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!

    That means only one plant got it right. :p

    What do you mean, then? The records are what matters. Well, there is the media.

    Yup.
     
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Second-pressing. Promos had "The," thus did first-pressings. Disappeared by the time said plant - Monarch - pressed their run. (And I saw no promos by them. Wonder if there was a strike there when 'twas first released?)
     
  3. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    DJs, TV hosts, the general public. After learning the duo didn't want the "The", I started noticing everyone using it.

    Same with Eagles, etc. One of those little things that sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
     
    Grant likes this.
  4. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now that you mention it, Thom Bell seems to have done a sop to the Al Green/Willie Mitchell/Al Jackson wing of "The Memphis Sound" in his arrangement on this - not just on the drums and percussion, but in its overall feel despite it "being Philly" as you say. (Not unlike the reggae overtones of the Staple Singers' big hit "I'll Take You There," for example.)

    I'll go further - Bobby Smith's vocals seem on some level to have channeled Mr. Green. Listen to this, then listen to Green's biggest and best-known hits. You'll see a little bit of Green influence there too. Though, in overall quality and timbre, there is more a smoothness to Smith's voice than Green's, despite both having the same tenorish range.
     
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  5. SITKOL'76

    SITKOL'76 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colombia, SC
    If there's ever such a thing as a perfect song, this is it.
     
  6. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    If not perfect, then certainly dang close.
     
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  7. Grant

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

    Next #1 R&B single:

    If You Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes



    Many people like it, but I never cared for it. This is the song that introduced a gruffy soul singer named Teddy Pendergrass, who would also get a "featuring" billing on the covers, and, later, strike out on his own as a very successful solo artist.
     
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  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I have to say, I much prefer this original to the remake done waaaaaaaay down the road by Simply Red. (Sorry 'bout that . . . the "jumping ahead" aspect, that is.) And as far as the open, (the) Eagles loved it enough to copy it for the opening of their own "Take It To The Limit" three years hence from this.

    In an eerie coincidence, the day single #ZS7 3520 (the original cat. # for this tune) was released was Sept. 11, 1972 - 39 years before a certain act of infamy. Its B side was something called "Let Me Into Your World" . . .

    . . . which used the exact same instrumental backing as that on the O'Jays' first album for Gamble/Huff in 1969, The O'Jays In Philadelphia (click here for comparison). On that, I give the edge to the Bluenotes.
     
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  9. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Love this single, always thought it sounded like a classic soul track from the early '60s, and was probably part of the growing "retro" craze in music and pop culture that would catch fire the next year with American Graffiti.
     
  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I dunno . . . in the hands of Gamble, Huff, arranger Bobby Martin, the backing singers of The Bluenotes and especially the lead of Mr. Pendergrass, it sounded especially contemporary and not "dated" at all.
     
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  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    The production is sorta contemporary, but stylistically this one always struck me as a real throwback.
     
  12. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Classic tune, but once I really got into the Blue Notes it kinda fell back into the pack for me and I don't spin it nearly as often as their hits coming down the road.

    When Teddy gets going on those "NO YOU WON'T!s" I'm reminded of Eddie Murphy's crack that he "scares the (ladies) into liking him".

    The song that follows it on the album is amazing - Teddy's lady has been putting on airs and he's had enough of it:

     
  13. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    As I said in the Billboard no. 1 chart, although I'm not the biggest fan of the early '70s mellow soul style, there are some very good examples of it such as Me and Mrs. Jones and Stone in Love With You. And If You Don't Know Me By Now might be the best of them all. Fine song!
     
  14. Grant

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

    Next #1:

    You Ought To Be With Me - Al Green



    I thought i'd change it up a bit and include a live version of it.

     
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  15. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Another example of how CBS Pitman's pressings had typesetting that complemented the sublime beauty of this performance and recording:
    [​IMG]
    As some have said, no doubt the recent #1 of the Spinners, "I'll Be Around," drew from the sound of this and other Green hits - even down to Bobby Smith's vocals on the Spinners track.
     
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  16. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Great single. Is it my imagination though, or is he more than a bit pitchy during that intro?
     
  17. Grant

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

    May as well get to the final R&B #1 for 1972 since no one has anything much to say about Mr. Green:

    Me & Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul

    And we already discussed this in the other Billboard thread. So, let's kick off 1973 with:

    Superstition - Stevie Wonder



    Believe it or not, I was unaware of this song until my sister bought this 45 in early 1973 right after New Years Day. But, I played the hell out of it. To me, it was his new sound, and everyone I knew, and I mean everyone loved this song! It was an instant classic.
     
  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Now, here is where the "Stevie Wonder Sound" as we've come to know for years thereafter really took off, after his blueprint earlier in '72 with Music Of My Mind. While Marvin Gaye was the first to fight to break free from the strictures of the Motown production apparatus (and win), Mr. Wonder ironically would go much farther in this aspect - in every which way.

