Podcast appearances and mentions of billy davis jr

Joi Cardwell - Found Love,Satoshi Tomiie - Tears,Reelsoul - All That I Can Say (DJ Spen and Robert Matos Latin Sunset Mix),Geoffery C - This Is Hot,Elements of Life, Josh Milan - Berimbau (DJ Erv Rework),Dennis Collins - The Load Is Lifted (Sunday Morning Mix),Cee ElAssaad & Beatkozina - Crossing Paths,Vince Watson - Eminescence,David Harness and David Patterson - Teena's Cry,Gee Bello feat. Roy Ayers - The Sunshine Goes On And On (Nigel Lewis Mix/J*Ski Edit),Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard (Jay Vegas Good Things Mix),Golden Ratio - Breaking Through Time,George Benson & Earl Klugh - Mt. Airy Road,Papik (feat. Gemma) - Walking In The Sky,Vybe - All My Love,Tia Monet - Make Up Your Mind,Al Lindsey - It's Gonna B Alright,  Kindred The Family Soul - I Need You, Kindred The Family Soul - Never Loved You More,Billy Davis Jr & Marilyn McCoo - Never Gonna Let You Go,Four Tops - The Show Must Go On, 

Hello stranger. We're a little late this week, but don't give up on us just yet. The editing process took awhile because we sometimes made mistakes and couldn't get it right. At some point we just said we got to give it up, because every time we thought we were done, the episode kept telling us “Don't leave me this way!” Maybe I'm amazed at how good the Billboard Top 40 songs from the week ending April 30th, 1974 were. Whether you're a cheery baby, an old fashioned boy, a dancing queen, or a dancing man, sometimes it's just the right time of the night to hear them.  Link to a listing of the songs in this week's episode: https://top40weekly.com/1977-all-charts/#US_Top_40_Singles_Week_Ending_30th_April_1977. Data Sources: Billboard Magazine, where the charts came from and on what the countdown was based. Websites: allmusic.com, songfacts.com,  wikipedia.com (because Mark's lazy) Books: “Ranking the 70's” by Dann Isbell, and Bill Carroll “American Top 40 With Casey Kasem (The 1970's)" by Pete Battistini. Rejected Episode Titles: So In To You Cinderella Dancing Queen, Dancin' Man, Lonley Boy Right Time of the Southern Nights Calling Dr. Boogie Man Some links to things we discussed in this episode: Andrew Gold “What's Wrong with this Picture” Album Cover: https://www.discogs.com/master/198285-Andrew-Gold-Whats-Wrong-With-This-Picture/image/SW1hZ2U6MzAwODQzNg== Leo Sayer “Endless Flight” Album Cover: https://www.discogs.com/release/1242181-Leo-Sayer-Endless-Flight/image/SW1hZ2U6MTc1ODU4Ng== Sanford and Son “The Sandfords Own A Racehorse” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgGuCFD1Zts The Official Website of Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.:  https://mccoodavis.com/ Old El Paso Cheese Boogie Man 90s Commercial (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMlH_G1xw4 Harold Melvin and Blue Notes version of “Don't Leave Me this Way”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnIkcB8GObo Roy Clark & Glen Campbell Ghost Riders In the Sky:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LIdPGK42Gc

Hi neighbor! March 20 is the birthday of Fred Rogers, "Mister Rogers" to millions of children who once frolicked in the "Neighborhood of Make Believe" with he and his pals on PBS. Today we welcome two-time Grammy & Emmy award winning composer and producer, Dennis Scott, who has taken a library of Mister Roger's tunes and created a tribute album with new arrangements and a who's-who of recording artists and performers. "Thank You Mister Rogers: Music & Memories", features The Cowsills - Jaci Velasquez - Rita Wilson - Micky Dolenz - Vanessa Williams - Tom Bergeron - Jim Brickman - Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. - Sandi Patty - Kellie Pickler - Lee Greenwood - Jon Secada.  Put on your comfy sweater and join us for this feel-good episode of LOVE SOMEONE! ~ DelilahSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 This week, part 2 of our series on R&B, Soul, Disco and Hip-Hop!  As usual, we have a great collection of interview clips with some of the greatest artists of the genre. -        Tina Turner breaks down her performing style (and explains why she didn't like her voice) -        Michael Jackson recalls the earliest days of The Jackson 5 -        The O'Jays explain how they initially rejected one of their biggest hits -        Nona Hendrix talks about the recording and controversy of the classic soul hit, “Lady Marmalade” -        Gloria Gaynor tells the story of having to fight to release “I Will Survive” -        The Commodores talk about learning the tricks of the trade from The Jackson 5 -        Donna Summer reveals the song that inspired “Love To Love You” -        How Arrested Development created hip-hop music to reflect a different side of the African-American experience -        Anita Baker tells Marilyn Denis about her style (or lack of style) -        Diana Ross talks about the early days of The Supremes -        Plus, revealing clips from Barry White, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jully Black, The Chi-Lites, Deborah Cox, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Paul, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr and Lou Rawls.   And we'll tell the amazing story about the birth of hip-hop in an NYC house party on August 11, 1973.   Plus, Tom tells us about a whole bunch of Cool Soul Facts!   Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville.  It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

Jean Aubergine - Disco Numberwang (Yuksek Remix),AC Soul Symphony - I Want To See You Dance (Radio Edit), Sgt Slick feat. Karina Chavez - I Thank You (Michael Gray Extended Mix),Adri Block and Paul Parsons - Hide Your Love,Wipe The Needle / Syren Rivers - The Way,Timmy Regisford - Love (Vocal Mix),Loletta Holloway - Stronger The Longer(Remixed by Timmy Regisford and Adam Rios),DJ Mes - Soul Glow,Jasper Street Company - Praying For You(Expansions NYC Dub),Tom Glide / Ivan Russo - Supernova Quazar (Tony Deledda Latin House Remix),Ultra Nate - New Kind of Medicine (12", 1998),Marilyn Ashford Brown - I've Got A Feeling('Just Doing Me' CD, 2009),Leroy Hutson - Love Oh Love (45, 1973), The Shapeshifters - Giving Me Something Better (Aeroplane Extended Remix),Yam Who? Mr Smith / Suki Soul - Let's Go Together,Output / Input - I'm In Love (Georgie B Remix), Rockie Robbins - You And Me (Expansion CD),Robert Gee - What You Wanna Do,Soul Children - Midnight Sunshine ('Soul Prescription' LP),Jazshop/Ping Spells - This Time Love's For Real,The Supremes - I'm Gonna let My Heart Do The Walking,Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. - Never Gonna Let You Go (LP, 1976),THE NEW JERSEY CONNECTION RADIO SHOWSATURDAYS ON STARPOINT RADIO5PM-7PM LONDON - 12 NOON-2PM NEW YORK CITY

Today we sit down in studio with Lisa Gay, renowned music luminary, voclaist, entertainer, and newly minted Creative Director for the Modern Showrooms in Las Vegas. Lisa captures audiences with her smooth, yet powerful tones and riffs showcasing a unique style like no other reminiscent of “Young Ella” Fitzgerald, “Divine One” Sarah Vaughan, Phyllis Hyman and Nancy Wilson. Lisa has toured with Marilyn Mcoo and Billy Davis Jr., Joe Cocker, South Africa's Letta Mbulu and worked as a Background Singer at A&M Records during the record company's historic legacy. Lisa's musical experiences lead her to write and produce her own CD Project Releases, “Watch What Happens”, Christmas “Favorite Things”, and “Somewhere In My Lifetime” single with Husband Guitarist Tony Drake, Master Violinist Mark Cargill and Musical Director Keyboardist/Arranger Greg Cook, that help launch “Lisa Gay, Tony Drake and The Gentlemen of Thrill Band”, on tour with their “Live” sonic “gumbo mix” of Classic Soul, Jazz and Contemporary Music into many venues, cruises, special events, concerts, political, and educational events. In Las Vegas, Lisa has been honored in 2012 for “Excellence In Entertainment, Lounge Performer of The Year”. Along with her band, “Lisa Gay, Tony Drake and The Gentlemen of Thrill Band”, were also honored by Entertainer Consumers Exchange Award as Winner for 2014 Best Urban Jazz Lounge Band, and the “Sweet Louie Award” for Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment. Lisa is presenting My Favorite Things, showcasing “Christmas Joy” and  singing by fantastic Artists complimented by Exquisite Musicianship wrapped with Traditional, Soul, and Jazz! Wednesday, December 13th at 9pm. www.lisagaysinger.com www.modernvegas.com www.modernvegas.com/show/lisa-gay-presents-my-favorite-things/

Laura Nyro wrote this song - (a tribute to torch singer Helen Merrill) - in 1966, but, it didn't do much for her at the time. Three years later, when The Fifth Dimension recorded it, it shot to number 1. The radiant lead vocalist, Marilyn McCoo, sang it to her betrothed, Billy Davis Jr., on the various television variety shows of the day, and audiences lapped it up. Nyro, the oddball composer-prodigy from the Bronx, consistently channeled her soulful declarations to many other artists of the time - (Three Dog Night, Blood Sweat and Tears, Barbara Streisand) before being identified as the singular genius behind the magic. My high school girlfriend Cindy was a 4'11'' spitfire with an identical twin. Her dad, Hank, a long-distance truck driver with a provocative (to put it generously) sense of humor, enjoyed teasing us. He called me “Keppy” (the yiddish word for Head, because my hair was thinning). Whenever this song came on the radio, trumpeting the refrain: “Marry Me, Bill!” - and it was ubiquitous - Hank, and Cindy's two older brothers, would give us shit mercilessly, - and I HATED IT. I hated the song and I hated them for pushing the uncomfortable question on us - because, despite the fact that Cindy hoped for the eventuality of matrimony, I didn't, and that was painful for her. Today this song sustains a shining memento for me - a reminder that I have enjoyed the gift of being loved by a soul who refused to give up on me. Fiercely loyal, uncompromising in her passions,- Cindy, my first love. 

