Della Reese: The Early '70s Chart Single

Della Reese (R.I.P. November 19, 2017) emerged from Detroit in the late '50s as a true glamour figure, delivering her distinctly enunciated vocals to opulent tracks evoking velvet gloves and crystal chandeliers. The pop production team of Hugo and Luigi handled her biggest hit, "Don't You Know" (built on a theme from Puccini's La Boheme), and although that song's momentum also pushed it to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart, Reese's name only ever appeared in the lower regions of the pop singles chart after 1960. Her absence from the R&B/soul charts is indeed a curious aspect of her musical history.

A ten-month run as a TV variety show host (The Della Reese Show, June 1969 to March 1970) helped promote her Black Is Beautiful album, which had reunited her with producers Hugo and Luigi and wound up being her final pop effort. The reason why nothing even on this album could register on Billboard's soul chart is a mystery. Future Reese albums would aim toward jazz or gospel audiences, while her TV presence would eventually supersede her musical reputation in later years. From 1993 to 2005, she appeared as the central cast member on Touched By an Angel during its entire nine-season run, several decades after her final charting single ("Compared to What" / "Games People Play") bubbled under the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1970. (The ad above ran in Billboard on Dec. 13, 1969, p. 61.)

"Compared to What" (1969) - Della Reese

Written by Gene McDaniels * Produced by Hugo and Luigi * 45: "Compared to What" / "Games People Play" * LP: Black Is Beautiful * Billboard charts: Bubbling under (#128) * Entered: 1970-01-03

"Games People Play" (1969) - Della Reese

Written by Joe South * Produced by Hugo and Luigi * 45: "Compared to What" / "Games People Play" * LP: Black Is Beautiful * Billboard charts: Bubbling under (#121) * Entered: 1970-01-10

"Compared to What" helped the singer Gene McDaniels transition from an on-stage vocal career to an off-stage songwriting career. His three biggest records as a vocalist ("A Hundred Pounds of Clay," "Tower of Strength," and "Chip Chip")—each of them top ten hits—all happened in 1961. In 1966 he'd written "Compared to What" while thinking, according to an online interview, about the "right wing push toward globalization [and] privatization" that alienated "the normal people of the world."

He wrote the tune with jazz pianist Les McCann in mind, whose trio McDaniels sang with in nightclubs until label quirks in his emerging pop career complicated the two men's relationship. "Compared to What," then, not only mended fences between the two, but re-joined them at the hip when a 1969 live recording by McCann (who'd done a studio version in '66) became a #85 pop hit—a surprising development for a track on a jazz album. The song's message resonated and cover versions proliferated. Della Reese's version from her Black Is Beautiful album, paired with Joe South's "Games People Play" for a strong, socially-conscious single, did nothing more than bubble under the pop charts and made no R&B showing.

Reese returned to her gospel roots for her version of Joe South's "Games People Play" and gave it a definitive, show-stopping rendition. Those who give this record a listen will feel its message in their bones. Although it charted slightly higher than its intended A-side, one still wonders if anyone ever really heard it. Who played piano? The Black Is Beautiful album's musicians receive no credit despite the gatefold cover's ample real estate. Although a shorter, three-minute-plus version appeared on later compilations, the full five-minute-plus track appeared on both the original album and 45.

Side A: "Compared to What"


Side B: "Games People Play"

Willie Hightower - "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" (1970)

"Walk a Mile in My Shoes" (1970) - Willie Hightower

Written by Joe South * Produced by Rick Hall * 45: "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" / "You Used Me Baby" * Billboard charts: Bubbling under (#107), soul (#26) * Entered: 1970-04-25 (soul), 1970-05-30 (bubbling under)

Without fail, the voice of Alabama soul singer Willie Hightower stuns listeners for its expressive power and for the low number of records it actually appears on (especially when considering that he performs live to this day). At least three must-hear singles are his 1966 version of "If I Had a Hammer," his 1969 soul hit "It's a Miracle," and his 1970 Fame label take on Joe South's "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." Sounding like what writer Tim Tooher describes as a "cross between Sam Cooke and Little Richard," Hightower brings out even more dimensions of poignance and humanity from the song. The final paragraph of the Tooher piece mentions producer and Fame label head Rick Hall's success with the Osmonds as being a potential factor in the label's decision to drop soul singers like Hightower and Clarence Carter, and you can't help but wonder how much that might have hurt Hightower's long range momentum. The track "You Used Me Baby" on side B is another grade A vocal showcase and credits Hightower as the sole writer.

Side A: "Walk a Mile in My Shoes"


Side B: "You Used Me Baby"

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet - "Country Preacher" (1970)

"Country Preacher" (1970) - The Cannonball Adderley Quintet

Written by Josef Zawinul * 45: "Country Preacher" / "Hummin'" * LP: Country Preacher: "Live" at Operation Breadbasket * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#86), soul (#29) * Entered: 1970-01-18 (Hot 100), 1970-01-31 (soul)

A swirl of sociological energy accompanied the release of alto sax man Cannonball Adderley and his quintet's Country Preacher album, which was recorded at one of Reverend Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket meetings at a church in Chicago. These were gatherings for ministers, musicians, and political figures—an initiative that had been launched by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.—at a time when, as jazz writer Chris Sheridan puts it in his 2000 Dis Here: A Bio-Discography of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, "the battle for political rights was over, but that for economic equality had just begun."

Other strong components in the narrative surrounding Country Preacher had to do with the pros and cons of commercial acceptance for jazz and the record's reliance on blues, gospel, and a "racial memory" of the South, as Lorenzo Thomas calls it (in reference to Adderley) in his Don't Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition (2008). The album's title track was written as a tribute to Jackson by Josef Zawinul, the Austrian musician who sits conspicuously white behind his Wurlitzer on the album's back cover and reminds us visually to get over the race thing and just listen to the music, which is where the real energy is. (Zawinul, who aided and abetted in Adderley's attempts to find widespread acceptance for quality jazz in spite of criticism, would later continue to do so with his own band, Weather Report.)

