Ivory Tilmon - The Detroit Emeralds - A Profile

Ivory Tilmon was a member of the Detroit Emeralds and would have been 81 today. He died the day before his 73rd birthday on 13 Sep 2014.

The Emeralds were formed as a vocal harmony group in Little Rock, AK, by Ivory and his three brothers, Abrim, Cleophus and Raymond Tilmon. Cleophus and Raymond left and childhood friend, James Mitchell joined. When they moved to Detroit they renamed themselves Detroit Emeralds.

Now a trio, they joined Ric-Tic Records and had their first hit with "Show Time" (vocal and instrumental) in Dec 1967 which reached #22 R&B and #69 Hot 100. They recorded another two singles with the label, "Shades Down" which was an instrumental (probably by The San Remo Strings) which had spins on the Northern Soul scene with a cover of Bobby Gentry's "Ode Billy Joe" on the flip in Apr 1968 followed by "(I'm An Ordinary Man) Take Me The Way I Am" (an underrated song) / "I'll Keep On Coming Back" in Jul 1968. Neither made a dent on the R&B chart.

Ric-Tic was bought by Motown in 1968 and it would seem that the Emeralds were surplus to requirements and by 1970 signed to another Detroit label Westbound. It is claimed that whilst touring they recorded demos at the Willie Mitchell run Hi studios and brought them back to Detroit to record the vocals and strings. Out of these sessions came their next hit "If I Lose Your Love" reaching #32 on R&B chart in 1970. 

They had one more minor hit with "I Can't See Myself Doing Without You" (#41 R&B) before having a run of several crossover hits between 1971-73. Amazingly, probably their best known record, "Feel The Need In Me" failed to enter the Hot 100 (falling just outside at 110) yet it was a UK #4 pop hit!

Whist not a hit in the US, not even registering on the R&B chart, "I Think Of You" was a UK Top 30 pop hit reaching #27 on it's fifth of a twelve week run on the chart in Sep 1973. It was released following the UK reissue of "You Want It, You Got It" (which made it to #12) to capitalise on the chart success of "Feel The Need".

The group began to split in 1974 with James Mitchell and later member Marvin Willis along with Ivory departing and forming another Detroit Emeralds. Abe continued with his group naming it A.C. Tilmon & The Detroit Emeralds (presumably elder brother Ivory had rights to the name). Mitchell and Willis also formed The Floaters, writing songs for them, who included James' brother Paul Mitchell.

The group only had one more minor success with a re-recording of "Feel The Need In Me" in 1977 which again fared much better in the UK reaching #12 whilst only #90 on Hot 100 and #73 R&B.

The song has been covered several times, by Graham Central Station (1974) and Forrest (1983) probably being the better ones, but Bryan Ferry and, God forbid, Shakin' Stevens covered it in 1988 and even Annie Lennox (1992) as well as several others. 

The group released five albums, all on Westbound:

1971 - Do Me Right

1972 - You Want It, You Got It

1973 - I'm in Love with You

1977 - Feel the Need

1978 - Let's Get Together

Abrim Tilmon died from a heart attack in 1982 aged only 37.

You may recognise "Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms)" as one of several samples used by De La Soul in their 1989 hit "Say No Go". Other songs sampled include Hall & Oates "I Can't Go For That" and Emotions "Best Of My Love".

One of De La Souls' later singles "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays" samples loads of songs and the intro is from Instant Funk's "I Got My Mind Made Up" which prompted me to post it along with a couple of the B sides from the 12".

The Singles

Album Tracks / B sides

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