EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tomstockman, Mar 4, 2016.

  1. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    "992 Arguments" was also issued as a single with a catalogue number 3522 before "Love Train" was released. "Love Train" had a catalog number of 3524.

    I remember "992 Arguments" got considerable play on Soul Train.
     
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And within the month "Love Train" peaked, PIR released another O'Jays' single - "Time To Get Down" (ZS7 3531).
     
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  3. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Four singles from the same album was dang uncommon in those days.
     
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  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    the only one I can think of that came as close is "Tapestry" by Carole King.
     
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  5. CliffL

    CliffL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sacramento CA USA
    Great song...I bought this one by Aretha in 1973. I only heard it played on FM rock stations, in my case KZAP in Sacramento California.
     
  6. Manapua

    Manapua Forum Resident

    Location:
    Honolulu
    Yeah, for whatever reason it wasn't embraced by the public to any significant degree reaching only into the mid 30s. Granted, it wasn't the usual funk workout or gospel ballad most came to expect from her but it did show her stretching her talent into other styles just like the Hey Now Hey album did.
     
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  7. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    A Shelley Products pressing (with 'LY' matrix suffix on the label) of "Master Of Eyes" was in the record collection of the summer camp I stayed in for the summer in the better part of the late '70's. The label of the A side was trashed, I seem to recall, with the B side label - for "Moody's Mood For Love" - more intact in that regard.
     
  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    As we wait for the next #1 to be examined, let us look at a novelty "break-in" record aimed at the soul market that came out around this time - "Super Fly Meets Shaft" by John & Ernest (co-produced and co-written by the King of Break-Ins, Dickie Goodman):

    [​IMG]
    In order (those that didn't make #1 here linked in the text below) are:
    - "S.O.S. (Stop Her On Sight)" by Winfield Parker (notice the credit on vocal arrangements - one Dione Gamble; this appears to be the lass best known as Dee Dee Sharp, at the time married to Kenny Gamble of the Gamble/Huff producing and writing duo)
    - "I Got Ants In My Pants (And I Want To Dance) Part 1" by James Brown (three portions heard within this piece)
    - "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" by The Temptations (two portions heard in the course therein)
    - "Keeper Of The Castle" by The Four Tops (their first Dunhill single)
    - "Me And Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul (three segments played within this number)
    - "I'll Be Around" by The Spinners
    - "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes (two snippets played)
    - "Back Stabbers" by the O'Jays
    - "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" by the Spinners
    - "Love Train" by the O'Jays
    - "Freddie's Dead (Theme From 'Superfly')" by Curtis Mayfield
    - "Daddy's Home" by Jermaine Jackson
    - "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield (a continuous loop from which constituted "Part Two," the original B side of this - which Mayfield sued over to have removed; it was replaced as the flip by an instrumental called "Problems")
     
  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Just thought i'd take a short break.
     
  10. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    Yes, have the single with "Problems" on the flipside. I'm glad that I have it because it's a pretty great instro.
     
  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Next #1:

    Neither One Of Us (Want's To Be The First To Say Goodbye) - Gladys Knight & The Pips



    I certainly heard this song in 1973, but it somehow got past me. It just didn't register on my radar.
     
  12. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    See my post in the Hot 100 thread

    EVERY Billboard #1 hit discussion thread 1958-Present

    "Lol, before we get into full deciphering mode I would like to give a shout-out to a great song that was stuck at #2 behind 'The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia'. Gladys Knight & The Pips 'Neither One Of Us'.



    A subtle and soulful vocal by Gladys Knight, and the first of many consecutive hits forGladys Knight & The Pips during these years.

    Coincidentally after being blocked by a song with 'Georgia' in it's title, the group would go on to score their own #1 hit with a song that also has 'Georgia' in it's title later this same year."

    Surprised your not a fan Grant!!!
     