On "Country Preacher," as with Adderley's 1967 radio hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," the audience interaction with the music is crucial to the recording's appeal—at two specific points it sounds like the intensity will boil over, but then it stops dead... and then continues all dialed back, cool and collected, much to the room's pleasure and approval. It's a musical approximation of a skillful, hypothetical country preacher's cadences, bringing forth the same kind of congregational responses. The 45 version doesn't include Adderley's spoken introduction of the number from the album; the B side includes a rare studio take of "Hummin'" (written by Cannonball's brother Nat, the band's cornet player) rather than the live version that leads off the album. This would be the last chart appearance for Cannonball Adderley, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1975.

Side A: "Country Preacher"


Side B: "Hummin'"

Chart Song Cinema: Cool Breeze (1972)

"Love's Street and Fool's Road" (1972) - Solomon Burke

Written and produced by Solomon Burke * 45: "Love's Street and Fool's Road" / "I Got to Tell It" * LP: Cool Breeze * Label: MGM * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#89), soul (#13) * Entered: 1972-04-15 (Hot 100), 1972-04-22 (soul)

Directed by Barry Pollack, Cool Breeze did whatever it could to live up to the term "blaxploitation."  On display most prominently were the era's favorite caricaturizations of urban blackness and, as a dreary bonus, an unwavering commitment to chauvinism. Its biggest mishap, though, was closing credits that stunned viewers by even being there. Their first line should have read, "we didn't know what else to do, and we're out of money, so we're just gonna end this." Even so, Cool Breeze does have the makings of a cult movie (which it's becoming) due to its funny dialogue and time capsule visuals, such as scenes where Thalmus Rasulala's assembled gang of diamond thieves wear Nixon and Agnew masks.

The choice of influential R&B singer Solomon Burke—whose chart success was on the wane after a busy 1960s—as the movie's soundtrack man is apropos because he, like one of Cool Breeze's characters, had something of a world-tainted preacher aura. As his obituary in the New York Times reports, Burke was known in his youth as a "wonder boy" at the pulpit whose competing love for life's temporal pleasures led him toward a music career that made them all available. (As the "king of rock and soul," he would appear on stage wearing a crown and robe.) In the film, a preacher who's also a safe cracker joins the heist squad, and one scene shows three of his cohorts awkwardly discussing business on a church pew, surrounded by elders and children who are trying to worship. It's a scene full of inner angel-devil conflict that Burke probably appreciated.

After the soul chart (and minor Hot 100) success of "Love's Street and Fool's Road," which features the kind of spoken interjections he was known for, Burke had only one more Hot 100 appearance and two more on the soul chart. In 2002, though (eight years before his death), he'd release the rally-round comeback album Don't Give Up on Me, full of songs by contemporary songwriting icons.

Side B previewed a song, written by J.W. Alexander and Willie Hutch, that would later show up on Burke's We're Almost Home LP the same year.

Side A: "Love's Street and Fool's Road"


Side B: "I Got to Tell It"

Jackie Wilson: The Early '70s Charting Singles

Jackie Wilson was one of the entertainment world's lightning bolts, a singer with boundless expressive range, a dancer envied by James Brown and idolized by Michael Jackson, and a stage performer who may as well have invented the concept. He first made a name for himself as a member of Billy Ward and His Dominoes (replacing Clyde McPhatter), after which, as a solo act from 1957 onward, he became a steady radio and chart presence with songs like "Reet Petite," "Lonely Teardrops," "Baby Workout," and "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher."

That last song was a 1967 smash recorded with the Motown studio's Funk Brothers and Andantes as an expression of gratitude from Berry Gordy (a co-writer of "Reet Petite," the first hit for both men). It tends to be remembered as Wilson's farewell song, his "Dock of the Bay," but the ensuing Jackie Wilson radio songs of the early seventies form a distinct and final career era worth exploring. Even for the man known as Mr. Excitement, whose off-stage life seemed destined to shudder from extreme ups and downs, these were difficult years. In September 1970, his sixteen-year-old son Jackie Jr. was gunned down in Detroit, which cast a pall over his efforts to revitalize his career. In 1975, Wilson would suffer a heart attack on stage at the "Dick Clark Good Ole Rock 'N Roll Revue," after which he'd spend the rest of his life in a semi-comatose state until his death in 1984 at the age of 49. His headstone in Wayne, Michigan, says "No More Lonely Teardrops" and "Jackie - The Complete Entertainer."

All of the following singles, except for a few bonuses thrown in for context, made Billboard chart appearances between 1970 and 1975. (The album image above comes from the Spain edition of It's All a Part of Love, which contained no charting singles.)

"Let This Be a Letter (To My Baby)" (1970) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Eugene Record * Johnny Moore and Jack Daniels * Produced by Carl Davis and Eugene Record * 45: "Let This Be a Letter (To My Baby)" / "Didn't I" * LP: This Love Is Real * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Soul (#34), Hot 100 (#91) * Entered: 1970-05-09 (soul), 1970-05-16 (Hot 100)

Jackie Wilson started out the decade with a big, bursting love hymn featuring solo female-in-a-cloud operatics for the intro. It's an arrangement tactic, though, that inevitably suggests angels receiving a departing spirit, so knowledge of where the song placed in Wilson's catalog—the first charting song for his final decade as a hitmaker—can make you hear it with a sense of foreboding. It was written by chief Chi-Lite (and Brunswick label mate) Eugene Record, who would write another letter song ("A Letter to Myself") as the title track for one of his group's 1973 albums.

The Chi-Lites' voices can be heard accompanying Wilson on the flipside "Didn't I," which also appeared on the This Love Is Real album (released at the end of the year). It credits Jack Daniels and Bonnie Thompson as composers; Daniels was a frequent collaborator with Johnny Moore (not to be confused with the one in the Drifters or the Three Blazers). The unheralded Chicago songwriter and vocalist Moore had gotten into the habit of occasionally gifting songwriter credits to his girlfriend Thompson, the way he'd earlier done for Syl Johnson's "We Did It" and Tyrone Davis's "Turn Back the Hands of Time." Grapevine Records released a compilation of Moore's vocal recordings in 2003 called Lonely Heart in the City.