In this episode Tom and Bert go after the Rock & Roll HOF again after finding more outrageous "Snubs" that are just as bad or worse than the previous Performers discussed on our podcast about the Rock & Roll HOF Selection process.John Fogerty and Diana Ross are in the HOF based on their group performances with "Creedence Clearwater Revival" and "The Supremes" respectively BUT not as solo artists! The record speaks for itself and the guys hammer that point hard.Others that were screwed/snubbed in their opinion were, "The 5th Dimension" with Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo, "Herman's Hermits" with Peter Noone, "Jan & Dean" "The J Geils Band", Olivia Newton John, Barry White and Tom Jones among the performers.The guys couldn't help themselves so they decided to bring the listeners Part 2 of these god awful travesties and set the record straight. These performers all deserved recognition and induction into the HOF period!You can email us at reeldealzmoviesandmusic@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page, Reel Dealz Podcast: Movies & Music Thru The Decades to leave comments. Hope you enjoy the show.

Music intro by: Gail NoblesKeyboardist & Vocals: Gail NoblesAccording to Whitney Houston's official website Saving All My Love For You was released in August 1985. So August 13 was the 38th anniversary. Saving All My aLove For You is a song written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin. It was originally recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. for the album Marilyn and Billy of 1978. The song became a global success and represented a commercial breakthrough for Whitney Houston, topping the charts in four countries and reaching the top 10 in various other regions. It became her first song to top the US Billboard Hot 100, staying there for one week, and is certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over 1 million copies. At the 28th Annual Grammy Awards, it won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.You're listening to the Whitney Soul Podcast. I'm your host, Gail Nobles.

Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk. First, we are joined by seven-time Grammy Award-winning husband and wife duo Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., who join us to discuss their music careers, the secret to their lasting 53-year marriage, and their upcoming Juneteenth celebration performance. Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.'s Juneteenth celebration performance will be June 17, 2023, at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston at 8:00 p.m. For more information, click here. Then, we're joined by “America's foremost chart journalist” Fred Bronson, who joins us to discuss the biggest summer hits of all time, what makes a summer hit endure, and the 40th anniversary of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. Also, Bronson shares highlights from his career as a Billboard journalist, such as covering the Eurovision Song Contest many times, his work with the multi-venue benefit concert Live Aid, as well as many other writing credits. To listen to Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, click here.  To listen to Aguas de Março by Elis Regina & Tom Jobim, click here. To listen to La Plage de Saint-Tropez by Army of Lovers, click here.  To listen to Summer in the City by The Lovin' Spoonful, click here. To listen to Just a Girl by No Doubt, click here.  Guests: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. 7-Time Grammy Award-winning Duo “The Power First Couple of Pop & Soul” Co-Founders & Lead Singers Of The 5th Dimension Fred Bronson Billboard Journalist “America's Foremost Chart Journalist” Author of Books Related to the #1 Songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day's most important and pressing issues. We also offer a free podcast here, on iTunes, and other apps

"Thank you for getting Fred recognized in the field he cared about most, songwriting."- Joanne Rogers (Fred's wife) Ahead of what would have been Fred Rogers 95th birthday on March 20, GRAMMY® and Emmy winning music producer Dennis Scott is preparing to reissue a special deluxe version on March 17 of the 2019 album, Thank You, Mister Rogers: Music & Memories, his second recorded collection of Fred's original music by way of Bob Frank Distribution & The Orchard (orcd.co/ThankYouMisterRogers) and ThankYouMisterRogers.com. Originally released in 2019, the album features recordings from music icons like Micky Dolenz, Sandi Patty, Vanessa Williams, Jim Brickman, Jon Secada, Lee Greenwood, Rita Wilson, Tom Bergeron, The Cowsills, Jaci Velasquez, Kellie Pickler, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. The new deluxe reissue will include a newly recorded version of "Won't You Be My Neighbor" by singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso Parker Hastings, along with artist interviews, and track commentary. Thank You, Mister Rogers: Music & Memories has won several awards including the Parent's Choice Award, National Parenting Products Award, Family Choice Award, Hot Diggity Award, and was a nominee of American Association of Independent Music's Libera Award. Scott also recorded and produced Songs From The Neighborhood - The Music of Mister Rogers, which won a GRAMMY® award in 2006 for Best Musical Album for Children, and featured recordings from music icons Crystal Gayle, Ricky Skaggs, Jon Secada, Amy Grant, CeCe Winans and others.

Originally released in 2019, the album features recordings from music icons like Micky Dolenz, Sandi Patty, Vanessa Williams, Jim Brickman, Jon Secada, Lee Greenwood, Rita Wilson, Tom Bergeron, The Cowsills, Jaci Velasquez, Kellie Pickler, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. The new deluxe reissue will include a newly recorded version of "Won't You Be My Neighbor" by singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso Parker Hastings, along with artist interviews, and track commentary. Thank You, Mister Rogers: Music & Memories has won several awards including the Parent's Choice Award, National Parenting Products Award, Family Choice Award, Hot Diggity Award, and was a nominee of American Association of Independent Music's Libera Award. Scott also recorded and produced Songs From The Neighborhood - The Music of Mister Rogers, which won a GRAMMY® award in 2006 for Best Musical Album for Children, and featured recordings from music icons Crystal Gayle, Ricky Skaggs, Jon Secada, Amy Grant, CeCe Winans and others.

Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., James Dean, John Glover, Don Davis, and you.

While taking a trip in a rental car, Sue accidentally pressed the "OnStar" button several times. She was eventually reprimanded by one of the OnStar associates, saying, "Ma'am, don't do that; do you think you're a superstar or something?" From that experience came this episode, "How to be an UNStar". Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr's super hit, "You Don't Have to be A Star" is the setting of this post. What a super explanation of what it takes to really be a star in the Kingdom of God. For the performer who just can't wait to be noticed, Jesus strongly urges (much like the lyrics to the song) to come as we are. He takes us in. We're rejected, hurt, filled with jealousy, envy, and even succumbing to the comparison factor. But to HIM, we're worth what we have within. No where is it stated in this pop hit, “You're worth what you have because of what is on the outside.” So why do we work so hard on everything exterior, yet leave our insides deplete of maturity and spiritual hunger? BTW, spiritual hunger is a good thing.. Check what's inside your heart. Have fun with this one. And take a quick look at how you represent Jesus. He's the only true star. www.sueduffield.com

In this episode Goddess Legend brings you on journey call My Ethical SLUT Diaries part 1 She explains her views on being the other woman, open relationship, and polyamory where she believes she could have two husbands.!!! We do not own the rights to the music used in this recording! Saving All My Love for You" is a song written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, originally recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. for their album Marilyn & Billy (1978). American singer Whitney Houston recorded a cover of the song for her self-titled debut studio album (1985). It was released on August 13, 1985, by Arista Records The Journey of A Soul Sister