    This, together with The Temptations' pop and soul #1 "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," marked the end of an era in one aspect. "Superstition" (the lead single off his pivotal album Talking Book) was released on Oct. 24, 1972. Four days later, on Oct. 28, Owosso, MI-based American Record Pressing Co. - which once boasted Motown as comprising 80% of their business (though, by 1972, it had dwindled to about 2%) - burned to the ground, completely destroyed, and putting everyone who was employed there out of work. It is not known if any stock copies from ARP (which in its last three years of existence was owned by Viewlex, parent of Buddah, three other pressing plants, and Bell Sound Studios) exist of this breakthrough single, but here's what promos from the plant (made within the last week of ARP's existence) looked like:
    [​IMG]
    Of Viewlex' remaining array of plants, only Monarch continued to press for the Motown stable of labels. (I don't know of any made by Sonic Recording Products or Allentown Record Co.)
     
  19. Grant

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

    Actually, the blueprint was in the 1971 album "Where I'm Coming From". That was the one where he started working with Robert Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil.

    And, of course, my copy was a Monarch styrene pressing.
     
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  20. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    My uncle was a huge Stevie Wonder fan, and I went nuts for this single when it came out. I still associate this one with our old house in our hometown, which we sold and left in the middle of '73. It might be one of the last songs I strongly associate with that place - we've already run into a few hits in these threads that remind me more of Phoenix than home. Just makes the song feel older and more mysterious to me than it already does thanks to the sound of the thing.

    Surprisingly funky and swampy single from Wonder, with an incredible, iconic clavinet riff. After a few years of limited chart success, he re-established himself in spectacular fashion.

    No discussion of this track would be complete without this incredible performance of it from Sesame Street of all places:

     
  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And discussion of this breakout single can't be complete without a look at its B side - a little piece called "You've Got It Bad Girl," which had its own share of covers including Quincy Jones (who put it on the same-titled album of his in '73). Here's Mr. Wonder's original:

    His vocal on numbers like this can forgive those who incorrectly assumed a hit a decade after this by another act, had Stevie on lead vocals. (I won't divulge until the proper time - unlike some jumping beans 'round here.)
     
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  22. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Talking Book is one of the great albums of the decade. There are still traces of the Motown pop Stevie of the '60s on it ("You've Got It Bad Girl", "Tuesday Heartbreak"), but they're suitably jazzed and funked up for the new era, ranging far beyond their poppier origins. And then you have into-your-shoes grooves on the "Superstition" and "Maybe Your Baby", epic ballads like "Blame It On The Sun" and "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)", and staggeringly beautiful pop like "Lookin' For Another Pure Love" and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life".

    Annie Lennox summed it up best, I thought - fresh after leaving the Royal Academy of Music, Lennox pulled the record out of her roommate's stack and played it one evening, circa '75. She'd grow up loving and singing along to Tamla Motown records, but hadn't taken pop music seriously the way she had her classical studies. Talking Book changed that:

    "It touched me - the joy, the freedom, the form of expression. It was such a revelation to me to listen with very heightened senses to that record. I held that very dear, as something that had touched me, made a profound impact on me. It was something that in the future I wanted to aspire to, that kind of depth of subtlety and profound statement thru music. You use your instinct and you also use your intellect. Stevie Wonder seemed to have a new definition of perfection, instead of the precision with the flute that the school drilled into me."

    Wonder's work on this and subsequent records would of course inspire a horde of contemporary and subsequent acts, although apart from Prince it's debatable if any of them had anything like the one-two commercial/critical punch of Stevie Wonder. Along with Joni Mitchell and David Bowie I'd argue he's the most important act operating on the charts in the '70s, both in pushing the boundaries of contemporary music as well as inspiring subsequent generations of acts, all while producing indelible work.
     
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  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I thought Where I'm Coming From, in how it was produced, seemed to come from both worlds - the pre-1970 period where he was working within the Motown system, and then afterward. Mr. Margouleff and Mr. Cecil (credited as associate producers on "Superstition") were certainly a guiding force in that regard of what direction Mr. Wonder and his music would go.

    It should also be noted that first-pressings of "Superstition" were mastered by the late George Marino at The Master Cutting Room in New York City - as far away from either Detroit or L.A. as one could get. This was when MCR was the lacquer-cutting arm of the Record Plant New York. His lacquers while there were signed "MBG."

    Incidentally, my copy o' this is a Superior Record Pressing-made one - with black typesetting, rather than brown.
     
  24. Grant

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

    It was both. Stevie was trying to assert his artistic freedom while throwing a bone to Berry Gordy so Motown could release a single or two from it. But, that album was really the one that sparked the change. For decades it was overlooked and forgotten until the 90s.

    My pressing sounds a bit dull, but that is because the master for the single is a bit dull, evidenced by all of the CDs the single length appears on.

    The typeset of my styrene 45 is brown, and looks like it was done by Columbia (?). Motown releases would have that variation up until 1979. Is that right? The last time I saw that typeset was on Commodores' "Still".
     
  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    If Monarch pressed yours, then the typesetting was by Alco Research & Engineering. Sounds like, if you last saw that type on "Still," Motown's relationship with Monarch went up to '79. But here's the Alco typesetting:
    [​IMG]
    I've seen Columbia pressings of "Superstition," vinyl from Santa Maria and styrene from Terre Haute. Each plant had their own label fonts they used for it. None from Pitman. Here's CSM's:
    [​IMG]
     

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