Stylistics - People Make the World Go Round

 

Released on Avco album The Stylistics, 1971

Song reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the Billboard Soul Singles charts. Has often been sampled by the likes of Naughty by Nature (World Go Round) and Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre (Fore Play).

"The ups and downs, a carousel

Changing people's heads around"

A very lush Philadelphia-soul number satirizing the problems of the early 70s; however, Russell Thompkins Jr.'s falsetto rendering will keep it forever popular.

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Artistics - Hard To Carry On

 Released on Brunswick album The Articulate Artistics, 1968

Originally formed at Marshall High School in Chicago, Illinois and performed at the Democratic National Convention in 1960. Major Lance discovered them, helping to sign them to OKeh Records.

I'm thinking that Tommy Green sings led on this recording since he was the primary lead starting in 1967.

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Interview: Jerry Wexler

 

GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS/GETTY

As a founder, songwriter, and producer at Atlantic Records, Wexler was a vast influence on the development of American music in the 1950s through the early 1980s, particularly in the Soul/R&B genre. Aretha Franklin (pictured above), Ray Charles, The Drifters, Ruth Brown, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and George Michael were just a few of the artists he influenced.

"Well, yeah, the story is that when Otis Redding did it, it was entirely a different song. The sock it to me's were Aretha Franklin's idea where she injected into the song, which connoted a certain idea of social respect, probably the notion of ethnic respect, combined with a little judicious lubricity on her part." - Jerry Wexler

This 1993 interview (audio and text) was conducted by Terry Gross for NPR's Fresh Air...

Roots of R&B: Record producer Jerry Wexler

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