Some minor clarifications to the Love Hangover saga... most of this from a certain Fifth Dimension members memoir. The unimaginatively titled "Diana Ross" album - second time to the well for that- from which LH hails was initially launched in Feb '76 with a Michael Masser tune as its debut single- I Thought It Took A Little Time (But Today I Fell In Love). As it began its way up the pop/soul/ and A/C listings, Lamonte McLemore bought a copy of the DR album, heard LH, and ran straight to their manager Marc Gordon with it. He and ABC agreed it could put the 5D back on the charts and rush released their cover. Florence LaRue does the lead. They might have succeeded had Diana not caught Frankie Crocker spinning it then called Berry demanding he kill ITITALT and rush release Love in its place. He did and effectively killed any comeback the 5D had in mind. Almost a year later Lamonte & Florence went to see Diana on Broadway in her "An Evening With Diana Ross" show. When she spied them in the front row, she stopped dead in her tracks, had a spotlight trained on them, and snarled with a smile "Now, there's the enemy." It's a shame I Thought It Took A Little Time had to suffer, stalling at #61 R&B & #46 pop, as its one of Diana's better mid seventies singles but at least it hit #4 at A/C. Love Hangover only made it to #19 there. I'll also throw in I know exactly what website folks are referring to with its DRATS/Ross obsession. The shenanigans drove away all the Motown veterans long ago. Utter the words "Return To Love" and the wigs and false eyelashes fly. Folks get banned then just sign up with a new ID so the insanity never ends. It's a shame folks take stuff so personal that happened literally a half century ago. The ladies have dropped or forgotten it so you'd think the fans could too...
Chill out. I mentioned the song in context of Love Hangover losing the Grammy to it. As if none of you have ever done that before.
Y'all complaining are the ones who "spoiled" it, since Manapua never mentioned "Sophisticated Lady"'s chart position... And it's perfectly valid to bring it up when a #1 hit we're talking about didn't get the Grammy love another cut got (even if that cut also reached the top). "Love Hangover" is definitely the better-known of the pair, and established Ross - for awhile, at least - as a bonafide disco star. Oddly enough though, her star rapidly faded after this, until her fortunes changed dramatically in 1980. More on that later. "Love Hangover" is a great disco cut; sexy vocals, shifting beats, thumping groove, the works. It's dated, but perfectly so. A little time capsule of 1976. I loved it as a kid but don't remember hearing it as much as I'd have liked, and of course disco largely vanished from pop radio after 1980, so I seldom heard it until I bought a couple of those Rhino disco collections in the late '90s. It's gotten a lot of play around here ever since.
Interesting. And, people wonder why Diana Ross is loathed by so many. It's not her talent or music, it's her narcissistic personality. Yup. That's the one. But, they have pretty much contained the circus.
It will become known very soon. Can't you guys wait until both songs are discussed as #1's? Or, are you conflating this thread with the other thread?
Now, noticing the competing versions of "Love Hangover," an irony strikes me: Hal Davis (who, I suspect, as a producer, we'll hear from some time from now - other than that, I'll not say more) produced Diana Ross' version, whilst Marc Gordon produced The 5th Dimension's. The irony comes from Davis and Gordon once working together as producers at Motown's first attempt at a West Coast outpost for a few years starting in 1964. And they produced a few "other" Supremes' albums with "themes" (most notably the A Bit Of Liverpool LP, despite it containing covers of songs by acts from North London and Newcastle, to the point where in Britain it was issued with the title With Love [From Us To You]; also, they had a hand in the production of a Sam Cooke tribute album the girls released, as well as of their Merry Christmas LP).
Also, a few years from this, Miss Ross put in an appearance on The Muppet Show where this was one of the songs she performed (the other being "Last Time I Saw Him"). This is burnt in my mind not so much from the show itself, but rather from the TV Guide listing for the program in which the capsuled description mistitled it "Sweet Hangover." Da noive! Now, if you can stand it . . .
While we're waiting for the next #1 to be spotlighted here, let me for a minute go back in time to a #1 here from three years before, "Midnight Train To Georgia" by Gladys Knight & The Pips - which inexplicably charted in Britain in this year (per Every UK #1 Single of 1976 Discussion Thread - check the pages to find it within the year). It just occurred to me that in the arrangement, the horn and string charts, the organ flourishes, and Ms. Knight's phrasing, there was definitely a waft of that Al Green/Willie Mitchell/Hi Records/Memphis Sound influence in there.