Music legends Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. stop by ahead of their upcoming performance at the Rialto Center for the Arts. Plus, Kizzy Patel and Jesse Smith, 2 of the 5 restaurateurs behind Decatur's Kimball House, celebrate their purchase of the 136-year-old train depot that houses their award-winning eatery. And artist Michael Heffernan combines poetry with visual art in his new Marietta Cobb Museum of Art exhibition, “Michael Heffernan: Wayfinding.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode one hundred and fifty-six of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Was Made to Love Her", the early career of Stevie Wonder, and the Detroit riots of 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Groovin'" by the Young Rascals. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've put together a Mixcloud playlist of all the recordings excerpted in this episode. The best value way to get all of Stevie Wonder's early singles is this MP3 collection, which has the original mono single mixes of fifty-five tracks for a very reasonable price. For those who prefer physical media, this is a decent single-CD collection of his early work at a very low price indeed. As well as the general Motown information listed below, I've also referred to Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder by Mark Ribowsky, which rather astonishingly is the only full-length biography of Wonder, to Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul by Craig Werner, and to Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul by Stuart Cosgrove. For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I've used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown. To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy's own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown's thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier's autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers'. Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson by "Dr Licks" is a mixture of a short biography of the great bass player, and tablature of his most impressive bass parts. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I begin -- this episode deals with disability and racism, and also deals from the very beginning with sex work and domestic violence. It also has some discussion of police violence and sexual assault. As always I will try to deal with those subjects as non-judgementally and sensitively as possible, but if you worry that anything about those subjects might disturb you, please check the transcript. Calvin Judkins was not a good man. Lula Mae Hardaway thought at first he might be, when he took her in, with her infant son whose father had left before the boy was born. He was someone who seemed, when he played the piano, to be deeply sensitive and emotional, and he even did the decent thing and married her when he got her pregnant. She thought she could save him, even though he was a street hustler and not even very good at it, and thirty years older than her -- she was only nineteen, he was nearly fifty. But she soon discovered that he wasn't interested in being saved, and instead he was interested in hurting her. He became physically and financially abusive, and started pimping her out. Lula would eventually realise that Calvin Judkins was no good, but not until she got pregnant again, shortly after the birth of her second son. Her third son was born premature -- different sources give different numbers for how premature, with some saying four months and others six weeks -- and while he apparently went by Stevland Judkins throughout his early childhood, the name on his birth certificate was apparently Stevland Morris, Lula having decided not to give another child the surname of her abuser, though nobody has ever properly explained where she got the surname "Morris" from. Little Stevland was put in an incubator with an oxygen mask, which saved the tiny child's life but destroyed his sight, giving him a condition called retinopathy of prematurity -- a condition which nowadays can be prevented and cured, but in 1951 was just an unavoidable consequence for some portion of premature babies. Shortly after the family moved from Saginaw to Detroit, Lula kicked Calvin out, and he would remain only a peripheral figure in his children's lives, but one thing he did do was notice young Stevland's interest in music, and on his increasingly infrequent visits to his wife and kids -- visits that usually ended with violence -- he would bring along toy instruments for the young child to play, like a harmonica and a set of bongos. Stevie was a real prodigy, and by the time he was nine he had a collection of real musical instruments, because everyone could see that the kid was something special. A neighbour who owned a piano gave it to Stevie when she moved out and couldn't take it with her. A local Lions Club gave him a drum kit at a party they organised for local blind children, and a barber gave him a chromatic harmonica after seeing him play his toy one. Stevie gave his first professional performance when he was eight. His mother had taken him to a picnic in the park, and there was a band playing, and the little boy got as close to the stage as he could and started dancing wildly. The MC of the show asked the child who he was, and he said "My name is Stevie, and I can sing and play drums", so of course they got the cute kid up on stage behind the drum kit while the band played Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love": [Excerpt: Johnny Ace, "Pledging My Love"] He did well enough that they paid him seventy-five cents -- an enormous amount for a small child at that time -- though he was disappointed afterwards that they hadn't played something faster that would really allow him to show off his drumming skills. After that he would perform semi-regularly at small events, and always ask to be paid in quarters rather than paper money, because he liked the sound of the coins -- one of his party tricks was to be able to tell one coin from another by the sound of them hitting a table. Soon he formed a duo with a neighbourhood friend, John Glover, who was a couple of years older and could play guitar while Stevie sang and played harmonica and bongos. The two were friends, and both accomplished musicians for their age, but that wasn't the only reason Stevie latched on to Glover. Even as young as he was, he knew that Motown was soon going to be the place to be in Detroit if you were a musician, and Glover had an in -- his cousin was Ronnie White of the Miracles. Stevie and John performed as a duo everywhere they could and honed their act, performing particularly at the talent shows which were such an incubator of Black musical talent at the time, and they also at this point seem to have got the attention of Clarence Paul, but it was White who brought the duo to Motown. Stevie and John first played for White and Bobby Rodgers, another of the Miracles, then when they were impressed they took them through the several layers of Motown people who would have to sign off on signing a new act. First they were taken to see Brian Holland, who was a rising star within Motown as "Please Mr. Postman" was just entering the charts. They impressed him with a performance of the Miracles song "Bad Girl": [Excerpt: The Miracles, "Bad Girl"] After that, Stevie and John went to see Mickey Stevenson, who was at first sceptical, thinking that a kid so young -- Stevie was only eleven at the time -- must be some kind of novelty act rather than a serious musician. He said later "It was like, what's next, the singing mouse?" But Stevenson was won over by the child's talent. Normally, Stevenson had the power to sign whoever he liked to the label, but given the extra legal complications involved in signing someone under-age, he had to get Berry Gordy's permission. Gordy didn't even like signing teenagers because of all the extra paperwork that would be involved, and he certainly wasn't interested in signing pre-teens. But he came down to the studio to see what Stevie could do, and was amazed, not by his singing -- Gordy didn't think much of that -- but by his instrumental ability. First Stevie played harmonica and bongos as proficiently as an adult professional, and then he made his way around the studio playing on every other instrument in the place -- often only a few notes, but competent on them all. Gordy decided to sign the duo -- and the initial contract was for an act named "Steve and John" -- but it was soon decided to separate them. Glover would be allowed to hang around Motown while he was finishing school, and there would be a place for him when he finished -- he later became a staff songwriter, working on tracks for the Four Tops and the Miracles among others, and he would even later write a number one hit, "You Don't Have to be a Star (to be in My Show)" for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr -- but they were going to make Stevie a star right now. The man put in charge of that was Clarence Paul. Paul, under his birth name of Clarence Pauling, had started his career in the "5" Royales, a vocal group he formed with his brother Lowman Pauling that had been signed to Apollo Records by Ralph Bass, and later to King Records. Paul seems to have been on at least some of the earliest recordings by the group, so is likely on their first single, "Give Me One More Chance": [Excerpt: The "5" Royales, "Give Me One More Chance"] But Paul was drafted to go and fight in the Korean War, and so wasn't part of the group's string of hit singles, mostly written by his brother Lowman, like "Think", which later became better known in James Brown's cover version, or "Dedicated to the One I Love", later covered by the Shirelles, but in its original version dominated by Lowman's stinging guitar playing: [Excerpt: The "5" Royales, "Dedicated to the One I Love"] After being discharged, Clarence had shortened his name to Clarence Paul, and had started recording for all the usual R&B labels like Roulette and Federal, with little success: [Excerpt: Clarence Paul, "I'm Gonna Love You, Love You Til I Die"] He'd also co-written "I Need Your Lovin'", which had been an R&B hit for Roy Hamilton: [Excerpt: Roy Hamilton, "I Need Your Lovin'"] Paul had recently come to work for Motown – one of the things Berry Gordy did to try to make his label more attractive was to hire the relatives of R&B stars on other labels, in the hopes of getting them to switch to Motown – and he was the new man on the team, not given any of the important work to do. He was working with acts like Henry Lumpkin and the Valladiers, and had also been the producer of "Mind Over Matter", the single the Temptations had released as The Pirates in a desperate attempt to get a hit: [Excerpt: The Pirates, "Mind Over Matter"] Paul was the person you turned to when no-one else was interested, and who would come up with bizarre ideas. A year or so after the time period we're talking about, it was him who produced an album of country music for the Supremes, before they'd had a hit, and came up with "The Man With the Rock and Roll Banjo Band" for them: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "The Man With The Rock and Roll Banjo Band"] So, Paul was the perfect person to give a child -- by this time twelve years old -- who had the triple novelties of being a multi-instrumentalist, a child, and blind. Stevie started spending all his time around the Motown studios, partly because he was eager to learn everything about making records and partly because his home life wasn't particularly great and he wanted to be somewhere else. He earned the affection and irritation, in equal measure, of people at Motown both for his habit of wandering into the middle of sessions because he couldn't see the light that showed that the studio was in use, and for his practical joking. He was a great mimic, and would do things like phoning one of the engineers and imitating Berry Gordy's voice, telling the engineer that Stevie would be coming down, and to give him studio equipment to take home. He'd also astonish women by complimenting them, in detail, on their dresses, having been told in advance what they looked like by an accomplice. But other "jokes" were less welcome -- he would regularly sexually assault women working at Motown, grabbing their breasts or buttocks and then claiming it was an accident because he couldn't see what he was doing. Most of the women he molested still speak of him fondly, and say everybody loved him, and this may even be the case -- and certainly I don't think any of us should be judged too harshly for what we did when we were twelve -- but this kind of thing led to a certain amount of pressure to make Stevie's career worth the extra effort he was causing everyone at Motown. Because Berry Gordy was not impressed with Stevie's vocals, the decision was made to promote him as a jazz instrumentalist, and so Clarence Paul insisted that his first release be an album, rather than doing what everyone would normally do and only put out an album after a hit single. Paul reasoned that there was no way on Earth they were going to be able to get a hit single with a jazz instrumental by a twelve-year-old kid, and eventually persuaded Gordy of the wisdom of this idea. So they started work on The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, released under his new stagename of Little Stevie Wonder, supposedly a name given to him after Berry Gordy said "That kid's a wonder!", though Mickey Stevenson always said that the name came from a brainstorming session between him and Clarence Paul. The album featured Stevie on harmonica, piano, and organ on different tracks, but on the opening track, "Fingertips", he's playing the bongos that give the track its name: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (studio version)"] The composition of that track is credited to Paul and the arranger Hank Cosby, but Beans Bowles, who played flute on the track, always claimed that he came up with the melody, and it seems quite likely to me that most of the tracks on the album were created more or less as jam sessions -- though Wonder's contributions were all overdubbed later. The album sat in the can for several months -- Berry Gordy was not at all sure of its commercial potential. Instead, he told Paul to go in another direction -- focusing on Wonder's blindness, he decided that what they needed to do was create an association in listeners' minds with Ray Charles, who at this point was at the peak of his commercial power. So back into the studio went Wonder and Paul, to record an album made up almost entirely of Ray Charles covers, titled Tribute to Uncle Ray. (Some sources have the Ray Charles tribute album recorded first -- and given Motown's lax record-keeping at this time it may be impossible to know for sure -- but this is the way round that Mark Ribowsky's biography of Wonder has it). But at Motown's regular quality control meeting it was decided that there wasn't a single on the album, and you didn't release an album like that without having a hit single first. By this point, Clarence Paul was convinced that Berry Gordy was just looking for excuses not to do anything with Wonder -- and there may have been a grain of truth to that. There's some evidence that Gordy was worried that the kid wouldn't be able to sing once his voice broke, and was scared of having another Frankie Lymon on his hands. But the decision was made that rather than put out either of those albums, they would put out a single. The A-side was a song called "I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues, Part 1", which very much played on Wonder's image as a loveable naive kid: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues, Part 1"] The B-side, meanwhile, was part two -- a slowed-down, near instrumental, version of the song, reframed as an actual blues, and as a showcase for Wonder's harmonica playing rather than his vocals. The single wasn't a hit, but it made number 101 on the Billboard charts, just missing the Hot One Hundred, which for the debut single of a new artist wasn't too bad, especially for Motown at this point in time, when most of its releases were flopping. That was good enough that Gordy authorised the release of the two albums that they had in the can. The next single, "Little Water Boy", was a rather baffling duet with Clarence Paul, which did nothing at all on the charts. [Excerpt: Clarence Paul and Little Stevie Wonder, "Little Water Boy"] After this came another flop single, written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Janie Bradford, before the record that finally broke Little Stevie Wonder out into the mainstream in a big way. While Wonder hadn't had a hit yet, he was sent out on the first Motortown Revue tour, along with almost every other act on the label. Because he hadn't had a hit, he was supposed to only play one song per show, but nobody had told him how long that song should be. He had quickly become a great live performer, and the audiences were excited to watch him, so when he went into extended harmonica solos rather than quickly finishing the song, the audience would be with him. Clarence Paul, who came along on the tour, would have to motion to the onstage bandleader to stop the music, but the bandleader would know that the audiences were with Stevie, and so would just keep the song going as long as Stevie was playing. Often Paul would have to go on to the stage and shout in Wonder's ear to stop playing -- and often Wonder would ignore him, and have to be physically dragged off stage by Paul, still playing, causing the audience to boo Paul for stopping him from playing. Wonder would complain off-stage that the audience had been enjoying it, and didn't seem to get it into his head that he wasn't the star of the show, that the audiences *were* enjoying him, but were *there* to see the Miracles and Mary Wells and the Marvelettes and Marvin Gaye. This made all the acts who had to go on after him, and who were running late as a result, furious at him -- especially since one aspect of Wonder's blindness was that his circadian rhythms weren't regulated by sunlight in the same way that the sighted members of the tour's were. He would often wake up the entire tour bus by playing his harmonica at two or three in the morning, while they were all trying to sleep. Soon Berry Gordy insisted that Clarence Paul be on stage with Wonder throughout his performance, ready to drag him off stage, so that he wouldn't have to come out onto the stage to do it. But one of the first times he had done this had been on one of the very first Motortown Revue shows, before any of his records had come out. There he'd done a performance of "Fingertips", playing the flute part on harmonica rather than only playing bongos throughout as he had on the studio version -- leaving the percussion to Marvin Gaye, who was playing drums for Wonder's set: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] But he'd extended the song with a little bit of call-and-response vocalising: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] After the long performance ended, Clarence Paul dragged Wonder off-stage and the MC asked the audience to give him a round of applause -- but then Stevie came running back on and carried on playing: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] By this point, though, the musicians had started to change over -- Mary Wells, who was on after Wonder, was using different musicians from his, and some of her players were already on stage. You can hear Joe Swift, who was playing bass for Wells, asking what key he was meant to be playing in: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] Eventually, after six and a half minutes, they got Wonder off stage, but that performance became the two sides of Wonder's next single, with "Fingertips Part 2", the part with the ad lib singing and the false ending, rather than the instrumental part one, being labelled as the side the DJs should play. When it was released, the song