DENIECE WILLIAMS-NIECY.

dereksmusicblog ♦ June 24, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

DENIECE WILLIAMS-NIECY.

From the release of her debut album This Is Niecy in 1976, Deniece Williams embarked on an eight year musical adventure, where she released seven solo albums, two of which were certified gold and one platinum. During that period, Deniece worked with some of the most successful producers of that time. This included Maurice White, Ray Parker Jr., George Duke and Thom Bell. Her debut album This Is Niecy was produced by Maurice White and Jerry Peters, and was certified gold. The followup, 1977s Song Bird was also produced Maurice and Jerry, but didn’t enjoy the same success as This Is Niecy. For her third album, When Love Came Calling, Ray Parker Jr. was drafted in to produce the album. The album didn’t sell well, reaching just number ninety-six in the US Billboard 100 and number twenty-seven in the US R&B Charts. Two years later, Thom Bell was chosen to co-produced My Melody with Deniece. This was the perfect partnership, with Thom and Deniece musical soul-mates. His production complimented Deniece’s vocals, as he sprinkled some of his Philly magic over My Melody’s eight tracks. He did this with the help of some of Philly’s finest musicians. My Melody, the resulting album was certified gold. With the partnership having proved fruitful, a year later, Thom Bell and Deniece were reunited for the followup to My Melody, Niecy, which will be rereleased by BBR Records on 25th June 2012. However, could and would Niecy repeat the commercial success of My Melody?

Before recording of the followup to My Melody could begin, Thom Bell and Deniece Williams had to come up with some new material. Together, they cowrote four songs, while four other songs were chosen for the album. Deniece also cowrote A Part of Love Kevin Bassinson and I Believe In Miracles with Bill Neale. Two other tracks, including Love Notes which Skip Scarborough’s cowrote were chosen for Niecy. The other track was It’s Gonna Take A Miracle, co-written by Teddy Randazzo, Lou Stallman and Bob Weinstein. It had previously been a hit for The Royalettes in 1965 and Laura Nyro in 1971. Could this give Deniece a hit eleven years later? 

With the eight tracks chosen, recording of the album took place at Philadelphia’s legendary Sigma Sound Studios, which was familiar territory for Thom Bell. Many of the albums he recorded for The Detroit Spinners, The Stylistics and The Delfonics were recorded, plus the various albums he worked on for Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International Records. For the recording sessions for Niecy, Thom called upon some of Philly’s top musicians, who also played on My Melody. This included guitarist Bobby Eli, percussionist Larry Washington and the inimitable sound of Don Renaldo’s horns and strings. Bob Babbit who’d been part of The Funk Brothers and M.F.S.B. played bass. Thom Bell didn’t just co-produce Niecy, but played also keyboards. Soon, the eight tracks that would become Niecy were recorded and the album would be released in April 1982. Would it match the success of its predecessor My Melody?

In March 1982, a month before the release of Niecy in April 1982, the first single was released from the album. It’s Gonna Take A Miracle which had given The Royalettes and Laura Nyro a hit was chosen. It reached number ten in the US Billboard 100 and number one in the US R&B Charts. This must have helped sales of Niecy, when it was released in April 1982. Niecy fared even better than My Melody, reaching number twenty in the US Billboard 200 and number five in the US R&B Charts, but unlike My Melody, Niecy wasn’t certified gold. Waiting By the Hotline was released as a single in July 1982, reaching number 103 in the US Billboard 100 and twenty-nine in the US R&B Charts. In October 1982, Waiting was the final single released from Niecy, but stalled at number seventy-two in the US R&B Charts. However, Niecy had surpassed the chart success of Deniece’s previous albums, while It’s Gonna Take A Miracle gave her, her first US R&B single and her highest placing in the US R&B Charts. Overall Niecy had been a hugely successful album for the Deniece Williams Thom Bell production partnership, but why was that? 

Waiting By the Hotline the first of the four tracks Thom Bell and Deniece Williams cowrote opens Niecy. This was the second single from the album, but didn’t repeat the success of It’s Gonna Take A Miracle. As the track opens, Thom Bell deploys a synth, something he never used often. It gave him the sound he was looking for. A flourish of synth gives way the piano and slow, thoughful rhythm section. When Deniece’s vocal enters, washes of synths and subtle backing vocalists accompany her. The piano and synths are key to arrangement, while Deniece’s vocal is full of hope and longing. It’s framed by an arrangement that not only has a contemporary sound, but reflects the hope and longing in Denice’s vocal.

Not only did It’s Gonna Take A Miracle give Deniece her first US R&B number one single, but was her highest charting single in the US Billboard 100. It benefits from a vintage sounding arrangement. Thom Bell combines the piano and rhythm section, who play slowly, whilst leaving space in the arrangement, helping give it its vintage sound. Deniece adapts her vocal style for the song. She delivers it in a way that compliments the arrangement. Her vocal is full of hurt and heartache, with swathes of lush strings a constant companion and backing vocalists reflecting her hurt and heartache. By the end of the track, you realise three things made this such a successful song, its lyrics, arrangement and of course, a vocal from Deniece laden with heartache and hurt.

