Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes chart success waned after the departure
of Teddy Pendergrass in 1975 and they left Philadelphia International in 1976.
They released two albums on ABC in 1976-77 and a third, "The Blue Album", on
Source in 1979.
The Northern Soul scene pounced on "Prayin'", written by McFadden &
Whitehead, which was a huge sound and still gets played today. It was
released as a single on three occasions each with different B sides (i.e. "Your Love Is Taking Me On A Journey", "Praying inst." and as the flip to
"I Should Be Your Lover") making it easy and cheap to find.
However, Demon Music Group has reissued it on Friday digitally and on vinyl,
flipped with "Baby I’m Back", previously an album only track. Both tracks have
been remastered by Phil Kinrade.
The lead singer is David Ebo who had the unenviable task of replacing Pendergrass. We did a feature on him last year on 9 Nov which would have been his 72nd birthday on which we posted "Praying'".
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
It's a pretty sad state of affairs for new music, on the hottest day of the week for new releases, when one of the prime
releases of the day is a remix of a song that is nearly 50 years old! It
was originally released in 1975 as Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass
in a vain attempt to get Teddy to stay with the group but he eventually
left soon after this song charted in UK in 1977.
I don't believe that it was ever released as a single in the US and was
eventually a UK #5 pop hit in 1977. Thelma Houston covered
the Gamble, Huff & Gilbert song on Motown at the same time and they
both ran concurrently on the UK Top 20 with Harold Melvin & The Blue
Notes peaking at #5 on 26 Feb 1977 and Thelma Houston at #13 on 5 Mar
1977.
The song was on "Wake Up Everybody" which would be the last album Teddy Pendergrass featured on. The album
version is just over six minutes and Dave Lee has extended itto nearly eight (7:54) on his new Philly World Mix which was a bonus 12" track on his recent "Produced With Love II" vinyl edition.
Posting the latest Izipho Soul release yesterday reminded me of a track
I was alerted to a few weeks back by Ross Fitz, "Love Stormy Weather", which samples Melvin Brown & James Matthews' "Love Stormy Weather" from 1976 (which was the first 'official' Izipho Soul 7" release in
2017) and was released on 13 Jun 2020 as part of 30 track compilation "Hot Digits:Year Eight" which, at present, is available only on Traxsource.
The same compilation also has a track by J.B. Sugar ,"Black Sugar", which samples
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Feat. Sharon Paige "Tonight's The Night" from the "Blue Album" 1979, the same one that had "Prayin'", post
Teddy P.
In the main the album is disco fodder but another track by
Old Chap "The Best In Me" I'm sure is sampling something. The voice and song is familiar
and I think it could be Marlena Shaw" You Bring Out The Best In Me" from her 1978 album "Acting Up" but speeded up.
I'm sure there are other tracks sampled but these, for me, are the best of the compilation.
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.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
Please note this is a draft video which is not complete
A mid 80s rare groove track from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes released long after
Teddy P had left (in fact it was two years after his car crash which left
him paralysed). The lead on this track is Gil Saunders who passed away
recently aged 69 on
4 Feb 2021.
The version on their 1984 album, 'Talk It Up (Tell Everybody)', was a longer (5:14).
This just popped up on my feed - how can you better a Philly classic
such as this and extend it to nearly 13 minutes and keep the listener
interested. Well the master Tom Moulton has managed just that!
From a compilation album: Tom Moulton [2013] - Philadelphia International
Classics The Tom Moulton Remixes [Harmless #HURTXVINYL 112], this is the
dogs doodahs!
There are another 30 tracks spread over 8 x 12" vinyl
discs and available on CD. There are a few comments about poor mastering
though!
The vinyl copies are selling on Discogs for an median price of £280!
There are only two currently for sale for £390 and £430.
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