All of Wilson's early '70s singles were recorded in Chicago, with a rhythm section Carl Davis identifies in his 2011 memoir The Man Behind the Music as including bassist Bernard Reed, Floyd Morris on keyboards, and Quinton Joseph on drums ("the first and last drummer that I ever saw who played standing up").

Side A: "Let This Be a Letter (To My Baby)"


Side B: "Didn't I"

"(I Can Feel Those Vibrations) This Love Is Real" (1970) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Johnny Moore and Jack Daniels * Produced by Carl Davis * Arranged by Sonny Henderson * 45: "(I Can Feel those Vibrations) This Love Is Real" / "Love Uprising" * LP: This Love Is Real * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#49), soul (#9) * Entered: 1970-12-12 (soul), 1970-12-19 (Hot 100)

This top ten soul chart hit, which featured Wilson's famous octave leaps in the choruses, payed general tribute to the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do," while in the intro and at the 1:42 mark (thanks to arranger Sonny Henderson), it payed specific tribute to "Danny Boy," which Wilson had taken to the charts in 1965. Songwriting credits went to Johnny Moore and Jack Daniels, who had also written "Didn't I" for the previous single. On the B side was "Love Uprising," written by Eugene Record, who happened to write the A side of the previous single.

Side A: "(I Can Feel Those Vibrations) This Love Is Real"


Side B: "Love Uprising"

"Love Is Funny That Way" (1971) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Floyd Smith and Ritchie Tufano * Produced by Carl Davs * 45: "Love Is Funny That Way" / "Try It Again" * LP: You Got Me Walking * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Soul (#18), Hot 100 (#95) * Entered: 1971-11-13 (soul), 1971-11-27 (Hot 100)

Chicago songwriters Floyd Smith (Loleatta Holloway's husband) and Rich Tufo (a frequent keyboardist for Curtis Mayfield credited here as Ritchie Tufano) gave Jackie Wilson his leadoff single for his You Got Me Walking album. Its main melodic hook comes directly from the Temptations' "I Wish It Would Rain." The B side pumps with an increased dose of vintage Jackie Wilson vivaciousness; it's a song called "Try It Again" written by Ronnie Shannon, the man who'd also written "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" and "Baby I Love You" for Aretha Franklin.

Side A: "Love Is Funny That Way"


Side B: "Try It Again"

"You Got Me Walking" (1971) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Eugene Record * Produced by Carl Davis * 45: "You Got Me Walking" / "The Fountain" * LP: You Got Me Walking * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Soul (#22), Hot 100 (#93) * Entered: 1972-02-19 (soul), 1972-02-26 (Hot 100)

The title track to Jackie Wilson's You Got Me Walkin' album ended up being his final Hot 100 appearance in Billboard. Written by label mate Eugene Record, as were many of Wilson's early '70s recordings, it suffered from a confusing lyrical gimmick, which had his woman being so good to him that he was reacting negatively—"walking" floors, "talking" to himself, and "knocking" on wrong doors (emphasized by snare drum raps). On side B, he checked in with a social-issues litany, also written by Record, that had him seeking a mysterious "fountain" later revealed to be one of faith, hope, love, and money.

Side A: "You Got Me Walkin'"


Side B: "The Fountain"

"The Girl Turned Me On" (1972) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Leo Graham and Dennis Miller * Produced by Carl Davis and Willie Henderson * 45: "The Girl Turned Me On" / "Forever and a Day" * LP: You Got Me Walking * Billboard charts: Soul (#44) * Entered: 1972-05-14

Wilson would manage to get three more songs to the lower regions of Billboard's soul charts before his career as an active recording artist came to an end in 1975. "The Girl Turned Me On"—written by Chicagoans Leo Graham and Dennis Miller—is one of Wilson's lost dance floor classics, boosted by majestic horns and a moody piano break at 2:03. "Forever and a Day," by Daniels and Moore, follows B side etiquette by not upstaging the A side in any way, although it does play a trick by borrowing the title of a minor hit Wilson had in 1962, which was a dramatic tuxedo chanson that seemed light years away from this. Speaking of chansons, it bears mentioning that Wilson's You Got Me Walking album contained a version of "My Way," the French melody given new lyrics by Paul Anka for Frank Sinatra as an intended swan song. Sinatra ended up having more years to give, but that doesn't preclude the song's ominous, fate-tempting elements.

Side A: "The Girl Turned Me On"


Side B: "Forever and a Day"

*UK Bonus*

"I Get the Sweetest Feeling" (1968) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Alicia Evan and Van McCoy * Produced by Carl Davis * 45: "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" / "Soul Galore" * LP: I Get the Sweetest Feeling * Label (UK reissue): MCA * Charts (UK reissue): UK #9

In mid-1972, a reissue of Jackie Wilson's sublime sunshine-soul "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" (1968) zoomed up to #9 on the British singles chart, where it had never registered the first time around (but reached #34 in the US). Among the reasons for its success might have been the fact that Wilson had royalty status in burgeoning "northern soul" dance halls where soul obscurities from yesteryear ruled, and where a song like his previous "The Girl Turned Me On" would eventually be treated like a Top 5 hit.

Another possible helper might have been the release of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)," a song that didn't end up charting at all in the UK—and came out only two weeks before the Wilson reissue—but had a high enough profile to possibly get some ripples in motion. (An early 1982 cover by Dexy's Midnight Runners would hit #5 over there.) Coincidentally, "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" is a Wilson song that has a "smile" component ("when you turn on your smile / I feel my heart go wild"). Another dance-friendly Wilson track from 1966 called "Soul Galore" written by Eugene Hamilton appeared on the B side.

In the late eighties, three more Jackie Wilson reissues would storm the UK chart: "Reet Petite" (#1 in 1986), "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" again (#3 in 1987), and "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" (#15 in 1987).

