When 'legendary' Motown artists names are bandied around seldom, if ever,
is the name Willie Hutch included. Hopefully the recent reissue of much of
his Motown catalogue will rectify this because, as far as we are
concerned, the man was a genius and his music has stood the test of time
unlike many of his contemporaries.
We did an in depth
profile of his work
some time ago but he joined Motown primarily as a writer having had
success writing for The 5th Dimension and was asked to write the lyrics for
"I'll Be There", a #1 Hot 100 & R&B hit for The Jackson 5 in 1970. Maria Carey also has a Hot 100 #1 hit with it in 1992.
As quite often the case with many artists, Hutch came to the attention of
the UK's Northern Soul scene via his debut solo single, a 1965 Dunhill
recording "The Duck" / "Love Runs Out". He was a member of The
Phonetics who released a handful of Hutch written singles on Trudel
between 1964-65.
As with all his albums, this one includes several killer cuts including his rendition of Leon Ware's "I Wanna Be Where You Are", along with a few of his own compositions such as "Sunshine Lady", "Can't Get Ready For Losing You", "I Just Wanted To Make Her Happy", "California My Way" (a 2-step classic) and of course his own interpretation of "I'll Be There", similar to "The Way We Were" (on Ode To My Lady") he puts his own inimitable stamp on the song which is almost unrecognisable to the Jackson 5s version.
He released eight albums for the label between 1973-77 after two he released for RCA in 1969-70. Only two further of his Motown albums are not currently available
digitally, "Foxy Brown" and his last "Havin' A House Party" (from whence
this blog gets it name from the track "Soul Strut") so 'no doubt(?) these
may also appear in the coming weeks.
He left Motown to join Norman Whitfield's label where he released two
albums and returned to Motown for one album in 1985. Three further albums
appeared on indie labels in 1994,1996 and 2002. Hutch died in 2005 aged only
60.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Details
| Rating: |
8.8 |
| Explicit: |
N |
| Genre/Style: |
Modern Soul |
| Format: |
Album / Reissue |
| Media: |
Digital |
| Label: |
Motown |
| Cat No: |
None |
| Date: |
04/2024 |
| Price: |
£8.91 |
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