In the Sixties when White American and British Invasion artists performed soulful R&B music like the sounds of Stax, Motown and Philly Soul, they were described as Blue-Eyed Soul or White Soul Artists. It may not be the politically correct term in the new millenium but it is what it is -- the Theme for OSML March posts. Hope you enjoy this marvelous music.
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24 Pop 15 R&B
This blast from my high school past was (and still is) the perfect song to do the “Temptation Walk” to. Can you dig it? 
Composed by Daphne Dumas, Ronald Dunbar and Edith Wayne, the tune “Westbound #9″ was recorded on the band’s Hot Wax label which was owned by Holland, Dozier and Holland formerly of Motown.
The band had first recorded for the Ric Tic label (distributed by Buddah) as the Flaming Embers, before dropping the “s” and joining Hot Wax.
The band members included Jerry Plunk on drums and lead vocals; Joe Sladich on guitar; Bill Ellis on keyboards; Jim Bugnel on bass guitar (replaced Mike Jackson in 1966); and Larry Gregg on drums.
The group, hailing from Detroit, later changed its name to ” Mind, Body and Soul” and continued to play in and around Detroit during the Seventies.
Trivia: When Ric Tic was purchased by Berry Gordy, he did not want the Embers as part of the package — so it just goes to show you that Mr. Gordy did not always make the correct decision now did he? 
Here is the group performing their biggest hit for as long as it lasts on YouTube. Enjoy!
Musically Yours,
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Filed under: Bands, Blue Eyed Soul, Daphne Dumas/Ronald Dunbar/Edith Wayne, Flaming Ember, Hot Wax, Pop/R&B, R&B/Soul, Seventies, Westbound #9
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There are more 1969 Grammy Awards left to discuss then there is month left in February .
I had a hard time deciding which award winning song to close the month out with, but finally decided on one of my favorite dance tunes of the Sixties -sung by one of my favorite tenors of all time — The Isley Brothers “It’s Your Thing” which won the 1969 Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance By a Group or Duo.
The brothers had been around as a gospel quartet ever since the fifties. The group was made up of brother Ronald Isley, O’Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley and Vernon Isley. When Vernon passed after a bicycle accident in 1955, Ronald became the new lead singer.
From the RCA label with their soulful sounds (“the classics “Shout” and “Twist & Shout”), to their own label T-Neck, to Motown’s Tamla label, and finally back to T-neck the brothers had their hard-knocks on the road to Grammy Gold.
Like many others in the Motown stable, The Isley Brothers were tired of the neglect they received at Motown while Gordy concentrated on making The Supremes, The Temptations and Diane Ross the superstars of the label.
They were released from their contract and almost immediately the brothers co-wrote “It’s Your Thing” and released it on their own T-Neck label. The funky “IYT” topped the R&B charts at #1 and the Billboard Top 100 at #2 , then went on the win the first Grammy Award for any former Motown artist.
Everyone covered the song including many Motown artists. I am especially partial to The Temptations’ psychedelic cover: the vocals harmonies are awesome! The J5 version is pretty great too IMHO. Check them out right now and let me know what you think.
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The Temptations 1960 cover version
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This is the original vocal from the J5 cover but it is a current extended Remix that I have been listening to a lot lately. Hope you enjoy it.
Trivia. This is the first song on which the then 17 yr old, baby brother, Ernie Isley, played bass on a song. Of course brother Ernie would go on to become an integral part of the third generation Isley Brothers renamed Isley Brothers 3 +3 — one of the most successful self contained family funk units of the seventies.
The Isley Brothers first charted in 1959 with “Shout -- Part 1″ ( #47 billboard top 100)
The Isley Brothers next appearance on the music charts was in 1962 with “Shout -- Part 1″ (#94 Billboard top 100)
Musically Yours,
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Filed under: Grammy Gold, Guy Groups, It's Your Thing, Motown, Motown Covers Pop, Pop/R&B, Pop/Soul, R&B/Motown, R&B/Soul, Ronald Isley/ O'Kelly Isley Jr/ Rudolph Isley, Sixties, T-Neck, The Isley Brothers, The Jackson Five, The Temptations
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The 1969 Grammy for the Best Rhythm and Blues Song was “Color Him Father,” Richard Spencer, songwriter.