started a slow climb up the charts, and by August 1963, three months after it came out, it was at number one -- only the second ever Motown number one, and the first ever live single to get there. Not only that, but Motown released a live album -- Recorded Live, the Twelve-Year-Old Genius (though as many people point out he was thirteen when it was released -- he was twelve when it was recorded though) and that made number one on the albums chart, becoming the first Motown album ever to do so. They followed up "Fingertips" with a similar sounding track, "Workout, Stevie, Workout", which made number thirty-three. After that, his albums -- though not yet his singles -- started to be released as by "Stevie Wonder" with no "Little" -- he'd had a bit of a growth spurt and his voice was breaking, and so marketing him as a child prodigy was not going to work much longer and they needed to transition him into a star with adult potential. In the Motown of 1963 that meant cutting an album of standards, because the belief at the time in Motown was that the future for their entertainers was doing show tunes at the Copacabana. But for some reason the audience who had wanted an R&B harmonica instrumental with call-and-response improvised gospel-influenced yelling was not in the mood for a thirteen year old singing "Put on a Happy Face" and "When You Wish Upon a Star", and especially not when the instrumental tracks were recorded in a key that suited him at age twelve but not thirteen, so he was clearly straining. "Fingertips" being a massive hit also meant Stevie was now near the top of the bill on the Motortown Revue when it went on its second tour. But this actually put him in a precarious position. When he had been down at the bottom of the bill and unknown, nobody expected anything from him, and he was following other minor acts, so when he was surprisingly good the audiences went wild. Now, near the top of the bill, he had to go on after Marvin Gaye, and he was not nearly so impressive in that context. The audiences were polite enough, but not in the raptures he was used to. Although Stevie could still beat Gaye in some circumstances. At Motown staff parties, Berry Gordy would always have a contest where he'd pit two artists against each other to see who could win the crowd over, something he thought instilled a fun and useful competitive spirit in his artists. They'd alternate songs, two songs each, and Gordy would decide on the winner based on audience response. For the 1963 Motown Christmas party, it was Stevie versus Marvin. Wonder went first, with "Workout, Stevie, Workout", and was apparently impressive, but then Gaye topped him with a version of "Hitch-Hike". So Stevie had to top that, and apparently did, with a hugely extended version of "I Call it Pretty Music", reworked in the Ray Charles style he'd used for "Fingertips". So Marvin Gaye had to top that with the final song of the contest, and he did, performing "Stubborn Kind of Fellow": [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"] And he was great. So great, it turned the crowd against him. They started booing, and someone in the audience shouted "Marvin, you should be ashamed of yourself, taking advantage of a little blind kid!" The crowd got so hostile Berry Gordy had to stop the performance and end the party early. He never had another contest like that again. There were other problems, as well. Wonder had been assigned a tutor, a young man named Ted Hull, who began to take serious control over his life. Hull was legally blind, so could teach Wonder using Braille, but unlike Wonder had some sight -- enough that he was even able to get a drivers' license and a co-pilot license for planes. Hull was put in loco parentis on most of Stevie's tours, and soon became basically inseparable from him, but this caused a lot of problems, not least because Hull was a conservative white man, while almost everyone else at Motown was Black, and Stevie was socially liberal and on the side of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements. Hull started to collaborate on songwriting with Wonder, which most people at Motown were OK with but which now seems like a serious conflict of interest, and he also started calling himself Stevie's "manager" -- which did *not* impress the people at Motown, who had their own conflict of interest because with Stevie, like with all their artists, they were his management company and agents as well as his record label and publishers. Motown grudgingly tolerated Hull, though, mostly because he was someone they could pass Lula Mae Hardaway to to deal with her complaints. Stevie's mother was not very impressed with the way that Motown were handling her son, and would make her opinion known to anyone who would listen. Hull and Hardaway did not get on at all, but he could be relied on to save the Gordy family members from having to deal with her. Wonder was sent over to Europe for Christmas 1963, to perform shows at the Paris Olympia and do some British media appearances. But both his mother and Hull had come along, and their clear dislike for each other was making him stressed. He started to get pains in his throat whenever he sang -- pains which everyone assumed were a stress reaction to the unhealthy atmosphere that happened whenever Hull and his mother were in the same room together, but which later turned out to be throat nodules that required surgery. Because of this, his singing was generally not up to standard, which meant he was moved to a less prominent place on the bill, which in turn led to his mother accusing the Gordy family of being against him and trying to stop him becoming a star. Wonder started to take her side and believe that Motown were conspiring against him, and at one point he even "accidentally" dropped a bottle of wine on Ted Hull's foot, breaking one of his toes, because he saw Hull as part of the enemy that was Motown. Before leaving for those shows, he had recorded the album he later considered the worst of his career. While he was now just plain Stevie on albums, he wasn't for his single releases, or in his first film appearance, where he was still Little Stevie Wonder. Berry Gordy was already trying to get a foot in the door in Hollywood -- by the end of the decade Motown would be moving from Detroit to LA -- and his first real connections there were with American International Pictures, the low-budget film-makers who have come up a lot in connection with the LA scene. AIP were the producers of the successful low-budget series of beach party films, which combined appearances by teen heartthrobs Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in swimsuits with cameo appearances by old film stars fallen on hard times, and with musical performances by bands like the Bobby Fuller Four. There would be a couple of Motown connections to these films -- most notably, the Supremes would do the theme tune for Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine -- but Muscle Beach Party was to be the first. Most of the music for Muscle Beach Party was written by Brian Wilson, Roger Christian, and Gary Usher, as one might expect for a film about surfing, and was performed by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, the film's major musical guests, with Annette, Frankie, and Donna Loren [pron Lorren] adding vocals, on songs like "Muscle Bustle": [Excerpt: Donna Loren with Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, "Muscle Bustle"] The film followed the formula in every way -- it also had a cameo appearance by Peter Lorre, his last film appearance before his death, and it featured Little Stevie Wonder playing one of the few songs not written by the surf and car writers, a piece of nothing called "Happy Street". Stevie also featured in the follow-up, Bikini Beach, which came out a little under four months later, again doing a single number, "Happy Feelin'". To cash in on his appearances in these films, and having tried releasing albums of Little Stevie as jazz multi-instrumentalist, Ray Charles tribute act, live soulman and Andy Williams-style crooner, they now decided to see if they could sell him as a surf singer. Or at least, as Motown's idea of a surf singer, which meant a lot of songs about the beach and the sea -- mostly old standards like "Red Sails in the Sunset" and "Ebb Tide" -- backed by rather schlocky Wrecking Crew arrangements. And this is as good a place as any to take on one of the bits of disinformation that goes around about Motown. I've addressed this before, but it's worth repeating here in slightly more detail. Carol Kaye, one of the go-to Wrecking Crew bass players, is a known credit thief, and claims to have played on hundreds of records she didn't -- claims which too many people take seriously because she is a genuine pioneer and was for a long time undercredited on many records she *did* play on. In particular, she claims to have played on almost all the classic Motown hits that James Jamerson of the Funk Brothers played on, like the title track for this episode, and she claims this despite evidence including notarised statements from everyone involved in the records, the release of session recordings that show producers talking to the Funk Brothers, and most importantly the evidence of the recordings themselves, which have all the characteristics of the Detroit studio and sound like the Funk Brothers playing, and have absolutely nothing in common, sonically, with the records the Wrecking Crew played on at Gold Star, Western, and other LA studios. The Wrecking Crew *did* play on a lot of Motown records, but with a handful of exceptions, mostly by Brenda Holloway, the records they played on were quickie knock-off album tracks and potboiler albums made to tie in with film or TV work -- soundtracks to TV specials the acts did, and that kind of thing. And in this case, the Wrecking Crew played on the entire Stevie at the Beach album, including the last single to be released as by "Little Stevie Wonder", "Castles in the Sand", which was arranged by Jack Nitzsche: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Castles in the Sand"] Apparently the idea of surfin' Stevie didn't catch on any more than that of swingin' Stevie had earlier. Indeed, throughout 1964 and 65 Motown seem to have had less than no idea what they were doing with Stevie Wonder, and he himself refers to all his recordings from this period as an embarrassment, saving particular scorn for the second single from Stevie at the Beach, "Hey Harmonica Man", possibly because that, unlike most of his other singles around this point, was a minor hit, reaching number twenty-nine on the charts. Motown were still pushing Wonder hard -- he even got an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in May 1964, only the second Motown act to appear on it after the Marvelettes -- but Wonder was getting more and more unhappy with the decisions they were making. He loathed the Stevie at the Beach album -- the records he'd made earlier, while patchy and not things he'd chosen, were at least in some way related to his musical interests. He *did* love jazz, and he *did* love Ray Charles, and he *did* love old standards, and the records were made by his friend Clarence Paul and with the studio musicians he'd grown to know in Detroit. But Stevie at the Beach was something that was imposed on Clarence Paul from above, it was cut with unfamiliar musicians, Stevie thought the films he was appearing in were embarrassing, and he wasn't even having much commercial success, which was the whole point of these compromises. He started to get more rebellious against Paul in the studio, though many of these decisions weren't made by Paul, and he would complain to anyone who would listen that if he was just allowed to do the music he wanted to sing, the way he wanted to sing it, he would have more hits. But for nine months he did basically no singing other than that Ed Sullivan Show appearance -- he had to recover from the operation to remove the throat nodules. When he did return to the studio, the first single he cut remained unreleased, and while some stuff from the archives was released between the start of 1964 and March 1965, the first single he recorded and released after the throat nodules, "Kiss Me Baby", which came out in March, was a complete flop. That single was released to coincide with the first Motown tour of Europe, which we looked at in the episode on "Stop! In the Name of Love", and which was mostly set up to promote the Supremes, but which also featured Martha and the Vandellas, the Miracles, and the Temptations. Even though Stevie had not had a major hit in eighteen months by this point, he was still brought along on the tour, the only solo artist to be included -- at this point Gordy thought that solo artists looked outdated compared to vocal groups, in a world dominated by bands, and so other solo artists like Marvin Gaye weren't invited. This was a sign that Gordy was happier with Stevie than his recent lack of chart success might suggest. One of the main reasons that Gordy had been in two minds about him was that he'd had no idea if Wonder would still be able to sing well after his voice broke. But now, as he was about to turn fifteen, his adult voice had more or less stabilised, and Gordy knew that he was capable of having a long career, if they just gave him the proper material. But for now his job on the tour was to do his couple of hits, smile, and be on the lower rungs of the ladder. But even that was still a prominent place to be given the scaled-down nature of this bill compared to the Motortown Revues. While the tour was in England, for example, Dusty Springfield presented a TV special focusing on all the acts on the tour, and while the Supremes were the main stars, Stevie got to do two songs, and also took part in the finale, a version of "Mickey's Monkey" led by Smokey Robinson but with all the performers joining in, with Wonder getting a harmonica solo: [Excerpt: Smokey Robinson and the Motown acts, "Mickey's Monkey"] Sadly, there was one aspect of the trip to the UK that was extremely upsetting for Wonder. Almost all the media attention he got -- which was relatively little, as he wasn't a Supreme -- was about his blindness, and one reporter in particular convinced him that there was an operation he could have to restore his sight, but that Motown were preventing him from finding out about it in order to keep his gimmick going. He was devastated about this, and then further devastated when Ted Hull finally convinced him that it wasn't true, and that he'd been lied to. Meanwhile other newspapers were reporting that he *could* see, and that he was just feigning blindness to boost his record sales. After the tour, a live recording of Wonder singing the blues standard "High Heeled Sneakers" was released as a single, and barely made the R&B top thirty, and didn't hit the top forty on the pop charts. Stevie's initial contract with Motown was going to expire in the middle of 1966, so there was a year to get him back to a point where he was having the kind of hits that other Motown acts were regularly getting at this point. Otherwise, it looked like his career might end by the time he was sixteen. The B-side to "High Heeled Sneakers" was another duet with Clarence Paul, who dominates the vocal sound for much of it -- a version of Willie Nelson's country classic "Funny How Time Slips Away": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder and Clarence Paul, "Funny How Time Slips Away"] There are a few of these duet records scattered through Wonder's early career -- we'll hear another one a little later -- and they're mostly dismissed as Paul trying to muscle his way into a revival of his own recording career as an artist, and there may be some truth in that. But they're also a natural extension of the way the two of them worked in the studio. Motown didn't have the facilities to give Wonder Braille lyric sheets, and Paul didn't trust him to be able to remember the lyrics, so often when they made a record, Paul would be just off-mic, reciting the lyrics to Wonder fractionally ahead of him singing them. So it was more or less natural that this dynamic would leak out onto records, but not everyone saw it that way. But at the same time, there has been some suggestion that Paul was among those manoeuvring to get rid of Wonder from Motown as soon as his contract was finished -- despite the fact that Wonder was the only act Paul had worked on any big hits for. Either way, Paul and Wonder were starting to chafe at working with each other in the studio, and while Paul remained his on-stage musical director, the opportunity to work on Wonder's singles for what would surely be his last few months at Motown was given to Hank Cosby and Sylvia Moy. Cosby was a saxophone player and staff songwriter who had been working with Wonder and Paul for years -- he'd co-written "Fingertips" and several other tracks -- while Moy was a staff songwriter who was working as an apprentice to Cosby. Basically, at this point, nobody else wanted the job of writing for Wonder, and as Moy was having no luck getting songs cut by any other artists and her career was looking about as dead as Wonder's, they started working together. Wonder was, at this point, full of musical ideas but with absolutely no discipline. He's said in interviews that at this point he was writing a hundred and fifty songs a month, but these were often not full songs -- they were fragments, hooks, or a single verse, or a few lines, which he would pass on to Moy, who would turn his ideas into structured songs that fit the Motown hit template, usually with the assistance of Cosby. Then Cosby would come up with an arrangement, and would co-produce with Mickey Stevenson. The first song they came up with in this manner was a sign of how Wonder was looking outside the world of Motown to the rock music that was starting to dominate the US charts -- but which was itself inspired by Motown music. We heard in the last episode on the Rolling Stones how "Nowhere to Run" by the Vandellas: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Nowhere to Run"] had inspired the Stones' "Satisfaction": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] And Wonder in turn was inspired by "Satisfaction" to come up with his own song -- though again, much of the work making it into an actual finished song was done by Sylvia Moy. They took the four-on-the-floor beat and basic melody of "Satisfaction" and brought it back to Motown, where those things had originated -- though they hadn't originated with Stevie, and this was his first record to sound like a Motown record in the way we think of those things. As a sign of how, despite the way these stories are usually told, the histories of rock and soul were completely and complexly intertwined, that four-on-the-floor beat itself was a conscious attempt by Holland, Dozier, and Holland to appeal to white listeners -- on the grounds that while Black people generally clapped on the backbeat, white people didn't, and so having a four-on-the-floor beat wouldn't throw them off. So Cosby, Moy, and Wonder, in trying to come up with a "Satisfaction" soundalike were Black Motown writers trying to copy a white rock band trying to copy Black Motown writers trying to appeal to a white rock audience. Wonder came up with the basic chorus hook, which was based around a lot of current slang terms he was fond of: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Uptight"] Then Moy, with some assistance from Cosby, filled it out into a full song. Lyrically, it was as close to social comment as Motown had come at this point -- Wonder was, like many of his peers in soul music, interested in the power of popular music to make political statements, and he would become a much more political artist in the next few years, but at this point it's still couched in the acceptable boy-meets-girl romantic love song that Motown specialised in. But in 1965 a story about a boy from the wrong side of the tracks dating a rich girl inevitably raised the idea that