#GladysKnight and the Pips' version of the song was the first to be released in 1967. It went #1 and was the best-selling #Motown single at the time. The next year, #MarvinGaye made it the massive hit most of us remember.
🎧 A post I read today triggered memories of the year my Dad was in Vietnam.
I was 12. Dad parked me, pregnant Mom and 3 sibs in a tiny Southern town, and I was miserable. Almost any song that I loved from that year chokes me up. I searched the Billboard charts for 1969, and one song stood out from that Summer.
🎧 The epic remix of #MFSB's "Love is The Message" you maybe didn't know existed.
The original recording won the 1974 Grammy for "Best R&B Instrumental Performance." In 2021, John Morales created the "Philly Long Message Street Strutin' Mix" (15:20).
🎧 "Love Rollercoaster" got all the love, but "Sweet Sticky Thing" was/is my favorite track on the "Honey" LP by #OhioPlayers.
The AM soul station in New Bern (NC) played the song first time I heard it, and I remember the DJ joking about the album cover—"Don't let your Mama see it!" kinda thing. I bought the 8-track.
It was "make out with Frank in the back seat at the end of Ghost Road" music that Fall, my senior year of HS,1975.
🎧 Sons of #Akron, Bobby Heller (Hammond/Organ) and Charles Heller (drums) recruited James 'Boots' Smith to play guitar and got busy as #SoulToronadoes.
In 1969, they released "Go For Yourself" (b/w "Funky Thang) — the uptempo funk jammmm!
In the summer of 1971, "Mr. Big Stuff" raced up the Top 40 and Soul charts, and was Billboard's #1 Soul Single that year. The record sold more than 2 million copies and was nominated for a Grammy.
"Mr. Big Stuff" was Knight's signature song, but she made many other soul and R&B records.
Good news for me and the seeming handful of other Hiatus Kaiyote fans out there, a new album is coming and the first single is out. Fantastic, jazzy "future beat neo-soul" (🤷 it's great), this is the band I think of when I listen to domi + beck and think they need a richer, more filled out sound
Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me (live on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1960)
Last music post for the afternoon due to internet outage. Did you know Nina was a genius on piano? I used to post this on the birdsite once a year, so if you followed me there you probably do know it, but if not, check this shit out! The switch from the swinging jazz feel of the song into the Bach style classical instrumental break is amazing & the move back is even better👑
Would you transfer your consciousness to a robot for immortality?
I wouldn't. Immortality sounds miserable to me.