1974 was the year when, in terms of signings (this number notwithstanding), Stax really went off the rails. The acts they signed in this period were of the type that would have been fodder for one of "angry" comedian Lewis Black's routines ("When I think of Stax Records, I think of such fine hitmakers as Lena Zavaroni, Mike Douglas and Glenn Yarbrough"). The first-named's single - which could only muster #91 on the "pops" (forget this chart) - is shown below: It was the first single on Stax since the days they were distributed by Atlantic, to have on Columbia pressings lacquers with machine-stamped matrix numbers cut at Columbia's New York studios itself. But that they went from the likes of Johnnie Taylor and The Staple Singers and Rufus and Carla Thomas and Isaac Hayes and the Dramatics (and such mainstays from the '60's as Eddie Floyd and The Bar-Kays) to this . . .
I just looked ahead to the hits of 1975, and I promise this thread will get more interesting. Thing is, most of the #1s we are discussing just don't really seem to appeal to most of us here. I want to keep pace with the other thread, but I also feel like just getting 1974 over with and taking a breather until the other thread catches up. There is considerable overlap in 1975 with the pop chart. alphanguy tends to ignore this thread, doesn't even post here. So, if I move steam ahead and bypass that other thread...well...what do you guys think? If we discuss "Fire" by Ohio Players in this thread in a few days, and the other thread gets to it next month, I would like the discussion of the song to be cross-referenced, even though I know people who post over there won't bother with this thread.
When the Pop chart lags behind this one, I tend not to discuss the song over there just to not repeat what I said. Maybe find something else to say in response to other posters. Vice versa here.
Maybe I can finish up 1974, and then we can all just discuss all the R&B music from the 40s up to 1975. Because, the R&B music scene changed fundamentally in 1975, and I don't mean disco.
There must be some examples lurking out there that I know not of. Wasn't familiar with Ms. Mason's, but "Man To Woman" I knew about.
It's not just overlapping . . . '75 was when both charts had the most amount of #1's, with huge stretches where there was a new #1 every week.
I was thinking if there was an overlap of songs making #1 on both charts, mention it'll be covered on the "other" thread, if it wasn't already . . .
I'd just keep in sync with the US pop charts thread. It's interesting to see what was #1 at the same point in time more or less on both charts. Especially when they overlap, and the different observations made here vs. in that thread. I wish the UK #1s thread was also synchronized with this one and the US #1s thread.
New #1 R&B single November 23, 1974: I Feel A Song In My Heart - Gladys Knight & The Pips More great music from Gladys Knight & The Pips But, WTF with all these ballads?
Ya call that a ballad? Mid-tempo maybe. And their previous single On & On from Claudine was uptempo, no? Of course, their next single was a ballad as well as the next.
The song certainly was not dated. It was typical of what soul music was in the mid-70s (It's hard to believe, but we are pretty much already in the mid-70s with these chart threads!) I do remember the song from 1974, but more from Soul Train than my local radio station. It only hit #21 on the Billboard pop chart, so that may be why you don't remember it. Like most songs G.K. & The Pips did on the Buddah label in the 70s, it is top quality.
Which begs the question as to why they were taking this direction. Did Buddah nudge them, or was it within their musical DNA? In any case, I don't take issue with your assessment of the quality of the work they did whilst with Buddah. But they had done slow-tempo stuff before - besides "Neither One Of Us," there was "If I Were Your Woman" . . .
And here's the label for this (this was after the price increase for singles, hence the 'N' suffix in the cat. #): I noticed amongst their Buddah singles thus far, except for at least two (BDA 373, "He's Good For Me" by Michele Lee; and BDA 413, assigned to a record by Les Variations called "Morocco Roll"), all their catalogue numbers up to this point ended with '3'. Wonder why. Except for this, a Christmas single (this is a mono promo, don't worry stock copies are stereo):
I don't agree. More as to why I say that below. It was their musical DNA. One of the reasons they signed with Buddah is because they got absolute creative control. I think they did very well. to @sunspot42 as well: sure we were in a new funk era, but the reason I say this was not dated is because it was a new "sophisticated" soul that was being made. It was a far cry from the stuff The Stylistics and Blue Magic was doing (and we aren't done with either of those two groups yet). TV shows like "The Jeffersons" was moving on up in the ratings, and the image of the caricatures on "Good Times" was giving America a new look at Black people. The music was part of it. In fact, in another two years, the daughter of a famous crooner would release a song with that word "sophisticated" in the title.
It could also have something to do with who they were collaborating with in producer Tony Camillo and writer Jim Weatherly.
Except the song doesn't sound sophisticated. Roberta Flack sounded sophisticated. "I Feel A Song (In My Heart)" just sounds really, really dated. Like it crawled out of '71 or maybe '72. It's the kind of inoffensive crap you'd get on a Hollywood variety show in the early '70s. Ordinary. Like someone who wasn't actually soulful trying to sound soulful. It does explain though why their commercial fortunes fell off a cliff around this time, at least on the pop charts...
I know that one. I won't go into further detail, other than to say it had a subtitle added on to avoid confusion with a composition from a legendary jazz songwriter and pianist who died earlier in '74.
I don't think you'll find many who will agree with you. And, you are 100% wrong about their fortunes, which you will see later on.
Didn't have time to read through all 123 pages but it is a wonderful thread. Congrats to Grant, WB and others for managing to keep it going this long. I wish I would have noticed it back when it was covering the late 60's.