the boy and girl might be of different races -- a subject that was very, very, controversial in the mid-sixties. [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Uptight"] "Uptight" made number three on the pop charts and number one on the R&B charts, and saved Stevie Wonder's career. And this is where, for all that I've criticised Motown in this episode, their strategy paid off. Mickey Stevenson talked a lot about how in the early sixties Motown didn't give up on artists -- if someone had potential but was not yet having hits or finding the right approach, they would keep putting out singles in a holding pattern, trying different things and seeing what would work, rather than toss them aside. It had already worked for the Temptations and the Supremes, and now it had worked for Stevie Wonder. He would be the last beneficiary of this policy -- soon things would change, and Motown would become increasingly focused on trying to get the maximum returns out of a small number of stars, rather than building careers for a range of artists -- but it paid off brilliantly for Wonder. "Uptight" was such a reinvention of Wonder's career, sound, and image that many of his fans consider it the real start of his career -- everything before it only counting as prologue. The follow-up, "Nothing's Too Good For My Baby", was an "Uptight" soundalike, and as with Motown soundalike follow-ups in general, it didn't do quite as well, but it still made the top twenty on the pop chart and got to number four on the R&B chart. Stevie Wonder was now safe at Motown, and so he was going to do something no other Motown act had ever done before -- he was going to record a protest song and release it as a single. For about a year he'd been ending his shows with a version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind", sung as a duet with Clarence Paul, who was still his on stage bandleader even though the two weren't working together in the studio as much. Wonder brought that into the studio, and recorded it with Paul back as the producer, and as his duet partner. Berry Gordy wasn't happy with the choice of single, but Wonder pushed, and Gordy knew that Wonder was on a winning streak and gave in, and so "Blowin' in the Wind" became Stevie Wonder's next single: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder and Clarence Paul, "Blowin' in the Wind"] "Blowin' in the Wind" made the top ten, and number one on the R&B charts, and convinced Gordy that there was some commercial potential in going after the socially aware market, and over the next few years Motown would start putting out more and more political records. Because Motown convention was to have the producer of a hit record produce the next hit for that artist, and keep doing so until they had a flop, Paul was given the opportunity to produce the next single. "A Place in the Sun" was another ambiguously socially-aware song, co-written by the only white writer on Motown staff, Ron Miller, who happened to live in the same building as Stevie's tutor-cum-manager Ted Hull. "A Place in the Sun" was a pleasant enough song, inspired by "A Change is Gonna Come", but with a more watered-down, generic, message of hope, but the record was lifted by Stevie's voice, and again made the top ten. This meant that Paul and Miller, and Miller's writing partner Bryan Mills, got to work on his next  two singles -- his 1966 Christmas song "Someday at Christmas", which made number twenty-four, and the ballad "Travellin' Man" which made thirty-two. The downward trajectory with Paul meant that Wonder was soon working with other producers again. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol cut another Miller and Mills song with him, "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday"] But that was left in the can, as not good enough to release, and Stevie was soon back working with Cosby. The two of them had come up with an instrumental together in late 1966, but had not been able to come up with any words for it, so they played it for Smokey Robinson, who said their instrumental sounded like circus music, and wrote lyrics about a clown: [Excerpt: The Miracles, "The Tears of a Clown"] The Miracles cut that as album filler, but it was released three years later as a single and became the Miracles' only number one hit with Smokey Robinson as lead singer. So Wonder and Cosby definitely still had their commercial touch, even if their renewed collaboration with Moy, who they started working with again, took a while to find a hit. To start with, Wonder returned to the idea of taking inspiration from a hit by a white British group, as he had with "Uptight". This time it was the Beatles, and the track "Michelle", from the Rubber Soul album: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Michelle"] Wonder took the idea of a song with some French lyrics, and a melody with some similarities to the Beatles song, and came up with "My Cherie Amour", which Cosby and Moy finished off. [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "My Cherie Amour"] Gordy wouldn't allow that to be released, saying it was too close to "Michelle" and people would think it was a rip-off, and it stayed in the vaults for several years. Cosby also produced a version of a song Ron Miller had written with Orlando Murden, "For Once in My Life", which pretty much every other Motown act was recording versions of -- the Four Tops, the Temptations, Billy Eckstine, Martha and the Vandellas and Barbra McNair all cut versions of it in 1967, and Gordy wouldn't let Wonder's version be put out either. So they had to return to the drawing board. But in truth, Stevie Wonder was not the biggest thing worrying Berry Gordy at this point. He was dealing with problems in the Supremes, which we'll look at in a future episode -- they were about to get rid of Florence Ballard, and thus possibly destroy one of the biggest acts in the world, but Gordy thought that if they *didn't* get rid of her they would be destroying themselves even more certainly. Not only that, but Gordy was in the midst of a secret affair with Diana Ross, Holland, Dozier, and Holland were getting restless about their contracts, and his producers kept bringing him unlistenable garbage that would never be a hit. Like Norman Whitfield, insisting that this track he'd cut with Marvin Gaye, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", should be a single. Gordy had put his foot down about that one too, just like he had about "My Cherie Amour", and wouldn't allow it to be released. Meanwhile, many of the smaller acts on the label were starting to feel like they were being ignored by Gordy, and had formed what amounted to a union, having regular meetings at Clarence Paul's house to discuss how they could pressure the label to put the same effort into their careers as into those of the big stars. And the Funk Brothers, the musicians who played on all of Motown's hits, were also getting restless -- they contributed to the arrangements, and they did more for the sound of the records than half the credited producers; why weren't they getting production credits and royalties? Harvey Fuqua had divorced Gordy's sister Gwen, and so became persona non grata at the label and was in the process of leaving Motown, and so was Mickey Stevenson, Gordy's second in command, because Gordy wouldn't give him any stock in the company. And Detroit itself was on edge. The crime rate in the city had started to go up, but even worse, the *perception* of crime was going up. The Detroit News had been running a campaign to whip up fear, which it called its Secret Witness campaign, and running constant headlines about rapes, murders, and muggings. These in turn had led to increased calls for more funds for the police, calls which inevitably contained a strong racial element and at least implicitly linked the perceived rise in crime to the ongoing Civil Rights movement. At this point the police in Detroit were ninety-three percent white, even though Detroit's population was over thirty percent Black. The Mayor and Police Commissioner were trying to bring in some modest reforms, but they weren't going anywhere near fast enough for the Black population who felt harassed and attacked by the police, but were still going too fast for the white people who were being whipped up into a state of terror about supposedly soft-on-crime policies, and for the police who felt under siege and betrayed by the politicians. And this wasn't the only problem affecting the city, and especially affecting Black people. Redlining and underfunded housing projects meant that the large Black population was being crammed into smaller and smaller spaces with fewer local amenities. A few Black people who were lucky enough to become rich -- many of them associated with Motown -- were able to move into majority-white areas, but that was just leading to white flight, and to an increase in racial tensions. The police were on edge after the murder of George Overman Jr, the son of a policeman, and though they arrested the killers that was just another sign that they weren't being shown enough respect. They started organising "blu flu"s -- the police weren't allowed to strike, so they'd claim en masse that they were off sick, as a protest against the supposed soft-on-crime administration. Meanwhile John Sinclair was organising "love-ins", gatherings of hippies at which new bands like the MC5 played, which were being invaded by gangs of bikers who were there to beat up the hippies. And the Detroit auto industry was on its knees -- working conditions had got bad enough that the mostly Black workforce organised a series of wildcat strikes. All in all, Detroit was looking less and less like somewhere that Berry Gordy wanted to stay, and the small LA subsidiary of Motown was rapidly becoming, in his head if nowhere else, the more important part of the company, and its future. He was starting to think that maybe he should leave all these ungrateful people behind in their dangerous city, and move the parts of the operation that actually mattered out to Hollywood. Stevie Wonder was, of course, one of the parts that mattered, but the pressure was on in 1967 to come up with a hit as big as his records from 1965 and early 66, before he'd been sidetracked down the ballad route. The song that was eventually released was one on which Stevie's mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, had a co-writing credit: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] "I Was Made to Love Her" was inspired by Wonder's first love, a girl from the same housing projects as him, and he talked about the song being special to him because it was true, saying it "kind of speaks of my first love to a girl named Angie, who was a very beautiful woman... Actually, she was my third girlfriend but my first love. I used to call Angie up and, like, we would talk and say, 'I love you, I love you,' and we'd talk and we'd both go to sleep on the phone. And this was like from Detroit to California, right? You know, mother said, 'Boy, what you doing - get off the phone!' Boy, I tell you, it was ridiculous." But while it was inspired by her, like with many of the songs from this period, much of the lyric came from Moy -- her mother grew up in Arkansas, and that's why the lyric started "I was born in Little Rock", as *her* inspiration came from stories told by her parents. But truth be told, the lyrics weren't particularly detailed or impressive, just a standard story of young love. Rather what mattered in the record was the music. The song was structured differently from many Motown records, including most of Wonder's earlier ones. Most Motown records had a huge amount of dynamic variation, and a clear demarcation between verse and chorus. Even a record like "Dancing in the Street", which took most of its power from the tension and release caused by spending most of the track on one chord, had the release that came with the line "All we need is music", and could be clearly subdivided into different sections. "I Was Made to Love Her" wasn't like that. There was a tiny section which functioned as a middle eight -- and which cover versions like the one by the Beach Boys later that year tend to cut out, because it disrupts the song's flow: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] But other than that, the song has no verse or chorus, no distinct sections, it's just a series of lyrical couplets over the same four chords, repeating over and over, an incessant groove that could really go on indefinitely: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] This is as close as Motown had come at this point to the new genre of funk, of records that were just staying with one groove throughout. It wasn't a funk record, not yet -- it was still a pop-soul record, But what made it extraordinary was the bass line, and this is why I had to emphasise earlier that this was a record by the Funk Brothers, not the Wrecking Crew, no matter how much some Crew members may claim otherwise. As on most of Cosby's sessions, James Jamerson was given free reign to come up with his own part with little guidance, and what he came up with is extraordinary. This was at a time when rock and pop basslines were becoming a little more mobile, thanks to the influence of Jamerson in Detroit, Brian Wilson in LA, and Paul McCartney in London.  But for the most part, even those bass parts had been fairly straightforward technically -- often inventive, but usually just crotchets and quavers, still keeping rhythm along with the drums rather than in dialogue with them, roaming free rhythmically. Jamerson had started to change his approach, inspired by the change in studio equipment. Motown had upgraded to eight-track recording in 1965, and once he'd become aware of the possibilities, and of the greater prominence that his bass parts could have if they were recorded on their own track, Jamerson had become a much busier player. Jamerson was a jazz musician by inclination, and so would have been very aware of John Coltrane's legendary "sheets of sound", in which Coltrane would play fast arpeggios and scales, in clusters of five and seven notes, usually in semiquaver runs (though sometimes in even smaller fractions -- his solo in Miles Davis' "Straight, No Chaser" is mostly semiquavers but has a short passage in hemidemisemiquavers): [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Straight, No Chaser"] Jamerson started to adapt the "sheets of sound" style to bass playing, treating the bass almost as a jazz solo instrument -- though unlike Coltrane he was also very, very concerned with creating something that people could tap their feet to. Much like James Brown, Jamerson was taking jazz techniques and repurposing them for dance music. The most notable example of that up to this point had been in the Four Tops' "Bernadette", where there are a few scuffling semiquaver runs thrown in, and which is a much more fluid part than most of his playing previously: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "Bernadette"] But on "Bernadette", Jamerson had been limited by Holland, Dozier, and Holland, who liked him to improvise but around a framework they created. Cosby, on the other hand, because he had been a Funk Brother himself, was much more aware of the musicians' improvisational abilities, and would largely give them a free hand. This led to a truly remarkable bass part on "I Was Made to Love Her", which is somewhat buried in the single mix, but Marcus Miller did an isolated recreation of the part for the accompanying CD to a book on Jamerson, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and listening to that you can hear just how inventive it is: [Excerpt: Marcus Miller, "I Was Made to Love Her"] This was exciting stuff -- though much less so for the touring musicians who went on the road with the Motown revues while Jamerson largely stayed in Detroit recording. Jamerson's family would later talk about him coming home grumbling because complaints from the touring musicians had been brought to him, and he'd been asked to play less difficult parts so they'd find it easier to replicate them on stage. "I Was Made to Love Her" wouldn't exist without Stevie Wonder, Hank Cosby, Sylvia Moy, or Lula Mae Hardaway, but it's James Jamerson's record through and through: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] It went to number two on the charts, sat between "Light My Fire" at number one, and "All You Need is Love" at number three, with the Beatles song soon to overtake it and make number one itself. But within a few weeks of "I Was Made to Love Her" reaching its chart peak, things in Detroit would change irrevocably. On the 23rd of July, the police busted an illegal drinking den. They thought they were only going to get about twenty-five people there, but there turned out to be a big party on. They tried to arrest seventy-four people, but their wagon wouldn't fit them all in so they had to call reinforcements and make the arrestees wait around til more wagons arrived. A crowd of hundreds gathered while they were waiting. Someone threw a brick at a squad car window, a rumour went round that the police had bayonetted someone, and soon the city was in flames. Riots lasted for days, with people burning down and looting businesses, but what really made the situation bad was the police's overreaction. They basically started shooting at young Black men, using them as target practice, and later claiming they were snipers, arsonists, and looters -- but there were cases like the Algiers Motel incident, where the police raided a motel where several Black men, including the members of the soul group The Dramatics, were hiding out along with a few white women. The police sexually assaulted the women, and then killed three of the men for associating with white women, in what was described as a "lynching with bullets". The policemen in question were later acquitted of all charges. The National Guard were called in, as were Federal troops -- the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville, the division in which Jimi Hendrix had recently served. After four days of rioting, one of the bloodiest riots in US history was at an end, with forty-three people dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a policeman). Official counts had 1,189 people injured, and over 7,200 arrests, almost all of them of Black people. A lot of the histories written later say that Black-owned businesses were spared during the riots, but that wasn't really the case. For example, Joe's Record Shop, owned by Joe Von Battle, who had put out the first records by C.L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha, was burned down, destroying not only the stock of records for sale but the master tapes of hundreds of recordings of Black artists, many of them unreleased and so now lost forever. John Lee Hooker, one of the artists whose music Von Battle had released, soon put out a song, "The Motor City is Burning", about the events: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] But one business that did remain unburned was Motown, with the Hitsville studio going untouched by flames and unlooted. Motown legend has this being down to the rioters showing respect for the studio that had done so much for Detroit, but it seems likely to have just been luck. Although Motown wasn't completely unscathed -- a National Guard tank fired a shell through the building, leaving a gigantic hole, which Berry Gordy saw as soon as he got back from a business trip he'd been on during the rioting. That was what made Berry Gordy decide once and for all that things needed to change. Motown owned a whole row of houses near the studio, which they used as additional office space and for everything other than the core business of making records. Gordy immediately started to sell them, and move the admin work into temporary rented space. He hadn't announced it yet, and it would be a few years before the move was complete, but from that moment on, the die was cast. Motown was going to leave Detroit and move to Hollywood.