Side A: "I Get the Sweetest Feeling"


Side B: "Soul Galore"

"Because of You" (1973) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Edward E. Little Jr. and Jeffrey Perry * Produced by Carl Davis and William Sanders * 45: "Because of You" / "Go Away" * LP: Beautiful Day * Billboard charts: Soul (#45) * Entered: 1973-05-12

One of the identifying characteristics of Jackie Wilson's Beautiful Day album, aside from the scenic cover, is the participation of Jeffrey Perry as a co-composer on every song. He was one of five Chicago Perry brothers (with Greg, Zachary, Leonard and Dennis) all of whom worked as songwriters. He'd later record one album of his own in 1979 as "Jeffree" Palmer, and videos of him singing on Soul Train can be found on YouTube. The flipside "Go Away" is a co-write between Jeff and his brother Zachary with a soaring vocal by Wilson that might have served as a stronger plug side than "Because of You."

Side A: "Because of You"


Side B: "Go Away"

"Sing a Little Song" (1973) - Jackie Wilson
Written by Desmond Dacres * Produced by Bob Mersey * 45: "Sing a Little Song" / "No More Goodbyes" * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Soul (#94) * Entered: 1973-07-28

On "Sing a Little Song," Jackie Wilson broke away momentarily from Carl Davis with producer Bob Mersey, a longtime CBS music director with abundant easy listening credentials (and who had worked with Wilson in 1961 as the arranger for "My Heart Belongs to You"). The new song came from Desmond Dacres, aka Desmond Dekker, who was at the forefront of the early seventies surge in Caribbean sounds with his late sixties US top ten song "Israelites" (along with contributions to the soundtrack for the Jamaican film The Harder They Come). On this single, which never appeared on an album, Jackie Wilson provided a swingier (and stringier) take on a tune Dekker had released the same year with a decidedly more reggae rhythm. In 1975, though, Dekker would put out a spruced up redo more informed by Wilson's interpretation. (Where Wilson's version used a steel pan drum, though, Dekker's would use a piano.) Side B contained a lush track called "No More Goodbyes," co-written by Mersey and Harold Orenstein and sprinkled with Philly soul orchestra glitter.

Side A: "Sing a Little Song"


Side B: "No More Goodbyes"

*1975 Bonus*  "Don't Burn No Bridges" (1975) - Jackie Wilson and the Chi-Lites

Written by Romaine Anderson * Produced by Carl Davis and Sonny Sanders * 45: "Don't Burn No Bridges" / "Don't Burn No Bridges (Instrumental)" * LP: Nobody But You (1976) * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: Soul (#91) * Entered: 1975-11-15

Jackie Wilson's career-ending heart attack occurred on September 29, 1975, while at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was performing as the headliner and collapsed during a performance of "Lonely Teardrops," with its "my heart is crying" refrain. Although Wilson's well-known demonstrative nature onstage made it hard for anyone to discern if it was just an act, Cornell Gunter of the Coasters was able to act fast enough to resuscitate him, but not enough to prevent him from slipping into a comatose state, where he remained until his death in 1984. Another dark coda for the year 1975 involved Wilson's longtime label Brunswick, whose head Nat Tarnopol faced federal charges of financial misconduct, including unpaid royalties of one million dollars for Wilson (which, evidently, were never paid).

That year, Wilson had been readying a new album with Carl Davis, back in his familiar role as producer and with participation from Eugene Record and the Chi-Lites. The single "Don't Burn Bridges," backed by an instrumental version, came out two months after Wilson's heart attack. It had a Temptations flair, with its minor-key vocal trade-offs and a reference to the "month of December" that reminded listeners of the "third of September" opener of "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." If Wilson and the Chi-Lites merely borrowed a vibe from the Temptations, the Trammps would record a song for their 1977 Disco Inferno album that bordered on plagiarism. It was also called "Don't Burn No Bridges" and sounded similar enough to be considered an interpretation, but it credited two different writers: Allan Felder and Ronald Tyson. Maybe they had made a deal with the mysterious Romaine Anderson.

The picture sleeve presented here comes from the Spain release. It's too good not to include.

"Don't Burn No Bridges"

*Non-Charting Bonus* "Nobody But You" (1975) - Jackie Wilson

Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil * Produced by Carl Davis and Sonny Sanders * 45: "Nobody But You" / "I've Learned About Life" * LP: Nobody But You (1976) * Label: Brunswick * Billboard charts: —

Jackie Wilson's final album was called Nobody But You, and it saw release in 1976, the year after the heart attack that brought his career as Mr. Excitement to a close. The record was a more-than-worthy final statement, with a Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil title track (previously recorded in 1975 by the Righteous Brothers) that could function as a thank you to his audience, leading that same audience to wonder how they could repay a man who generated so much happiness in so short a time.

"Nobody But You"

Chart Song Cinema: Claudine (1974)

"On and On" (1974) - Gladys Knight and the Pips

Written and produced by Curtis Mayfield * 45: "On and On" / "The Makings of You" * LP: Claudine * Label: Buddah * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#5); soul (#2) * Entered: 1974-05-25 (Hot 100)

Directed by John Berry, Claudine infiltrated the early seventies blaxploitation film market with something different: a sympathetic look at a single mother, played by Diahann Carroll, who struggles to raise a large family in the deep city. James Earl Jones plays her love interest, a strong garbage collector whose laudable sensitivity threatens to function as a fatal flaw.

Although the film posters billed Claudine as "a heart and soul comedy," early seventies cinema trends ensured that the sobering food-for-thought factors overshadowed any laughs. (The American Welfare System turns in an especially fine performance as the villain.) Giving the film added edge are the Harlem visuals and the music written and produced by blaxploitation VIP Curtis Mayfield.

Gladys Knight and the Pips perform all the music on Claudine, with the hit single "On and On" exploding in the opening credits as the big-screen urban scenes unfold. Here's a rare situation, though, where a film made a song seem better than it actually was. (It's usually the other way around.) No one who experiences "On and On" away from the film would rank it with Knight's or Mayfield's best work.

Side A: "On and On"


Side B: "The Makings of You"

Baltimore/Washington D.C. Regional Breakout Hits

The following two singles are the only ones to be listed in Billboard between 1970-1974 as regional breakout hits in the Washington D.C./Baltimore area and never to have moved any higher.