  13. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    It certainly didn't "sound Motown," for sure - but this was after the company completed their move from Detroit to L.A. Which is where this was recorded, with quite a few "Wrecking Crew" members. A link can be seen here with all the names; but I'll try to decipher who played what (some attributed instruments may be wrong):
    - Arrangers: Artie Butler, Michael Omartian
    - Trumpet: John Audino, Chuck Findley
    - Trombone: Dick Hyde, Lew McCreary
    - French horn: David A. Duke
    - Woodwinds: Gene Cipriano, William Green
    - Keyboards: Lincoln Mayorga, Mike Melvoin, Michael Omartian
    - Guitar: Larry Carlton
    - Bass: Reinhold Press
    - Drums(?): John Guerin
    - Percussion(?): Victor Feldman
    - Harp: Stella Castellucci
    - Violin: Israel Baker, Harry Bluestone, Assa Drori, James Getzoff, William Kurasch, Archie Levin, Ralph Schaeffer, Sidney Sharp, Tibor Zelig, Shari Zippert
    - Viola: Myer Bello, Philip Goldberg, Harry Hyams, Gareth Nuttycombe
    - Cello: Joseph DiTullio, Armand Kaproff, Ray Kelley, Raphael Kramer
    - ?: Vincent Bartold, Josephine Dapar, Ann Popperwell, Robert Ross
    I've long loved it. Why this was kept from the pop top spot by a Carol Burnett Show regular is one of those questions that may possibly never be answered . . . but do any of those names sound like they toiled in The Funk Brothers? :winkgrin:

    However, this was not to be the last time that Ms. Knight and her Pips would record a Jim Weatherly song . . .
     
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  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Where my homies at?
     
  15. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Seems kinda generic, in spite of a killer band. The "neither one of us" bit is the only thing I remember from this song.
     
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  16. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    This record's producer, Joe Porter, was also responsible for producing The Free Movement's biggest hit (and, as it turned out, their only single on Decca), "I've Found Someone Of My Own," in 1971.

    Another example of how Motown wasn't in Kansas, er Detroit anymore: The lacquers for "Neither One Of Us" were cut by The Mastering Lab. Which also mastered the said Free Movement 45.
     
  17. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    What "homies," I ask - The Funk Brothers, perhaps?
     
  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    But it does seem to underscore why, at the 1974 Grammys, this won Best Pop Vocal by a Group, whereas another big hit of theirs from later in the year (after they switched labels) won for best R&B performance, though both songs did well on both charts.
     
  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    No, the other thread participants.
     
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I was gonna say . . . "Superstition" gets to #1, everybody floods to it. Ditto for "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" or "Love Train." A universal hit like this or "Why Can't We Live Together" - except for myself, @SITKOL'76 and @sunspot42, crickets chirping in the background. Sheesh. Almost feel like Johnny Carson recounting in his opening monologues how one of his jokes went down like a lead balloon while another within the same monologue garnered huge gales of laughter.

    And way a contrast to the massive enthusiastic response to these numbers when they were out and hit their respective summits.
     
  21. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Maybe they think R&B was too exclusive or something. I dunno...
     
  22. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    Midnight Train is R&B, Neither One Of Us, is like adult contemporary-ish I think. Maybe the Grammy voters decided to categorize them differently. Both were big hits though, but MTTG is a signature song for them.
     
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  23. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Gladys delivers an R&B vocal, but the track itself is kinda generic I agree. Another puzzler at the #1 position. You have "Call Me" by Al Green and "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)" by the Four Tops on the charts, as well as "Break Up To Make Up" by the Stylistics. All absolute, unforgettable classics. This cut? Meh.

    Seems like the R&B charts are having the same problem the pop charts were having. Maybe everybody was rushing out to buy Al Green's albums?
     
  24. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    I like "Neither One of Us". Nobody delivers a tear-your-heart-out ballad like Gladys. The arrangement is tasteful and appropriately lush, but I can do without that "sproingy" guitar that inflicts so much music from this era. (What creates that anyway, a Wah-Wah pedal? A Leslie speaker?)

    If you really want a gut punch, listen to this song from the same album in which the incomparable Ms. Knight sings as an abandoned mother:

     
  25. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    During this time Gladys Knight & The Pips couldn't do much wrong as far as the charts were concerned, outside of Stevie Wonder & Marvin Gaye I don't think any other Soul/R&B act was having as much crossover success. They later got the chance to really spread their wings after they let Motown.

    The parent album for 'Neither One Of Us' was a top 10 album, and the following year (1974), their Imagination album was one of the top 10 selling albums on the BB YE Chart.

    I think some of their later hits are stronger as well 'Midnight Train' and 'On and On' come to mind.
     
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