There has been a lot of contention about jumping ahead by W.B. and myself. I know we all make mistakes (I just did with accidentally skipping a #1 again), and for some of us, it is hard to resist the urge to jump further than the time period being discussed. And, another problem is that everyone has their own idea on how the thread should be run. Well, that's up to the person running the thread. Some of us like to discuss what song influenced another future song or musical movement. Some don't like to wait, maybe because they'll forget later on, or they are impatient. Some of us were used to a track being on an album, one that maybe wasn't issued as a single for as much as a year later. Some of us make mistakes. Some just don't like the concept of doing songs one at a time in sequence and don't see what the big deal is. Some of us like to stick to the protocol. We all fall into one of the above categories. But, with respect to the convention set by the nature of the thread(s), moving forward, let's all try to resist the urge to jump too far ahead, I'd say a month is OK. Thanks! With that out of the way, hopefully for good, I see that I skipped a #1 that came before "Love Hangover". Now that the other thread has pretty much caught up with this one, i'll present to you: Movin' - Brass Construction Week ending May 8, 1976. 1 Wk This was a cool little jam when it came on the radio. Some heard it as disco, I heard it as an R&B instrumental, something Kool & The Gang could have recorded. The music of this, and other bands were made for the house party. Just throw one of them on for general atmosphere, or for boogying in the living room or the dance floor at your local club. Like B.T. Express, Brass Construction formed in Brooklyn, N.Y.. The band was led by Randy Muller. We will hear more about him later. As with many other R&B/funk bands of the 70s, this one had no less than nine members, which had to cut into the salaries of the members bigtime. But, these bands thrived because by this time in history, the record labels were offering relatively generous budgets.
Jeff Lane - who'd produced the B.T. Express hits for which they're most famous - also produced this group as well (and Jeff-Mar Music Co., which he apparently had a stake in, co-published this tune as it had the said B.T. Express records). It was definitely one of the groups UA tried to bring up to counter War (as I seem to recall Nelson George writing it in his The Death Of Rhythm & Blues book). The 45's of this group usually had the word "Construction" broken up and hyphenated thus on the label: CONSTRUC- TION
That sound that "Movin'" represented for the band didn't last too long. In two years, they would change up their sound.
Next #1 single of 1976: Kiss And Say Goodbye - Manhattans Week ending May, 22, 1976 1 wk One of the last great R&B cheatin' songs, and this song was huge nationwide, on both the R&B chart and hit the top 10 on the pop chart, and stayed there all summer. It's another one of those songs I got sick of hearing, and still had to buy the record! The version in the clip is the album length with the cold ending. The single simply fades out earlier. The group recorded an explicit version with an alternate opening monologue that is reminiscent of the Persuaders' "Thin Line Between Love And Hate". It was released as a promo single only. I'd love to get it digitally one day.
My favorite Manhattans's hit would come out a few years later, but this one was a perennial as well. The intro is very old school. For some reason it reminds me of "Oh Girl" by The Chi-Lites, even though it's not obviously similar...
There's no spoken intro though on "Oh Girl", is there? That's why I found it so odd "Kiss" reminded me of it. Maybe the tempo, or the heartbeat-like beat, or the key??? 'Tis a mystery...
Kiss And Say Goodbye and much of their output in general was derivative of earlier soul songs but when you sing this pretty and have good material, I'm all ears. Besides, it's a nice nod to early seventies smooth soul while still sounding great in the second half of the decade. I missed this style coming from the radio but then again, they sure played the bejesus out of it which in turn helped it earn platinum status, still a rarity in '76. The Manhattans are another somewhat forgotten group that had a successful run but are probably most remembered for their two big hits. Lots more to love.
I think I actually preferred their other big hit, since it seemed a lot less derivative and a lot more contemporary, a nice mellow number for the Quiet Soul radio format. This is a good song though, don't get me wrong. The other one just feels a lot more special.
Winfred 'Blue' Lovett's bass baritone 'rap' was reminiscent of a certain Mr. Barry White. He had penned this more as a country tune, the type to be performed by a Glen Campbell or Charley Pride, before deciding the group he was in would record it (and Gerald Alston would sing the balance of the song). Proving once again, even though this is a slow jam, the intersection between R&B and country music. (Even their co-producer, Bobby Martin, had admitted as such.) It was such a big across-the-board hit that it was only the second record (after Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady") to be certified platinum by the RIAA. I have that one too. Some copies were subcontracted to Capitol Records' Scranton, PA plant, with the 360 interlocking serrations penetrating the 3.625" labels Columbia supplied them. That was their first Columbia single. And one of the last pressed by that Scranton plant under Capitol aegis, as they closed it on June 30, 1973 (only for it to start up again by year's end under another entity, North American Music Industries). Another side note: Their 1974 record "Summertime In The City" (no doubt titled that way to avoid confusion with a certain 1966 Lovin' Spoonful hit, if you listen to the lyrics) was issued on 4-46081, the last catalogue number in a series that dated way back to 1939 when the modern Columbia "red label" was first established (the very first: "Comes Love" / "Rendezvous Time In Paree" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra [vocals by Louise Tobin], #35201).