"Cracker Jack" (1970) - Mickey and His Mice

Written by Mickey Fields, Eddie Drennon, and Martin Cantine * Produced by Martin Cantine * 45: "Cracker Jack"/"Abraham, Martin and John" (Marti) * Billboard charts: Regional breakout—Washington D.C. * Entered: 1970-06-27

Question: Hey baby, what is this cracker jack thing? Answer: Ain't nothin' but the popcorn with some sweet jive on it.

The "popcorn" was a James Brown concoction—a dance he'd started doing onstage in 1968, according to some accounts, to the song "Bringing Up the Guitar." He then recorded a stack of popcorn-oriented records, including "Mother Popcorn" (1969), an unassailable highlight in the James Brown hall of finest funk. But "popcorn" might have had more to do with the Godfather of Soul's personal lexicon of booty synonyms than with any specific dance moves.

"Popcorn music" has also become a term adopted by soul music aficionados in Europe to describe a sweeter strain of the obscure vintage sixties dance cuts you see categorized as "Northern soul" (so named for their popularity in certain Manchester clubs). It's safe to assume, though, that Mickey Fields, the Charm City tenor sax man and bandleader answering the lady's question at the beginning of "Cracker Jack," is referring to the James Brown popcorn sound.

The single showed up on Billboard as a regional breakout hit in Washington D.C., having likely racked up some airplay on WPGC or WEAM. It might have gotten more traction if Fields wouldn't have refused to ever leave the Baltimore area.


"Cracker Jack"

"Hey Romeo" (1970) - The Sequins

Written by O. Denise Jones * Produced by Crajon Entertainment * Arranged by Willie Mitchell * 45: "Hey Romeo" / "I've Got to Overcome" (Gold Star) * Billboard charts: Regional breakout—Baltimore/Washington D.C.

Between 1964 and 1975, at least three different vocal groups called the Sequins, each of which included a trio of African-American females, released records that found local popularity oblivious to the others' existence. Such was the regionality of pop music in that era. One of these hailed from Los Angeles and recorded for Renfro. Another one, from Detroit, recorded for Detroit Sound, while a third one, from Chicago, recorded for Crajon/Gold Star and saw their "Hey Romeo" get enough airplay in Washington D.C. to appear on Billboard's regional breakout list in 1970. The record is notable for the involvement of Denise LaSalle as songwriter (credited as O. Denise Jones, her legal name as the wife of label head Bill Jones) a few years before she'd get a much bigger hit of her own with "Trapped by a Thing Called Love." Recorded in Memphis, it also benefited from an arrangement by Willie Mitchell, who was in the meantime keeping busy getting Al Green ready for the big time. "Hey Romeo" would be the Sequins' final release. Lead vocalist Lyn Jackson, now based in Phoenix, remains musically active. Side B included another tune written by LaSalle, with husband Bill as co-writer.


Side A: "Hey Romeo"


Side B: "I've Got to Overcome"

Nancy Wilson: The Early '70s Charting Singles

A vocalist with versatile stylistic range, Nancy Wilson launched her recording career with the 1959 swing jazz album Like In Love on Capitol and proved to be a valuable ongoing asset for the label. Never a dominating presence on Top 40 radio, Wilson's singles peppered the Hot 100, soul, and easy listening charts throughout the '60s, then settled in, by the early '70s, as soul radio products. A top notch stage performer and a mainstay at hotel supper clubs, Wilson was equally comfortable on camera, hosting her own series on NBC—the Nancy Wilson Show, which ran from 1967-68 and won an Emmy. In addition to countless appearances on talk and variety shows, which she was born for, Wilson guest starred on TV dramas such as I Spy, Room 222, Hawaii Five-O, The F.B.I., and Police Story between 1966 and 1974. Wilson's early '70s charting output reveals her focus transition to soul radio outlets, which would spin her records toward R&B chart positions until 1994. By the mid-2000s, Wilson would return to her jazz roots and claim Grammys in 2005 and 2007 for Best Jazz Vocal Album. 

"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (1969) - Nancy Wilson

Written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio * Produced by David D. Cavanaugh * Arranged by Jimmy Jones * 45: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" / "Do You Know Why" * LPs: Hurt So Bad (1969); Can't Take My Eyes Off You (1970) * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Soul (#27), Hot 100 (#52), soul (#27), easy listening (#28) * Entered: 1969-11-15 (soul), 1969-11-22 (Hot 100), 1969-12-27 (easy listening)

This sultry show-band version of Frankie Valli's 1967 smash hit (which loses his instrumental can-can refrain) had caught fire on easy listening radio over a month after it had run its course everywhere else. This is likely why the next album in Nancy Wilson's high-pressure release schedule reprised it and bore its name. The gorgeous flipside, arranged by established legend Billy May, features an equally gorgeous vocal by Wilson of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke's classic "Do You Know Why." It wouldn't be long before easy listening radio, morphing into the Top 40-lite of MOR (middle of the road) and then AC (adult contemporary), would run out of room for the sort of pop sophistication on this 45.

Side A: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"


Side B: "Do You Know Why"

"This Girl Is a Woman Now" (1970) - Nancy Wilson

Written by Victor Millrose and Alan Bernstein * Produced by David Cavanaugh * Arranged by Phil Wright * 45: "This Girl Is a Woman Now" / "Trip with Me" * LP: Can't Take My Eyes Off You * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Easy listening (#32) * Entered: 1970-06-20

Nancy Wilson changed the perspective of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap's 1969 #9 hit from third person to first, giving it new warmth for easy listening radio. Hit re-treads were common practice in those days, especially for the easy listening market—witness the album title of Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, which not only named itself after one of Wilson's recent chart entries, but brought back the same version by her that appeared on her 1969 Hurt So Bad album.

On side B she sings "Trip With Me," a song the legendary rock 'n' roll songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had written for the barely-released 1970 film The Phynx, about a fictional rock band's secret mission to Albania. Earlier in the year, Wilson had appeared on the series Room 222 as Michelle Scott, a famous singer who returns to her high school to convince kids not to drop out. Can't Take My Eyes Off You would be Wilson's final album with longtime producer "Big Dave" Cavanaugh.