Love Notes is another of the cover versions on Niecy, and is a track with secrets a plenty in-store. Rocky sounding guitars dance across the arrangement, while a pounding rhythm section provide the track’s heartbeat. Then when Deniece’s wistful vocal enters, it’s to this pounding beat which quickly, dissipates. It’s replaced by a floaty, elegant arrangement, which just as quickly disappears. From there, the arrangement flits between its two sides. As Deniece’s vocal grows in power and passion, she has cascading flute and growling horns for company. When they exit stage left, they’re replaced by the duelling guitars of Bobby Eli and Bill Neale. Throughout the rest of the track, Deniece and her band toy with you, teasing and tantalizing you with both sides of the song.

Deniece cowrote I Believe In Miracles with Bill Neale who arranged the strings on the track. These strings play an important part in the song and its success. As the song begins, shivering strings, percussion and the rhythm section accompany Deniece. Her vocal is full of optimism and hope, cascading and quivering, while elegant strings shimmer and quiver. The piano and drums add a contrast, with the drums dramatically punctuating the arrangement, as if reinforcing the hope and optimism in Deniece’s vocal. So, convincing is her delivery, that by the end of the track, I Believe In Miracles.

How Does It Feel opens with the line “how did it feel when he changed his number.” Deniece’s vocal is full of anger and hurt, accompanied by just a piano. Soon, the arrangement reflects the anger and hurt in Deniece’s vocal. A dramatic, punchy rhythm section and growling horns see to this. They’re like an explosion of emotions. This doesn’t last long. Quickly, as spent of emotion and anger, the arrangement returns to just the piano and percussion. The arrangement becomes almost elegant, but not for long. Soon the hurt returns, the emotion welling up and exploding. Throughout the rest of the track, this pattern returns, with Deniece playing the role of spurned lover with aplomb, her vocal laden with anger and hurt. Thom Bell’s arrangement, which veers between dramatic and powerful, to gentle and elegant, reflects the sense of anger and betrayal brilliantly. All this makes this one of the highlights of Niecy.

Waiting is another of the tracks Thom Bell and Deniece cowrote. It glides elegantly into being guitars reverberating, cymbals crashing and drums pounding dramatically. Shivering strings and flourishes of harp signal the arrival of Deniece’s heartfelt, impassioned vocal. Larry Washington’s percussion, Bobby Eli’s guitar and Charles Collins drums are key to the arrangement. Later, shimmering, quivering and wistful strings are just the finishing touch, while Deniece and her backing vocalists add to the emotion and beauty of the track.

Now Is the Time For Love is one of these tracks that gradually, reveals its secrets. It could’ve only been made in one place, Philadelphia. Thom Bell surpasses himself with the arrangement. It builds and builds, the rhythm section, strings and percussion entering. Gradually, the secrets are revealed. Rolls of grand drums, stirring strings and percussion accompany Deniece’s tender vocal. Then Deniece is swept along atop an arrangement where bursts of horns, drums, flourishes of keyboards and sweeping, swirling strings combine. Her vocal grows, as if spurred on by her band’s brilliance. Soon, they’re as one, both playing their part in the song’s sound and success, which has Philly written all over it.

Closing Niecy is A Part of Love, written by Kevin Bassinson and Deniece. A Fender Rhodes reverberates as the song begins, leaving you spellbound. It accompanies Deniece’s tender vocal, before dark strings enter, adding a melancholy, sad sound. This understated sounding arrangement works well, meaning you focus on the hurt and sadness in Deniece’s vocal. Similarly, the strings reflect her hurt, while the Fender Rhodes has a melancholy sound. Although this song has a much more understated sound, it’s perfect for the song and Deniece’s heartfelt, vocal full of sadness and regret. 

Although Niecy wasn’t certified gold like My Melody, it surpassed the chart placings of My Melody. Where My Melody left of, Niecy continues. Thom Bell and Deniece were perfect musical partners, both when it came to songwriting and production. By then, Thom Bell was vastly experienced and knew what made a good song from the point of view as a songwriter and producer. Deniece was also a talented songwriter, so it was a symbiotic, creative relationship. This relationship resulted not just in the four tracks they cowrote, but in choosing the right songs for Niecy and how Deniece would interpret them. His vintage-sounding for arrangement for It’s Gonna Take A Miracle was a masterstroke. It must have struck a chord with people, sounding as if it was recorded in another era. Whether old or young, Deniece’s cover version appealed to people, resulting in it heading to number one in the US R&B Charts and number ten in the US Billboard 100. This isn’t the only example of where the inventiveness of the producer is key to song’s sound and success. How Does It Feel and its sense of betrayal and hurt is like a welling up of emotion, while Waiting is not just beautiful, wistful and emotive. On the Philly sounding Now Is the Time For Love, the arrangement takes time to reveal its secrets, but when it does, it’s well worth the wait. A Part of Love which closes Niecy has a very different, much more understated sound, but is another example of how the producer plays an important roll in a track’s sound and success. However, regardless of how good a producer is, or how good the musicians are, and on Niecy they included some of Philly’s best, it takes a talented artist to make this production worthwhile. In Deniece Williams, Thom Bell had one of the most talented singers of the seventies and eighties. On Niecy, Deniece Williams performances are just as good as her ones on My Melody. She injects life and emotion to the eight tracks on Niecy, which will be released by BBR Records on 25th June 2012, along with its followup I’m So Proud. Standout Tracks: It’s Gonna Take A Miracle, I Believe In Miracles, Waiting and Now Is the Time For Love.

DENIECE WILLIAMS-NIECY.