Professor Eddy

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye Enjoy this weekend's Billboard soul top 20 from 1974, counting down from 20 to 1! 😊 It is a special year to me, because 1974 was the year that I discovered pop music.  The Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart from exactly 50 years ago mainly contains a lot of classic (Motown) soul, with some early disco here and there. Only some lyrics are no longer acceptable in 2024. For instance, Bobby Womack mainly wants a woman to clean the house and prepare delicious food for him and Leon Haywood seems to justify domestic violence by stating that problems should be kept indoors. Ecstasy Pleasure & Pain, Spinners, Billy Paul and MFSB are the representatives of The Sound Of Philadelphia, or Philly Soul for short, the sound that would start the disco craze in years to come.  The sessions for Diana & Marvin , a duets album by then super stars Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, started in 1971 and took until the beginning of 1973. Diana Ross told in an early 1973 ...

Craig Adderly Music that makes you feel good on a Friday Night, not necessarily on the dance floor, but more particular in your own bath tub 😊Enjoy! Last week I played two tracks from the 4th instalment of Too Slow To Disco , by far the best compilation of 2022. This week I selected another one, Tell Me The Reasons Why by Max Leake. On the album there is also a track by Severin Browne, Stay . In the liner notes it is said that he was "the first ever white artist to be signed to Motown Records." This is not true, of course. There were quite a few white artists employed by Motown before him, like Meatloaf, Tommy Good, Frankie Valli, R. Dean Taylor, the band Rare Earth and female artists like Chris Clark, Kiki Dee and Debbie Dean. Say Lou Lou are beautiful twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey. They are the daughters of singer Steve Kilbey. front man of Australian band The Church, known for their eighties hit Under The Milky Way . Say Lou Lou’s new single, Waiting For A...

Every now and then it’s time to listen to “the sound of young America”, to quote Motown founder Barry Gordy. Enjoy! One of the songs on this cloudcast is Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye. According to Allmusic his philosophy is summed up by this couplet: "There's only three things that's for sure/Taxes, death, and trouble." In 1973 Gloria Jones recorded an LP for Motown, Share My Love . She is most famous for her sixties northern soul classic Tainted Love , although it was not a hit record at the time when it was released. In the 1970s she became the girlfriend of British superstar Marc Bolan, the singer of glam rock band T-Rex. Their time together came to a tragic end, when Jones drove her car into a tree and the T-Rex singer died next to her. Tracklist: The Originals – Down To Love Town (1976) Bobby Nunn – Do You Look That Good In The Morning? (1983) Rick James – You And I (1978) El DeBarge With DeBarge ‎– You Wear It Well (1985) Leon Ware – I Wanna Be Where You Are ...

Flickr Enjoy my late birthday salute to Motown! The opening track is a small tribute to Bill Withers, who sadly passed away this month. Tommy Good was a singer in local clubs around Detroit, when Motown boss Berry Gordy contracted him and released Baby I Miss You on Gordy, a subsidiary of Motown, in 1964. Tommy Good, one of the first white employees of the famous soul factory, recorded an album, but for reasons that are still unknown today, it was never released at the time and it stayed in the vaults for almost 40 years! In 2006 a collection gathering most of his recordings on the Motown label was released. In 1963, at the age of 13, Carolyn Crawford signed a contract to Motown Records, after winning a talent contest. She recorded a few singles for the label and she also sang backup vocals for some of the Motown artists. Her final record for Motown, When someone's good to you , released in December 1964, failed to chart and her contract was not renewed...

I collected some soul, jazz & disco songs that all have one thing in common: they all would fit wonderfully in a yacht rock mix, because of the same relaxed and sophisticated “West Coast vibe”. Cool Out from Leroy Hutson, for instance, sounds like Steely Dan’s jazzy pop, Ragan Whiteside puts a soulful, groovy twist on Little River Band’s Reminiscing and did you know that Toto’s Jeff Porcaro played drums on Kathe Green’s Love City , which was initially released on Motown? In 1975 Kathe Green joined Motown Records, with producer Frank Wilson putting the best L.A. studio musicians together to work on her album (James Jamerson, Ray Parker Jr and forementioned Jeff Porcaro), but the record company lost interest along the way. After Love City was withdrawn as a single, Beautiful Changes appeared some time later, but little was done to promote it. Eventually Love City did come out, followed by the album two months later, but at that time it was banished to the Prodigal label. K...

The Temptations (Michael Ochs) Though not an original member of the Temptations, Dennis Edwards, who has died last month, was a member of the group from 1968 until 1977, a period during which they scored some of their most memorable hits. His gritty, urgent lead vocal was in dramatic contrast to the sweeter tones of the singer he replaced, David Ruffin, and was perfect for tough and funky songs such as ‘Cloud Nine’ (1968), the apocalyptic ‘Ball of Confusion’ (1970) and the 1972 US chart-topper ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone’. After trying to launch a solo career, Edwards made several reappearances with the Temptations during the 1980s, and during the 90s he formed the Temptations Review Featuring Dennis Edwards, with which he continued performing until last year. His most memorable solo effort was ‘Don’t Look Any Further’, a duet with Siedah Garret, recorded in 1984. The single was written by Franne Golde, Dennis Lambert and Duane Hitchings. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Black Si...

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye (Jim Britt) Motown moved all of its operations to Los Angeles in June 1972, with a number of artists, among them Martha Reeves, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Motown's Funk Brothers studio band, either staying behind in Detroit or leaving the company for other reasons. By re-locating, Motown aimed chiefly to branch out into the motion-picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit-vehicles for Diana Ross: the Billie Holiday biographical film 'Lady Sings the Blues' (1972), and 'Mahogany' (1975). The typical Motown sound disappeared because of those priority changes, but the company still produced great records, like the ones from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and discovered new artists, like Rick James and The Commodores. 'Ain't It Funny (How Things Turn Around)' was made during the sessions for Marvin Gaye's masterpiece 'Here my dear'. The theme of the...