Side A: "This Girl Is a Woman Now"


Side B: "Trip with Me"

"Now I'm a Woman" (1971) - Nancy Wilson

Written and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff * 45: "Now I'm a Woman" / "The Real Me" * LP: Now I'm a Woman * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#93); soul (#41) * Entered: 1971-01-02 

The release of Nancy Wilson's Now I'm a Woman album happened in the wake of her distingué performance in an episode of Hawaii Five-O's third season ("Trouble in Mind") as the tragic, heroin-addicted jazz vocalist Eadie Jordan. In one scene, the no-nonsense Steve McGarrett confesses to being an Eadie Jordan record collector and fanboy. Otherwise, it was a sad episode, and so was her "Now I'm a Woman" single. It seemed to exist as a reality check on the positive point of view of her previous "This Girl Is a Woman Now." Written and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff on their way to fame as the architects of Philly soul, the song lamented male abandonment in family and romance. Here, the girl was now a woman because she'd seen all too clearly how men really are. The track would be her only early seventies Hot 100 entry and also her last one ever. Happily, she'd make classy appearances on the R&B charts until 1994.

The single's B side presents Wilson in her familiar setting as a jazz singer in front of a big band, even though the song is a new piece written by Gamble and Huff (and arranged and conducted by Philly Soul stalwart Bobby Martin).

Side A: "Now I'm a Woman"


Side B: "The Real Me"

"Streetrunner" (1974) - Nancy Wilson
Written by Billy Page and Gene Page * Produced by Gene Page * 45: "Streetrunner" / "Ocean of Love" * LP: All in Love Is Fair * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Soul (#46) * Entered: 1974-10-05

After a hitless streak stretching back to 1971, Nancy Wilson's All in Love Is Fair album reprogrammed her sound and launched a decades long residency on R&B radio playlists. "Streetrunner," much-sampled by now, sounded tailor made for a blaxploitation film theme that never got made. "Ocean of Love," on the other side, was written by Ray Parker Jr., who at that time was working as a guitarist in Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra.

Side A: "Streetrunner"


Side B: "Ocean of Love"

"You're As Right as Rain" (1974) - Nancy Wilson

Written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed * Produced by Gene Page * 45: "You're as Right as Rain" / "There'll Always Be Forever" * LP: All in Love Is Fair * Label: Capitol * Billboard charts: Soul (#10) * Entered: 1975-01-25

"You're as Right as Rain," written by the ever reliable songwriting team of Thom Bell and Linda Creed, had appeared on the Stylistics' Round 2 album from 1972. That group's catalog proved to be a winning field to choose from for Wilson, who took the cozy ballad to the soul chart's top ten. The flipside included a song written by Big Dee Irwin and Dee-Dee McNeil. Wilson's next five albums, until 1979, would each contain a charting soul hit or two.

Side A: "You're as Right as Rain"


Side B: "There'll Always Be Forever"

Ramsey Lewis - "Them Changes" (1971)

Ramsey Lewis - "Them Changes" (did not chart). Written by Buddy Miles. Produced by Ramsey Lewis. 45: "Them Changes"/"Unsilent Majority" (Cadet 1971). LP: Them Changes (Cadet 1971).

This Ramsey Lewis track, the only single to be released from its album of the same name, shakes up the perception of a model MOR station like Los Angeles's KMPC, which used to play it in '71, as being a straight easy listening outlet. Although Lewis's live Rhodes piano version of Buddy Miles's signature song hearkens back to the club-date sound of earlier hits like "The In Crowd" and "Hang on Sloopy," it locks into a deep groove with the help of Morris Jennings (drums), Cleveland Eaton (bass), and Phil Upchurch (guitar). The current-event images on the album cover give it an activist vibe. (The non-charting single is credited to "Ramsey Lewis & Co.")

Ramsey Lewis - "Them Changes"

See also: A KMPC Playlist circa 1971

Minnie Riperton - "Les Fleurs" (1971)

"Les Fleurs" (1971)

Minnie Riperton

Written by Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph * Produced by Charles Stepney * 45: "Les Fleurs" / "Oh! By the Way" * LP: Come to My Garden * Label: GRT * Billboard charts: —

A cult favorite nowadays, Minnie Riperton's first album flopped in 1971, so it's interesting to see that stations like Los Angeles's MOR outlet KMPC had been hip to it in the very beginning by including it on a playlist. An experienced backup vocalist and a member of Rotary Connection, Riperton adopted a floral concept-album approach for her debut, and one wonders if Stevie Wonder—who would later work with Riperton—had drawn from it as inspiration for his 1979 Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants soundtrack music.

"Les Fleurs," with its "Dear Prudence" changes, was the only single released from the album, which featured the string-psych production, arrangements, and compositions of Charles Stepney along with the musicianship of Ramsey Lewis (keyboards) and Phil Upchurch (guitar). In 1974, Riperton would release "Loving You," her chart-topping signature song with those high whistle-pitch vocals, and in 1976 she would announce on The Tonight Show that she had breast cancer, which she succumbed to in 1979.

The original Come to My Garden LP showed the first song's title as "Les Fleur"—a case of plural/singular disagreement that CD reissues later fixed as "Les Fleurs." Riperton can be heard showcasing her high vocal range on the single's flipside, "Oh! By the Way".

Side A: "Les Fleurs"


Side B: "Oh! By the Way"

Chart Song Cinema: Across 110th Street (1973)

"Across 110th Street" (1973)

Bobby Womack

Written by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson * Produced by J.J. Johnson * 45: "Across 110th Street" / "Hang On In There" * LP: Across 110th Street * Label: United Artists * Billboard charts: Hot 100 (#59), soul (#19) * Entered: 1973-03-24 (Hot 100), 1973-03-31 (soul)

The blaxploitation film genre, with its
race consciousness, economic angst, moral ambiguity, and violent responses to all of the above, flashed across American movie screens as a direct product of the early seventies psyche. Among the torrent of releases, Barry Shear's Across 110th Street (based on a novel by Wally Ferris) survived its era with an ever-strengthening reputation, mostly due to its bleak singularity of vision. It's also notable for its poor box office performance. The plot concerned a heist that three black men pull on a mafia-run bank, lighting a powder keg involving street criminals, mafiosi, and cops both crooked and straight. Variety magazine called it "strong and relentless in its pursuit of violence" and warned viewers that it presented no sympathetic characters. As Greil Marcus put it in his Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (1975), it gave "no way out" for viewers by refusing to tell the "good guys from the bad guys."

