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Tuesday 13 July 2021

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes [2021] - Pray Before You Start Your Day (Inspirational Mix 2) [Shamack Entertainment Group]


Well this was a surprise. You may be thinking, as I did, why is this being released now? So, I did some digging and contacted the company behind it which is run by (James) McKinley Horton. It transpires that he manages Harold Melvin's estate with Melvin's wife Olivia and they are making a documentary about Harold Melvin's life called "To Be True". This documentary is motivated by the death of Melvin's daughter Trudy last year who had worked for twenty three years keeping her father's legacy alive. The single is being released to promote the documentary which is nearing completion. You can view a trailer for it here.

"Pray Before You Start Your Day" was released on 6 Jul 2021. It was originally written in 1996 by Melvin and Horton and was due for release but Melvin had a massive stoke shortly afterwards and died in 1997, aged 57, and it was never released.  Three mixes have been produced by McKinley Horton, Bert Price, Cory 'Fortune West' Wilson and George Short. Mix 1 features Horton's son Izaiah James on a more contemporary version, whilst Mix 2 is the original vocals with a new production featuring Harold Melvin on the second verse and Dwight 'Blackie' Johnson with Anthony Quarterman. McKinley also sent me a third contemporary mix which isn't commercially available.

McKinley Horton played keyboards on a couple of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes albums (their first two of the 80s: "The Blue Album" and "All Things Happen In Time") under the moniker Mickie Horton and also co-wrote six of the eight tracks on their next album "Talk It Up (Tell Everybody)" in 1984

He became a member of Cashmere who had a few hits between 1983-85, four of them reaching the UK pop charts, the biggest being "Can I" which they performed on Top Of The Pops in 1985 as it reached #29 and spent 8 weeks on the chart. 

Cashmere evolved from Chicago's Heaven & Earth with members Dwight Duke and Keith Seward being joined by Horton and drummer Daryl Burgee. Heaven & Earth have links to The Soul Majestics as the lead singer Dean Williams joined them around 1978. The Soul Majestics released only two known singles but their first is a sweet soul/lowrider classic "I Done Told You Baby"

Horton also wrote Eugene Wilde's (aka Ronald Broomfield one of Miami's talented Broomfield family) 1984 hit "Gotta Get You Home Tonight" and worked on Vanessa William's 'Dreamin' in 1988. He has also worked with Jimmy 'Jam' Harris & Terry Lewis.

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Please note this is a draft video which is not complete

Details
Rating: 8.4
Genre/Style: Modern Soul
Format: Single
Media: Digital
Label: Shamack Entertainment Group
Cat No: None
Year: 06/07/2021
Key/BPM: 8B/157 : 9B/119
Value: £1.79


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