangements, string-laden though they were, than on his own recordings), it seemed a case of White seeking avenues for types of music he himself wouldn't do (had a bit of social commentary there). None of them, together, approached even remotely the amount of sales Barry, himself, accrued with his own records. It was as if the public was less emanoured of his particular tastes than they were of the man himself, Love Unlimited and The Love Unlimited Orchestra notwithstanding. Not until after his death would there be a reappraisal of that aspect of The Maestro's long career. Can't Get Enough proved to be the only one of his LP's that topped the pop and soul charts, the only one that had two #1 R&B singles, and the only one where both singles reached Top 10 pop. He and Love Unlimited also tore down the house in '74 at a package concert at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum in New York, as organized by WBLS disc jockey and radio pioneer Frankie Crocker which changed the way black music acts were presented in concert.
"Can't Get Enough" is Barry at the height of his powers. It features one of his finest vocals (the double-tracking really enhances it), the orchestra is robust and the rhythm section is tight. A+.
It also appears that Love Unlimited's In Heat album (which came out around the same time) was recorded within the same group of sessions that yielded Mr. White's Can't Get Enough. And this is relevant because of a future #1 on these charts, in edited form. Listen to the instrumentation, the mix, the way the drums sound, and you tell me whether or not the two LP's were recorded back-to-back.
Reportedly, White once bragged that he'd patented his particular "sound." But in proof that he couldn't patent the "pickers" who played on his records, I submit to you this number that was a reasonably big hit around this same time, many of whom (including drummer Ed Greene, guitarist "Wah-Wah" Watson and harpist Stella Castellucci, plus some in the horn and string section) also played on the Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" - "Hang On In There Baby" by Johnny Bristol (#2 soul, #8 pop): The arranger on this was H.B. Barnum, who was as in-demand an R&B arranger in Hollywood during this period as was White's right-hand man Gene Page. But notice how muffled the high end sounds compared with White's numbers.
I'm not a big fan of Barry White but Can't Get Enough of Your Love is a fine song, and I like to give it a spin every once in a while.
However, I would counter that H.B. Barnum was never an R&B arranger, but a pop arranger. He just happened to work with Black singers like O.C. Smith and Al Wilson. And, those two may have had R&B hits, but if you listen to their albums, they were decidedly pop. As far as the Johnny Bristol song is concerned, I never cared much for it. I'm not sure exactly why. I do find it boring. Maybe it's his vocal range. But, he is credited with teaching Boz Scaggs how to sing, and sing soulfully, at that!
To keep this thing going, i'll present the next #1: You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder (Note: I had to find a video of the song that weren't ear-bleeders that were obviously taken from those awful 2000 remasters. Seriously! I have an earache after hearing two of them.) This was a powerhouse of a funky song, and written and released specifically in reply to a disgraced President Nixon after he resigned from office before they could impeach him. That's the Jackson 5 doing the background on it. "You Haven't Done Nothin'" is one of the funkiest songs that were released in 1974, alongside "Skin Tight" by Ohio Players, "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus, "Do It 'Till You're Satisfied" by B.T. Express, and "Pick Up The Pieces" by The Average White Band aka AWB.
I think it came out a few days before he resigned, so it must have been recorded awhile before that event, but I do believe it was directed at Nixon and his policies.
I had read that it was released just after he resigned. I'd have to look it up. Either way, it was a biting rebuke of him and his policies. The song went to #1. It's also good that the record was on Motown, an independent, Black-owned record label. Today, if a song like that were released, radio stations would ban it, and the artist would get blacklisted and condemned by half the country.
Aye. It came out on Wednesday, Nixon resigned on Friday. I've always figured "you brought this upon yourself" refers to Watergate, which was coming to a boil while Stevie was recording Fulfillingness. It's all the grown-ups seemed to talk about that year. I was mad because the hearings pre-empted afternoon cartoons.
We discussed "Feel Like Making Love" over in the pop #1s thread. Not much more to offer here, but I'll repeat something I said over there - I wonder if the commercial success of this cut helped pave the way for the label to get behind Smokey's "Quiet Storm" a year or so down the line and spawn the subsequent radio format named after it. I think the success of this cut showed the labels there was an enormous appetite for this lighter, cooler, somewhat jazz-tinged sound largely divorced from the dance/funk that had grown pretty dominant on the soul charts and for R&B crossover hits on pop radio. Really, this would carry on even into the '80s with acts like Sade and Anita Baker scoring huge, crossover hits.
Leave it to Stevie - a funky, scathing protest song. This is probably my least favorite of his albums from this period, but it's still a fantastic record - just not quite as engaging for me as its neighbors. Really tho he could do no wrong during this stretch - innovative, funky, smart, melodic, perfectly produced, flawless playing, you name it. A V12 firing on all cylinders.
The flourish with the keyboard in the open, reminded me in a way of the open and close of radio ads in the 1970's for Barron's magazine (put out by the fine folks that in those days published The Wall Street Journal). In its arrangement, tempo and key, if not its lyrics, it struck me in some way as a "Son of 'Superstition'." And I seemed to detect a drum machine of the type heard on such other chart-toppers as "Family Affair," "Why Can't We Live Together," and "Rock Your Baby." (I also heard it on a song called "Born Poor" which was the B side to The Jaggerz' 1970 hit "The Rapper.") Some Canadian pressings (more particularly those by RCA's Smiths Falls, ON plant, one copy of which I have) misspelt the album title as Fullingness' First Finale, and switched around two letters in one of the publishers so it read "Stien/Van Stock." It wasn't just the kiddies; some of their mothers were likewise upset because the hearings pre-empted their favorite soap operas and game shows. (The hearings also played a role in the cancellation by CBS of a year-old game show hosted by Dick Clark, The $10,000 Pyramid, and its move the very next week to ABC where - albeit with a doubling of the amount only two years later - it ran till 1980; by the time of the network switch, the hearings were over and Nixon was about to resign.)
"Hang On In There Baby" did strike me as somewhat of a Barry White copycat in its overall feel and theme.
I have no doubt. I can just imagine my Grandma's reaction - she had to watch her "programs" every day.
If grandma was still with us 20 years later she must have been absolutely apoplectic when the OJ trial wiped the soaps off the TV map! It's been said that was the demise of the daytime dramas due to the endless pre-emptions.
I love Fulfillingness' First Finale as much as any of Stevie's albums in the 70s and YHDN was a fantastic opening salvo. The man simply could do no wrong. Well, at least until we got to the Plant one.