Sujata welcomes a good friend, Cynthia Simmons, to today's episode of Hangout with Sujata. After battling 4 cancers and being fired from 2 jobs because of cancer; then being given 6 months to live in 2009, Cynthia went on to find her life purpose, she became an Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. and the author of the successful book "A Breast Cancer Notification" and a Podcaster and Life Coach she received an Honorary Doctorate in the Philosophy of Business and Christian Leadership for her works in helping others to overcome. Currently, she is writing her 2nd book, that world-renowned Les Brown is endorsing and writing the foreword to titled " I Won't Fire Me". Playlist in this episode: Rockin Robin' by Jackson 5 Ich Bau Dir Ein Schloss by Heintje Simons Silver Wings by Merle Haggard For The Good Times by Al Green Time In a Bottle by Jim Croce You Don't Have to Be a Star by Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. My Special Prayer by Percy Sledge Kiss and Say Goodbye by The Manhattans I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston Never Give Up by Sia Enjoy!

José Luis Cova y Simón Petit present: JazzTaBueno 04/2022 *Are You Going With Me* 1. BILLY PAUL – LET’S MAKE A BABY 2. TOM BRAXTON (Feat PETER WHITE) - MAKE IT WITH YOU 3. JESSY J (FEAT: PAUL BROWN) REMEMBER THE NIGHT 4. A. RAY FULLER- SPANISH FLYER 5. GORGON CITY - INTENTIONS (Feat CLEAN BANDIT) 6. RUNAWAY -DEL SHANNON & MAX CROOK 7. I’M LOVING TONIGHT - FRANKIE-KNUCKLES & ERIC-KUPPERS 8. MARILYN McCOO & BILLY DAVIS JR – SHINE ON SILVER MOON Our Production music is new and innovative in many ways. Is also engaging and inspiring our loyal public radio family with the current explosion of talent and creativity across the spectrum of jazz and related musics.

