The Techniques — Queen Majesty (1967)

Rock steady with sweet falsetto harmonies. Yes please. This classic rock steady/reggae tune is a reinterpretation of the 1962 Curtis Mayfield/The Impressions track ‘Minstrel & Queen.’

unouomedudee:

R.I.P. Winston Riley

I’m slowly starting to realize how much influence the music my mom has played around the house has influenced me. I was never even really into reggae, mainly because it was just something I constantly heard. A lot of my mom’s favourite songs, and the songs I heard growing up, were produced by Winston Riley. So it’s weird to think about how someone who I didn’t know of until his death, influenced the way I make songs.

Gene Chandler — Just Be True (live)

An electrifying live version of this classic ballad, as the “Duke of Earl” serenades a crowd of screaming, shouting, squealing Chicago girls. Seriously. This is a must-listen! Like other Chandler tunes, this track was produced by Curtis Mayfield.

Gene Chandler — Think Nothing About It

from Constellation 112 b/w Wish You Were Here (1964)

Here’s Gene Chandler, the one and only ‘Duke of Earl,’ doing this Mayfield-penned song. Listen to his delivery on those vocals… one of the things that made him a great. The way he squeals the word ‘cause’ is amazing.

Danny & the Dreamers — Think Nothing About It

from Chicano Soul: San Antonio’s Westside Sound 1963-1970

Here’s another nugget from the Chicano Soul compilation, which keeps serving up great stuff! I can’t find much on Danny & the Dreamers, but it looks like they put this record out sometime in the mid 60s on Tear Drop Records, a label out of Winnie, Texas. Tear Drop also carried Sunny & the Sunglows, a more prolific (and daresay better) Texas soul group.

‘Think Nothing About It’ isn’t a Dreamers original—Curtis Mayfield penned it for Gene Chandler, who had a minor hit with it in 1964. Chandler’s vocals on that are amazing… stay tuned.

Grab it at over The Black Revolution

Cliff Nobles & Co. — The Horse (1968)

This track grooves so hard it sounds like a teaser for Mayfield and the blaxploitation era to come. Those horns are just begging to be accompanied by a smokin’, speedin’ Dodge Charger tailed by a phalanx of cop cars, sirens wailing.

And if you like hearing these dusted-off records, definitely give a follow to the excellent Music History tumblr.

musichistory:

The case of “The Horse” is much more straightforward than we saw yesterday with “Soulful Strut.” Cliff Noble was a nobody singer from Mobile, Alabama, who worked his way into a record deal with with a minor label, Phil-L.A. of Soul, distributed out of Philadelphia. The label had just achieved its first national hit in late ‘67/early ‘68 with The Fantastic Johnny C.’s “Boogaloo Down Broadway.” But that couldn’t have prepared them for “The Horse.”

Cliff Noble and Co. recorded the excellent soul song “Love Is All Right” for release as the group’s second single in the summer of ‘68. For the B-side, the label simply removed Nobles’ vocal track and renamed the instrumental “The Horse.” The 45 was good enough to have been a regional hit regardless, but when a radio DJ in Tampa, FL, flipped the single, he got such a positive response he informed the label it was sitting on a potential hit record. Phil-L.A. of Soul immediately notified other radio stations to flip the disc and within a couple months Cliff Noble & Co. (ironically without the namesake singer) had a Billboard #2 single. 

Cliff Noble & Co. soon recorded new vocals for “The Horse” with simple dance instructions and references to a number of other fantastic R&B dances from ‘68, including “Tighten Up” and “Licking Stick.” This later version of “The Horse” remains rare on vinyl.

Lastly, recall that we’re talking about a label in Philadelphia. The horn group you hear backing Cliff Noble & Co. above became in 1972 the great Philadelphia International house band MFSB.