Bobby Womack's title song for Across 110th Street is a reminder that music is the more powerful medium. Although a song can expand in meaning through its association with a film, never does a film live up to the possibilities one can conjure up mentally when a piece of music plays. Womack's is among the most potent of blaxploitation themes, with its opening organ mimicking flashing city lights and its first-person lyrics ("I was the third brother of five / Doing whatever I had to survive") speaking to the human heart more directly than anything in the movie.

A song from the soundtrack called "Hang on In There" appears on the B side, and it's a crucial part of the listening experience. Womack's opening lines seem to expand on the ones from side A ("I left home at the age of twelve / Mama couldn't understand it, but she wished me well"), and the track's slide guitar and clavinet speak with authority rivaled only by Womack's own voice. Although the 45 is credited to him, a sub-heading under each song says "performed by Bobby Womack & Peace." Information about who exactly played in Peace remains elusive, which is frustrating where two songs like this are concerned.

(Quentin Tarrantino's usage of "Across 110th Street" as an intro for Jackie Brown (1997) removes it from its original source and assigns it to his own images. It's clever pastiche usage, but like all the music Tarrantino has dropped into his song-licensing shopping bag, it suffers from its association with those images while the film benefits from the song's evocative power.)

Side A: "Across 110th Street"


Side B: "Hang On In There"

The Early '70s Radio Hits of Brook Benton

Brook Benton had fifty-eight charting singles stretching all the way back to the numerologically coincidental year of 1958. The final series of five happened in the early seventies. Four of these - each seeming like symbolic variations on retirement - came from the Cotillion label, a subsidiary of Atlantic, while the final one, a charting "jingle single," came out on MGM.

1. Brook Benton - "Rainy Night in Georgia" (Billboard #4, entered 1/10/70; soul #1). Written by Tony Joe White. Produced and arranged by Arif Mardin. 45: "Rainy Night in Georgia"/"Where Do I Go from Here" (Cotillion 1970). LP: Brook Benton Today (Cotillion 1970). 

With no top ten hits since 1962's "Hotel Happiness," Benton took a shot with a song by Tony Joe White, who'd reached #8 with "Polk Salad Annie" in 1969. The resulting #4 smash not only became a career-defining moment for Benton, but also for the prolific producer-arranger Arif Mardin. Dripping in aching strings and a lonely piano, the song transferred a detectable sense of resignation to the airwaves, as if to signal the end of a more youthful and carefree era. 

2. Brook Benton - "My Way" (Billboard #72, entered 4/8/70; soul #25). Written by Claude Francois, Jacques Revaux, and Paul Anka. Produced by Arif Mardin. 45: "My Way"/"A Little Bit of Soap" (Cotillion 1970). LP: Brook Benton Today (Cotillion 1970). 

Benton's follow-up to "Rainy Night in Georgia" was another retirement signifier, having served as a (premature) declaration of finality for Frank Sinatra the previous year. The French melody with new words by Paul Anka hadn't fully solidified as the standard we recognize today, though, when Benton reinterpreted it as a soul groover with a twinkle in his eye.

3. Brook Benton with the Dixie Flyers - "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home" (Billboard #45, entered 5/30/70, soul #31). Written by Joe South. Produced by Arif Mardin. 45: "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home"/"I've Gotta Be Me" (Cotillion (1970). LP: Home Style. 

Benton's version of "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home" fell shy of the top 40 in 1970, as did writer Joe South's own version in 1969. But it did establish Benton's voice still further as a sentimental one at the dawning of the seventies nostalgia boom. Side B contained a version of "I've Gotta Be Me," which was Sammy Davis Jr.'s "My Way" - a #11 hit for him in 1969.

4. Brook Benton with the Dixie Flyers - "Shoes" (Billboard #67, entered 12/26/70, soul #18). Written by Don Covay and George Soule. Produced by Arif Mardin. 45: "Shoes"/"Let Me Fix It" (Cotillion 1970). LP: Story Teller (Cotillion 1971).

Slinky, forgotten single recorded with Memphis studio aces the Dixie Flyers, a fourth encore that finds Benton having a hard time saying goodbye with his "shoes" that "keep walking back." This track has to be listened to all the way to the fadeout, where harps sprinkle haunted, lovesick stardust - another jewel in Arif Mardin's crown. The flipside is a steamy give-and-take with the Sweet Inspirations called "Let Me Fix It," for which Benton got full writing credit.

5. Brook Benton - "If You Got the Time" (Billboard #104, entered 10/7/72). Written by Bill Backer. Produced by Billy Davis. 45: "If You Got the Time"/"Take Me Home Honey" (MGM 1972). LP: Something for Everyone (MGM 1973).

The song Benton sings for his final charting single sounds so familiar to you because its writer and producer were ad men—the same guys who gave us "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." This is a proper "jingle single" in which Benton delivers a version of what would become the familiar decades-long theme for Miller Beer: "If you've got the time, we've got the beer." Backer and Davis had already launched the theme and slogan in 1971, and Benton had joined the Troggs and Billy Mack as one of the campaign's celebrity voices.

Chart Song Cinema: Black Caesar (1973), Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973), and Hell Up in Harlem (1974)

Black Caesar tends to get mentioned as one of the blaxploitation flim genre's better moments. Loosely based on the 1931 gangster classic Little Caesar, it tells the story of Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson), who climbs the organized crime ladder and becomes the scourge of New York City's corrupt lawmakers. James Brown's soundtrack gives the movie added muscle, with his smoldering version of Bodie Chandler and Barry De Vorzon's "Down and Out in New York City" as its theme.