Tax filing season officially opens Monday. Personal finance expert Jill Schlesinger shares her top tax tips. And, the documentary "Summer of Soul" is on the shortlist for an Oscar nomination. Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo of The 5th Dimension, one of the many acts that performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, join us.

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Music LegendsAbout Harvey's guest:#McCooDavis  #marilyn-mccoo-billy-davis-jr  #5thDimensionMarilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. have enjoyed tremendous success through the years as recording artists, performers and authors. They have received 7 Grammy Awards and earned 15 gold and 3 platinum records, and enjoyed starring roles on television and stage. They have performed to sold-out concerts around the world. They are currently celebrating 40 years in the entertainment business with a musical tribute to the hits and productions that have made up their multi-faceted careers.The husband and wife team celebrate 38 years of marriage in 2007. In 2004 the couple wrote a book, which shares their secrets of staying happy and committed to each other in Hollywood. It's entitled Up, Up and Away…How We Found Love, Faith and Lasting Marriage in the Entertainment World. It was written in collaboration with Mike Yorkey and was released by Northfield Publishing Company.As lead vocalists of one of the top singing groups of the late 60's and early 70's, The 5th Dimension, they recorded such classics as UP, UP & AWAY, AQUARIUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN, WEDDING BELL BLUES, ONE LESS BELL TO ANSWER, and STONED SOUL PICNIC to name a few.After a decade with The 5th Dimension, Billy & Marilyn decided to leave the group and establish themselves as a duo. They had immediate success with the single, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A STAR (TO BE IN MY SHOW). It was a #1 hit and earned them a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group.That success peaked network interest and CBS-TV premiered THE MARILYN McCOO & BILLY DAVIS, JR. SHOW as a prime-time summer series in 1977. Marilyn & Billy entered the 80's as an international success. They headlined in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City, played to SRO crowds in concerts across the country, and won the prestigious Grand Prize at the international Tokyo Music Festival. Back home, they were sought-after guests for every major television show.In the early 90's, Billy & Marilyn joined the original members of The 5th Dimension for a special reunion tour, and in August, 1991, the group was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. In 1997, Arista Records released an anthology CD of the group's hit releases entitled UP, UP & AWAY: THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION. After a decade with The 5th Dimension, Billy & Marilyn decided to leave the group and establish themselves as a duo. They had immediate success with the single, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A STAR (TO BE IN MY SHOW). It was a #1 hit and earned them a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group.For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/http://mccoodavis.com/https://www.facebook.com/McCooDavishttps://twitter.com/McCooDavishttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtScv7mqoO2Jh_O5AImO0iwhttps://www.instagram.com/mccoodavis/https://music.apple.com/us/artist/marilyn-mccoo-billy-davis-jr/282408895https://open.spotify.com/artist/7EtMpozS5ZnYNGscQDol17?si=BSLJwTwwRza_txZZ6I4Umw#McCooDavis  #5thDimension  #harveybrownstoneinterviews 

