LOVE'S HAPPENING

Listen to LOVE'S HAPPENING by The Impressions.

Happy Valentine's Day! When I went to write this post, I found that I've done something (slightly) ironical. On a day where you should feel 100% about your valentine, I feel less than 100% about the music. Even though we haven't ever posted on The Impressions, or Curtis Mayfield (and I was embarassed about that), I have really mixed feelings about Love's Happening.

This is one of my favorite Impressions songs, but it's funny, sometimes I think it's a failed experiment! When you listen to this, do you feel like maybe Curtis wasn't completely satisfied with how it turned out? That's how I feel about it. It's a tough arrangement, in that it starts slow, then goes into that double time feel (and the tempo increases, too, by the end), and so it flirts with feeling disjointed. Sometimes I think it works brilliantly, sometimes I'm not so sure. The same with the harpsichord: I like it on Curtis's songs because it's a signature style of his, but I'm not convinced it works in this song.

I also know that Curtis also did the song with the Five Stairsteps, and that's why I think he was unsure how best to tackle it.

I really love the Impressions on this song though. On Love's Happening, they're more ornament than feature, but they're so pretty on the first section where they just do simple echoes of Curtis. Just listening to them is the best part of this tune.

Anyway, no more waffling, everybody go out and give your all to your valentine!

Photo: Life in Istanbul (4).

I DON'T KNOW HOW (TO SAY I LOVE YOU) DON'T WALK AWAY

Listen to I DON'T KNOW HOW (TO SAY I LOVE YOU) DON'T WALK AWAY by The Superlatives.

I really do love how much great obscure music is so readily available these days. I've spent a lot of my life collecting music, but I've really come around to the idea of a Universal Jukebox, where anyone can listen to anything they want. Maybe someday. In the meantime, we have music blogs. This song, for example, I found some time ago on Soul Sides, and not that he needs our endorsement, it's a place you really should visit. I think I've said this before! Everything good is there eventually. Even Monday's song (which John gave to me) was posted there a while ago. Oh, and speaking of blogs, Stu was on a heavy hitting Australian blog the other week playing some Icelandic music you'd be wise to check out.

Anyway, there are a couple of cool things about this song. One, the title, with a parenthetical right in the middle of it. Two, whoever recorded the drums was on to something. They really snap and pop. Pop? Yes, this song is very pop. Try not wiggle when you play it. In particular, there's a little breakdown section that is so much fun. I want to quote a well known fellow blogger who gets it exactly right:

There’s a breakdown in the middle of the record in which the arranger comes dangerously close to having his reach exceed his grasp, yet manages to pull off what amounts to a bit of pure magic. The entire band steps back, with the exception of the horns which lay down a little fanfare – trombones in harmony with muted trumpets – after which the lead singer drops a single, extended, soulful ‘BABY!’, that sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. Just beautiful…

Photo: Life in Istanbul (3).

I LOVE YOU BABY

Listen to I LOVE YOU BABY by The Moovers.

I Love You Baby is the second song we've posted off of the Eccentric Soul Deep City Label comp. The Deep City label was based in Miami, and wasn't too successful in its short life before succumbing to relatively petty disagreements among its owners and shutting down forever. Still, they made some good music, and a lot of that music was made by The Moovers, a vocal group who sang back-up on most of the label's 45s. This track was one of their turns in the spotlight.

Musically and lyrically, it's nothing special--I wouldn't be too interested in a cover version--but it's a tremendous performance, and a great recording in the sense that it captures a lot of soul. I especially like it how nearly redlines on the "BABY!" lines and how it moves into the refrain "You put a SONG in my heart with a SWEET melody..." and then instead of moving back into the chorus it surprisingly doubles back a few seconds later with "You're my SOLE inspiration...." (or is it soul and inspiration? Anyway, it's really nice.) Have a good Tuesday!

Photo: Life in Istanbul (2).

HEART FULL OF LOVE

Listen to HEART FULL OF LOVE by The Invincibles.

Welcome back! This week we're going to post a few selections from some sweet soul sixties vocal groups, of greater and lesser renown. I encourage you to have a listen to these tunes even if you don't recognize the name of the group though, because they're all designed for maximum enjoyability.

Heart Full Of Love by The Invincibles came out of L.A. in 1965. It's a really, really typical story for that era. The group started as a gospel ensemble ("The Invincible Songbirds," how cool is that name?), but took on new material (or adapted old material: scroll down here to hear a gospel re-adaptation of today's song) to join the hit parade. They signed to a major label subsidiary (Warner's Loma Records, in this case). But as LPs weren't much emphasized in 1965, The Invincibles never got to make a full album, just a couple of singles. Of course, black soul groups got infinitesimal label support relative to white pop groups in those days (plus ca change), so even though Heart Full Of Love is as compelling a ballad as you'll ever hear (not only a falsetto lead, but falsetto harmonies! Awesome), it only made the merest of dents in the national charts. It was basically a regional hit then disappeared.

The nice coda to this all-too-common narrative is that with the music blog era, these songs are being moved out of dusty second-hand shops (or savvy DJs' crates) and across peoples' laptops worldwide.

Photo: Life in Istanbul (1).