Just like another Grammy winning song in 1969, “A Boy Name Sue, “ “Color Him Father” is all about the superb lyrics!
Composed by group member Richard Spencer of Washington DC’s The Winstons, this song tells of the love for a step-father that holds a special place in my heart. When it came out I was learning to love my new step-mother (R.I.P) as another person to trust in my young confused life.
The song got a lot of local airplay (I lived then and now in the Maryland suburbs of DC) and truly was inspirational in my life.
The Winstons had recorded a song prior to this one on the Curtom Label that was a minor local success, but “CHF” was their first and last big hit on the Metromedia label. It charted #2 R&B and of course won a Grammy.
Rev. O.C. Smith recorded a popular cover of the song that appeared on his 1969 LP ” O.C. Smith At Home,” but I prefer the original by the Winstons when composer Richard Spencer sings the lead.
Color Him Father by Richard Spencer
There’s a man at my house he’s so big and strong
He goes to work each day, stays all day long
He comes home each night looking tired and beat
He sits down at the dinner table and has a bite to eat
Never a frown always a smile
When he says to me how’s my child
I’ve been studying hard all day in school
Tryin’ to understand the golden rule
Think I’ll color this man father
I think I’ll color him love
Said I’m gonna color him father
I think I’ll color the man love, yes I will
He says education is the thing if you wanna compete
Because without it son, life ain’t very sweet
I love this man I don’t know why
Jexcept I’ll need his strength till the day that I die
My mother loves him and I can tell
By the way she looks at him when he holds my little sister nell
I heard her say just the other day
That if it hadn’t been for him she wouldn’t have found her way
My real old man he got killed in the war
And she knows she and seven kids couldn’t of got very far
She said she thought that she could never love again
And then there he stood with that big wide grin
He married my mother and he took us in
And now we belong to the nman with that big wide grin
Think I’ll color this man father
I think I’ll color him love
Said I’m gonna color him father
I think I’ll color the man love, yes I will
OSML TRIVA: The Winstons toured as the backup band for The Impressions
Musically yours,
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Filed under: Color Him Father, Grammy Gold, Guy Groups, Metromedia, One Hit Wonder, Pop/R&B, R&B/Soul, Richard Spencer, Sixties, The Winstons
The 1969 Grammy for Best Country Song went to “A Boy Named Sue ” - Shel Silverstein, Songwriter.
The 1969 Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male went to “A Boy Named Sue” sung by Johnny Cash.
Like the so-called labeled Soul Gospel song “Oh Happy Day” in the last post — this Country Song was a staple on AM radio when it came out and everyone loved it! It is another song that defies category IMHO. I realize that the record industry insists on charting music by category, but frankly in the Sixties and into the Seventies for me and my friends and family good music was good music no matter what the genre!
I loved Johnny Cash ever since I first heard “Get Rhythm” and ” I Walk The Line” as a little girl in the Fifties. “Daddy Sang Bass” is still a fave and on my mp3 player to this day!
The Double Grammy winner “Sue” song topped both the Adult Contemporary and Country Singles Charts at #1 and the Billboard Hot 100 at #2.
In his autobiography Cash wrote that he had just received the song and only read over it a couple of times. It was included in that concert to try it out; he didn’t know the words and on the filmed recording, he can be seen regularly referring to a piece of paper. Cash was surprised at how well the song went over with the audience – the rough, spontaneous performance with sparse accompaniment was included in the Johnny Cash At San Quentin album, ultimately becoming one of Cash’s biggest hits.
According to Shel Silverstein’s biographer Mitch Myers, it was June Carter Cash who encouraged her husband to perform the song. Silverstein introduced it to them at what they called a “Guitar Pull,” where musicians would pass a guitar around and play their songs. (SOURCE:WIKI Page “A Boy Named Sue”)
This is live at San Quentin in 1969.