According to the film's director Larry Cohen in Reflections on Blaxploitation: Actors and Directors Speak (2009), the Godfather of Soul had a habit of ignoring directors' time specifications for each cue, saddling them with extra editing work. He had done the same thing with his music for Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973), and when Cohen requested to use a Brown soundtrack for the Black Caesar sequel (Hell Up in Harlem), American International rejected it, opting instead for Motown's Edwin Starr. Brown released the rejected music on his Payback album, which was aptly named because its title track hit #1 on Billboard's soul chart, while Starr's song only managed to reach #110 on the pop chart and was shut out of the soul listings. Also, the Payback album served as the score for Guy Ritchie's popular Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels twenty-four years later.

Here's a crucial bit of information one must know before viewing Black Caesar today: The ending on the DVD is different from how audiences experienced it in theaters in 1973. It contains a minute's worth of footage that was lopped off by Cohen after the first screenings. When you watch it on DVD, Tommy Gibbs staggers back to his old neighborhood, where a gang of black street thugs jumps him and presumably kills him. This is more in keeping with the comeuppance all gangsters received in thirties cinema and makes for a stronger, more poignant ending.

Test audiences were outraged by this original ending, though, and when it was trimmed to show Gibbs careening across a busy downtown sidewalk before credits rolled, peace was restored and the film became a big hit. When DVD and VHS versions came out in the early '80s, however, they used the original negative, so, according to Cohen, "there are two versions of the movie - the home video version and the theatrical cut" (pp. 51-52). Therefore, if you watch the critically unadmired Hell Up in Harlem immediately after Black Caesar, you scratch your head, wondering why the sequel starts with him at the crosswalk and never shows him getting the shaft at the old 'hood.

And by the way, if you're hoping to experience the James Brown soundtrack in action for Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973) (a sequel to 1972's Slaughter, both starring the unrelated Jim Brown), DVD versions with the original soundtrack, including the chart hit "Sexy Sexy Sexy," are pretty much impossible to find. They've all got a faux blaxploitation dummy score for some reason. More punishment for Soul Brother Number One for not following the original cue instructions?

James Brown - "Down and Out in New York City" (Billboard #50,  entered 3/10/73; soul #13). Written by Bodie Chandler and Barry De Vorzon. Produced by James Brown. 45: "Down and Out in New York City"/"Mama's Dead" (Polydor 1973). LP: Black Caesar (Polydor 1973).

The B-side, "Mama's Dead," sounds as though Brown was captured in the studio shedding real tears.

James Brown - "Sexy Sexy Sexy" (Billboard #50, entered 8/18/73; soul #6). Written and produced by James Brown. 45: "Sexy Sexy Sexy"/"Slaughter Theme" (Polydor 1973). LP: Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (Polydor 1973).

(Again, the appearance of this song on any DVD version of the film is no guarantee.)

Edwin Starr - "Ain't It Hell Up in Harlem" (Billboard #110, entered 2/23/74). Written by Freddie Perren. Produced by Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell. 45: "Ain't It Hell Up in Harlem"/"Don't It Feel Good to Be Free" (Motown 1974). LP: Hell Up in Harlem (Motown 1974).

I wish "Big Pappa," the song that accompanies the film's sequence where Tommy Gibbs's old man goes gangster, was on side B. That would have made for a truly classic single.

James Brown - "The Payback, Pt. 1" (Billboard #26, entered 3/23/74; soul #1). Written by James Brown, Fred Wesley, and John Starks. Produced by James Brown. 45: "The Payback - Part I"/"The Payback - Part II" (Polydor 1973). LP: The Payback (Polydor 1973).

Pacific Gas & Electric's 3 charting hits

The Los Angeles multiracial soul rock outfit Pacific Gas & Electric made their mark with the 1970 top 20 Jesus hit "Are You Ready?" The song begins by acknowledging the Vietnam War and ecological concerns ("There's rumors of war/Men dying and women crying/If you breathe air you'll die") before stirring up a fuzz guitar/gospel choir frenzy. The group had two lesser-known charting hits: "Father Come on Home," a 45-only release that also uses a gospel choir to ear-catching effect, and "Thank God for You, Baby," which evokes the Almighty in title only (and charted at #50 on the Billboard soul chart). This third one is billed to "PG&E" as a result of protestations from a certain utility company.

Featuring lead vocalist (and Arthur Lee-lookalike) Charlie Allen along with former James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, Pacific Gas & Electric likely had Schwartz to thank for its God rock tendency. He had been converted to Christianity by street preacher Arthur Blessitt, the "Minister of Sunset Strip" who is now best known for carrying a cross through every nation of the world. As for the wince-inducing album cover for the group's Are You Ready?, I'm curious if there's anything more to the story than Columbia Records simply wanting to shake up perceptions.  

1. Pacific Gas & Electric - "Are You Ready?" (Billboard #14, entered 5/30/70). Written by Charles Allen and John Hill. Produced by John Hill. 45: "Are You Ready?"/"Staggolee" (Columbia 1970). LP: Are You Ready?

Side B is a bluesy version of the old Staggolee/ Stagolee/ Stack-A-Lee/ Stagger Lee folk song, sticking close to a traditional, pre-Lloyd Price set of lyrics.


2. Pacific Gas & Electric - "Father, Come on Home" (Billboard #93, entered 10/10/70). Written by Bill Soden. Produced by John Hill. 45: "Father, Come on Home"/"Elvira" (Columbia 1970). LP: (No album appearance).

The A-side's songwriter had recorded some singles in the late sixties, also with John Hill as producer. The label for the smokin' B-side "Elvira" lists it as having appeared in the 1970 Otto Preminger film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, starring Liza Minelli, even though it doesn't. A promo single released by Columbia does include the correct Pacific Gas & Electric song that appears in the film ("The Rake and Work Your Show"), while the A-side contains "Old Man Devil," a composition by Pete Seeger, who emerges weirdly out of the woods at the end of the film and performs his composition as the closing credits roll.

3. PG&E - "Thank God for You, Baby" (Billboard #97, entered 3/18/72; soul #50). Written by Chris Allen and John Hill. Produced by John Hill. 45: "Thank God for You, Baby"/"See the Monkey Run" (Columbia 1972). LP: PG&E (Columbia 1972).