Diana Ross Canadian singer-songwriter R. Dean Taylor is one of the most underrated acts ever to record for Motown Records. Although he wrote lots of chart-topping singles, like 'Love child' for The Supremes, his own single 'Gotta see Jane' received no promotion in the US. It was picked up in Europe and it became a hit in the Netherlands and the UK. After his American top 5 smash 'Indiana wants me' in 1970, 'Gotta see Jane' reached #67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971, 4 years after its original release. By far the best version of 'Don't leave me this way' is the one that Thelma Houston sang on Motown. Her vocals and the funky, almost neurotic bass from Henri Davis (who also played on 'Love hangover' from Diana Ross) make it a song about lust and desire, rather than love and sadness. That's also the difference between disco and soul in a nutshell. Thelma Houston obviously turns the soul song from Harold Melvin & the Bl...

I got the inspiration for this mix when I heard Michael McDonald sing 'Ain't no mountain high enough' in a restaurant a few weeks ago. It made me think of the classic Motown sound, although it is not the best version of the song. One of the tracks I selected is 'I'm gonna give you respect' by G.C. Cameron. He was the original singer of the (Detroit) Spinners and provided the lead vocals on the group's first major hit, 'It's A Shame'. When The Spinners left Motown to become far more succesful at Atlantic, G.C. was contractually and personally bound to Motown (he was married to Berry Gordy's sister Gwen). He stayed for the remainder of the 1970s with the label, but never received the material or promotion his great voice deserved. I selected 'The night' by the very great Frankie Valli as well. It is a pity that the song was left out in the musical 'The Jersey Boys', because I think it is his best song. The bassline is magnific...

The song from the Manhattans on this third part of Steamy Soul Funk & Disco is another small tribute to the late Vincent Montana, who plays the vibes on this Philly track. It is produced by Bobby Martin, featuring Gerald Alston on lead vocals. Taken from their album ‘That’s how much I love you’ that was released on Columbia Records. Tommy Good was a singer in local clubs around Detroit when Motown boss Berry Gordy contracted him. He was one of the first white employees of the famous soul factory. He recorded an album, but for some strange reason it was never released at the time. It stayed in the vaults for almost 40 years! I don’t know why, because 'I've gotta get away' is an extremely good song. I like the deep lyrics, penned by Smokey Robinson, about a guy who is planning to leave the city for the summer because of a broken heart. Sixties pop icon Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons went to Motown in the early seventies to record a couple of songs, including the a...

Summer Soul Station goes Motown! In the past I remixed a couple of Marvin Gaye songs. ‘Inner city blues’ is my most recent one. I used bits and pieces of German band leader James Last. He gave the song the summer feeling I needed for this mixtape. The track from Kelly Rowland is from her new album ‘Here I am’, her first one on Motown. She sings about Summer Soul Station , I suppose: ‘We gotta do it, do it all day, like the radio!’ She promoted her album with a wardrobe malfunction last week… I will play the original version of ‘Walk away Renee’ someday as well, because the Four Tops did a cover version of it. Enjoy this summer of Motown! Full tracklist: Kelly Rowland & Rico Love – All Of The Night (2011) Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues [Professor Eddy vs James Last Re-edit] (2011) Martha & the Vandella s – Heat Wave [David Elizondo Mix] (2008) The Temptations – Beauty Is Only Skin Deep (1966) The Four Tops – Walk Away Renee (1967) The Originals – Call On Your ...

Founder Berry Gordy (picture) has to blow out 51 candles this year. It’s a good opportunity to make a brand new Motown tribute (so not only at their much celebrated 50th birthday last year). I like the straightforward lyrics sung by the Sisters Love. It’s all about a guy who needs some Viagra, I presume. If he can’t fix it, singer Merry Clayton warns him that ‘maybe the milkman can’. Merry appeared on several Joe Cocker releases, but is best known for her impassioned appearance on the Rolling Stones’ classic ‘Gimmie shelter’. The Sisters Love worked with singers such as Willie Hutch, Leon Ware and Gloria Jones, toured the world with The Jackson Five, and appeared in the Blaxploitation movie ‘ The mack ’. The tracks by Associates and Robin Thicke (from his excellent new album 'Sex therapy') were not published, but inspired by Motown. And 'I can't help myself' by The Four Tops has been mashed up with 'When I'm 64' by the Beatles in this Motown mix. Joh...

It’s time to make a soul twist. One of the standout tracks is the one by Dee Dee Sharp, ‘What kind of lady’. The echoes in the song really make me shiver! In the early 1960s Dee Dee Sharp (born Dionne LaRue) was a teenage star and sang a duet with Chubby Checker, ‘Slow twisting’. In 1968 Dee Dee recorded 'What kind of lady' for Gamble Records, owned by producer Kenny Gamble whom she had married a year earlier. ‘What kind of lady’ was one of the early Gamble & Huff productions. The song was arranged by Bobby Martin and Tom Bell in some kind of Motown style. The four of them became very successful in the 1970s and created the sophisticated ‘Philly sound’ (Stylistics, O’Jays, Three Degrees, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and many more). When Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble and husband Kenny had marital problems, he wrote ‘You’ll never find a love like mine’ which became a hit for Lou Rawls in 1976. Kenny and Dee Dee officially divorced in 1980. Del Shannon and FrankieValli (from ...