I've no idea why now, but Rose Royce's 1979 hit "Is It Love You're After" has been reissued digitally today (10 Jun 2022). It is subtitled (Edit)
which is the 7" 3:50 version rather than the full 5:00 LP/12" mix. I also
noticed that there was a "Car Wash" remix released in Feb but it's rather
'clubby'.
As Peter Sellers' catch phrase relating to Michael Caine once said 'there's not many people know that', but the song, written by Miles Gregory, was first recorded by
Spyder Turner in Jun 1978. It was on his "Music Web" album and also released as the B side of his single "Get Down" on Whitfield. In fact it isn't even listed by SecondHandSongs which
inaccurately states that Rose Royce's version was the first release in
Aug 1979.
It fared better in the UK than US reaching #13 on UK pop chart in Jan
1980 on it's ninth (and tenth) week of a thirteen week run on the chart,
missing out on Billboard's Hot 100 reaching only #105.
S'Express sampled it for their 1988 UK#1 pop hit "Theme Form S'Express" and by many others before and since.
Rose Royce's lead singer Gwen Dickey is appearing in the UK in Sep/Oct
this year as part of the
Giants Of Soul
tour.
UPDATE. purely by chance a few days after posting this I have just come
across a 12 minute, presumably 'bootleg', mix of it on YouTube (posted
below). A YT comment suggests that it was done by DJ EXPAT .. anyone know?
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12 Minute 'bootleg' mix
| Rating: | 8.8 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | Modern Soul |
| Format: | Single |
| Media: | Digital |
| Label: | Warner Music / X5 Music |
| Cat No: | None |
| Date: | 10/06/2022 |
| Key/BPM: | 10B/118 |
| Price: | £1 |
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Excellent song on 2 different tempos. Thank you for the reminder of the first version of Spyder Turner which had escaped me.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, I listened to his excellent album again in its entirety.
Yves
I've Been Waiting from that album is a favourite track of mine, splendid
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