Author Archive: dereksmusicblog
TEDDY PENDERGRASS-TEDDY.
TEDDY PENDERGRASS-TEDDY. Having left Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes to become a solo singer, things had been going well for Teddy by June 1979, when his third solo album was due for release. His two previous albums Teddy Pendergrass, released in June 1977, had reached number seventeen in the US Billboard 200 and number …
JAMES BROWN-BLACK CAESAR.
JAMES BROWN-BLACK CAESAR. Recently, I was listening to Isaac Hayes who recorded one of my favorite Blaxploitation albums Shaft, made me revisit some of my favorite Blaxploitation albums, including Black Caesar, written and performed by James Brown. This was a 1973 Blaxploitation film written and directed by Larry Cohen, which starred Fred Williamson and Gloria …
ISAAC HAYES-HOT BUTTERED SOUL.
ISAAC HAYES-HOT BUTTERED SOUL. As someone who is a huge fan of the Stax record label, I’ve always loved the music of Isaac Hayes. He was one of the creative forces behind Stax, writing many of the songs for many artists on the label, many with David Porter, one of his songwriting partners. Not only …
DISCO DISCHARGE-CLASSIC DISCO, DISCO LADIES AND DISCO FEVER USA.
DISCO DISCHARGE-CLASSIC DISCO, DISCO LADIES AND DISCO FEVER USA. Throughout the history of popular music, various artists and types of music have managed to provoke a variety of reactions. From the release of Billy Haley and The Comets’ Rock Around the Clock in 1955, to the shock and horror that greeted Elvis Presley’s gyrations on …
PHILLY BUSTERS AND SMOOTH GROOVES.
PHILLY BUSTERS AND SMOOTH GROOVES. Usually around the Christmas and New Year period, you don’t expect to find a series of ten, yes ten great soul compilations to be released. Usually at this time of year it’s a myriad of predictable greatest hits or best of albums from the usual suspects. Add to that the …
TERRY CALLIER-TURN YOU TO LOVE.
TERRY CALLIER-TURN YOU TO LOVE. Have you ever heard of the soul singer who gave up music for fifteen years to become a computer programmer? This isn’t a joke, this is what happened to Terry Callier back in 1983. Before this, the two albums Terry recorded for Elektra in 1977 and 1978 hadn’t been a …
SYL JOHNSON-BACK FOR A TASTE OF YOUR LOVE.
SYL JOHNSON-BACK FOR A TASTE OF YOUR LOVE. During the early to mid-seventies, Hi Records were producing some of the best Southern Soul of that time. With Willie Mitchell producing, The Memphis Rhythm Section, Memphis Horns and legendary backing vocalists Rhodes, Chalmers and Rhodes, one great record after another was recorded at the famous Royal …
O.V. WRIGHT-WE”RE STILL TOGETHER.
O.V. WRIGHT-WE”RE STILL TOGETHER. I’ve always thought that O.V. Wright was one of the most underrated Southern Soul singers of his generation. In some ways, his music was overshadowed by the success of Al Green, who was on the same label as O.V. Hi Records. Whereas, Al Green had numerous critically acclaimed albums, O.V. only …
THE TEMPTATIONS-ALL DIRECTIONS.
THE TEMPTATIONS-ALL DIRECTIONS. When The Temptations were recording what became All Directions, the group were determined not two songs that eventually appeared on the album. One of these songs was Papa Was A Rolling Stone, and The Temptations were absolutely determined not to record the song. They felt that the song wouldn’t provide them with …
DR JOHN-IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD.
DR JOHN-IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD. Anyone who collects records or CDs will tell you that one of the biggest buzzes for a collector is either finding an obscure or rare album in the most unlikeliest of places. For me this has included, many years ago finding mint editions of rare soul albums in a dark …
THE CHI-LITES-TOBY.
THE CHI-LITES-TOBY. Often an album fails to do as well as it should’ve commercially, because of a lack of promotion and advertising. This is almost becoming a recurring theme for readers of this blog. When Stax was heading towards insolvency, albums like Shirley Brown’s Woman To Woman suffered this fate, while DJ Rogers believed his …
THE DETROIT SPINNERS-MIGHTY LOVE.
THE DETROIT SPINNERS-MIGHTY LOVE. When The Detroit Spinners signed for Atlantic Records and hooked up with producer Thom Bell there was a huge turnaround in their fortunes. Their first two albums, 1967s The Original Spinners and 2nd Time Around in 1970, hadn’t been commercial a success. Only 2nd Time Around had charted, reaching number 199 …
DONNY HATHAWAY-DONNY HATHAWAY
DONNY HATHAWAY-DONNY HATHAWAY After listening to Lala Hathaway’s album Where It All Begins, I thought that I’d revisit her father Donny Hathaway’s eponymous second album, Donny Hathaway. Previously, I’ve written about Donny’s stunning debut album Everything Is Everything, released in July 1970. On its release, the critically acclaimed Everything Is Everything reached number seventy-three in …
DJ ROGERS-ON THE ROAD AGAIN.
DJ ROGERS-ON THE ROAD AGAIN. Some time ago, I wrote about DJ Rogers debut album for RCA Records It’s Good To Be Alive, released in 1975, which gave him a hit album, reaching number thirty-six US R&B charts. Sadly, the story of DJ Rogers is one of an artist with a huge amount of talent, …
ESTHER PHILLIPS-YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY.
ESTHER PHILLIPS-YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY. Not only did Esther Phillips have one of the most distinctive voices in music, but she was one of the most versatile vocalists of her generation. Whether it was soul, jazz, blues or even funk or disco, she could handle a song with aplomb, and deliver it with …
GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS-ALL I NEED IS TIME.
GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS-ALL I NEED IS TIME. Although Neither One of Us was Gladys Knight and the Pips final album released while they were signed to Motown, one further album was released after they’d signed to their new label, Buddah Records. This was All I Need Is Time, a hugely underrated and excellent …
THE JONES GIRLS-GET AS MUCH LOVE AS YOU CAN.
THE JONES GIRLS-GET AS MUCH LOVE AS YOU CAN. Over the years, The Jones Girls have been compared favorably with such luminaries of soul music as The Emotions, The Three Degrees and The Supremes, and their backing vocals have graced albums by some of the biggest names in music, including Betty Everett, Teddy Pendergrass, Lou …
MELBA MOORE-MELBA.
MELBA MOORE-MELBA. In a recent article on Deniece William’s album My Melody, I explained how sometime, I bought an album because of who’d either produced or played on an album. With Deniece William’s album My Melody, Thom Bell had produced the album, and I’ve always been a fan of Thom’s work on the many Philly …
dereksmusicblog
dereksmusicblog 