“A Boy Named Sue” Composed by Shel Silverstein
My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn’t leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don’t blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me “Sue.”
Well, he must o’ thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a’ lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I’d get red
And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named “Sue.”
Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I’d roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I’d search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name.
Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me “Sue.”
Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother’d had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: “My name is ‘Sue!’ How do you do!
Now your gonna die!!”
Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.
I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men
But I really can’t remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin’ at me and I saw him smile.
And he said: “Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s the name that helped to make you strong.”
He said: “Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn’t blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I’m the son-of-a-bitch that named you “Sue.’”
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I’m gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!
Now I have shared with you some of my favorite Johnny Cash songs. What are some of your please?
Musically Yours,
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Filed under: A Boy Named Sue, Capitol Records, Country Pop, Grammy Gold, Johnny Cash, Magnificent Male Vocalists, Shel Silverstein, Sixties
Published February 14th, 2010 7:53pm EST @ STARPULSE.COM
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Doug Fieger, leader of the power pop band The Knack who sang on the 1979 hit “My Sharona,” died Sunday. He was 57.
Fieger, a Detroit-area native, died at his home in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles after battling cancer, according to The Knack’s manager, Jake Hooker.
Fieger formed The Knack in Los Angeles 1978, and the group quickly became a staple of Sunset Strip rock clubs. A year later he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on “My Sharona.”
Fieger said the song, with its pounding drums and exuberant vocals, was inspired by a girlfriend of four years.
“I had never met a girl like her — ever,” he told The Associated Press in a 1994 interview. “She induced madness. She was a very powerful presence. She had an insouciance that wouldn’t quit. She was very self-assured. … She also had an overpowering scent, and it drove me crazy.”
“My Sharona,” an unapologetically anthemic rock song, emerged during disco’s heyday and held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard pop chart for six weeks, becoming an FM radio standard.
It became a pop culture phenomenon, parodied by Weird Al Yankovic and others and sampled by rap group Run DMC.
In 1994, “My Sharona” re-entered the Billboard chart when it was released as a single from the soundtrack of the Ben Stiller film “Reality Bites.”
“My Sharona” gained attention again in 2005 when it was reported that George W. Bush had the song on the presidential iPod.
Their songs, about young love and teenage lust, included the hits “Good Girls Don’t,” “She’s So Selfish” and “Frustrated.”
The Knack continued to release albums and tour through the mid-2000s but they never replicated the success they enjoyed with their first two albums, “Get the Knack” and “… But the Little Girls Understand.”
Fieger battled cancer for six years. In 2006 he underwent surgery to remove two tumors from his brain.
He is survived by a sister, Beth Falkenstein, and a brother, attorney Geoffrey Fieger of Southfield, Mich., who is best known for representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.
A Los Angeles memorial service for friends and family is being planned.
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Filed under: Transitions
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The Grammy for 1969 Best Soul Gospel Performance went to ” Oh Happy Day” performed by the Edwin Hawkins Singers.
Everybody, no matter what race, creed or color, sang along and loved this song when it came out. With simple (yet deep) lyrics and a catchy tune — any one and everyone could sing along. And like most of the great songs I blog about from the Sixties, no matter what your mood you would instantly feel better when listening to and/or singing along to this classic tune on your AM radio!
Hawkins’ arrangement of this 18th century hymn was recorded by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, with Dorothy Combs Morrison on lead. It charted #4 in the US and #2 in the UK!
This arrangement has become the standard internationally!
OSML Trivia : Did you know that George Harrison was inspired to write his 1970 hit “My Sweet Lord” after hearing “Oh Happy Day (and NOT the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine”? LOL . Well now you know
Almost the originators.
One of my favorite moments from Sister Act 2!
Musically Yours,
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Filed under: Choirs, Edwin Hawkins Singers, Gospel, Grammy Gold, Oh Happy Day, Pavilion/Buddah, Sixties