Lisa is joined by members of 5th Dimension Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. to preview their new Beatles covers and their upcoming show at the Ridgefield Playhouse! Photo: iStock / Getty Images Plus carloscastilla

09/28/21 - Marilyn McCoo And Billy Davis, Jr by The Lisa Wexler Show

"Summer of Soul" documents the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969. We speak with Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo of The 5th Dimension, one of the many acts that performed at the festival. And, it's been one year since China passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong that criminalized protest and curbed the city's autonomy from mainland China. Louisa Lim of the "Little Red Podcast" joins us to discuss.

Tune in every Friday for more WOW Report. 10) Hot Stream: Hacks Finale @00:48 9) What REALLY Going on with Yashar Ali? @05:56 8) The History of Car Colors @11:01 7) Stephen Colbert is Back with a Live Audience @19:02 6) The Return of Jeffrey Toobin @24:03 5) Hot Podcast: Versace on Wondery @28:21 4) Blackbird: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr @34:26 3) Batman: The Cunnilingus Scandal @39:14 2) Hot WOW Doc: Catch & Kill @43:11 1) New Age Jonah: Whale Swallows Man, Man Lives to Tell @47:34 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Estrena "Pureza", una col

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. made their names as members of the Grammy Award-winning group The Fifth Dimension. Together they've logged nearly six decades as pop music stalwarts, while also celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in 2019. And now the iconic duo is back with their first studio album in 30 years, "Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons.” In their conversation with "Everything Fab Four" host Ken Womack, they talk about the British Invasion; covering songs by the Beatles, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney; working with the Wrecking Crew; and their own storied history in pop music. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/everythingfabfour/support

Guests:  Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr, Eddie Muller   Hitmakers Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr. discuss their career and new album, BLACKBIRD. Eddie Muller, the host of TCM’s NOIR ALLEY talks about some classics of the film noir genre with us.        

McCoo y Billy Davis Jr. contaron en La W que esta canción tiene una declaración muy poderosa.

Serena Altschul talks with experts about the dangers of avalanches. Lee Cowan looks at the enduring popularity of the late TV painting instructor Bob Ross. Mo Rocca interviews actor LeVar Burton. Nancy Giles harmonizes with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., founding members of The 5th Dimension. Tracy Smith talks with actress Ellen Pompeo about the future of "Grey’s Anatomy" And Erin Moriarty of "48 Hours" investigates allegations of sexual harassment by former female employees of McDonald’s and its franchisees.

Grammy award-winning duo Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo talk about the new project “Coming 2 Gether” featuring the great song “It Wouldn't Be Christmas”! Check out their amazing website at www.coming2gether.net ! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/themikewagnershow/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/themikewagnershow/support

Grammy award-winning duo Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo talk about the new project “Coming 2 Gether” featuring the great song “It Wouldn't Be Christmas” and check out their amazing website today and find out how you can help at www.coming2gether.net !

Part II:  Tori, and her guest co-host Patrick A. Howell, continue discussing love, justice and music in their upbeat and timely conversation with two of the most magical spirits in the world of entertainment and beyond, as they passionately reminisce and voice their thoughts on today’s zeitgeist. 7 Grammys. 3 Platinum records and 15 Gold. From Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In to One Less Bell To Answer…and their duet, You Don’t Have To Be a Star… they fly in different dimensions, harmonizing, uplifting, and inspiring. On this second episode, they talked about the unrest sparked by the ascension of George Floyd’s spirit, their protest song, their enduring love, and so much more! Here’s to our favorite twin flames… Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.   Credits: Executive Producer:  Patrick A. Howell Producer:  Tori Reid Co-Producer and Sound Master:  William Broughton Podcast and Intro/Outro Recorded by William Broughton   Music: Intro – “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by The Fifth Dimension Outro – “You Don’t Have To Be a Star” by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. Logo Photography:  Bobby Holland / MPTV Images a Victory & Noble production 2020 Victory & Noble LLC All Rights Reserved

Part I:  Tori, and her co-host Patrick A. Howell, engage in an upbeat and timely conversation with two of the most magical spirits in the world of entertainment and beyond, as they passionately reminisce and voice their thoughts on today’s zeitgeist. 7 Grammys. 3 Platinum records and 15 Gold. From Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In to One Less Bell To Answer…and their duet, You Don’t Have To Be a Star… they fly in different dimensions, harmonizing, uplifting, and inspiring. Up, up and away… they continue to fulfill their purpose while being rooted in love, faith, and a lasting marriage. On this first episode, we talked about their beginning, The Fifth Dimension, life altering moments, the Age of Aquarius, and so much more! Here’s to our favorite twin flames… Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.   Credits: Executive Producer:  Patrick A. Howell Producer:  Tori Reid Co-Producer and Sound Master:  William Broughton Podcast and Intro/Outro Recorded by William Broughton   Music: Intro – “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by The Fifth Dimension Outro – “You Don’t Have To Be a Star” by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.   Logo Photography:  Bobby Holland / MPTV Images   a Victory & Noble production   2020 Victory & Noble LLC All Rights Reserved

What has always been known in the U.S. as the Hot 100 had existed for nearly fifteen years as numerous charts, tracking and ranking the most popular singles of the day in several areas. During the 1940s and 1950s, popular singles were ranked on three significant charts: • Best Sellers in Stores • Most Played by Jockeys • Most Played in Jukeboxes On June 17, 1957, Billboard discontinued the Most Played in Jukeboxes chart, as the popularity of jukeboxes waned and radio stations incorporated more and more rock-oriented music into their playlists. The week ending July 28, 1958 was the final publication of the Most Played By Jockeys. On August 4, 1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart: the Hot 100. The Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13, 1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a song's popularity is measured in the United States. The Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen, sales data compiled by Nielsen (both at retail and digitally) and streaming activity provided by online music sources. Join the conversation on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008232395712 or by email at: dannymemorylane@gmail.com You’ll hear: 1) Saturday Night (Reached #1 on Jan 3, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by Bay City Rollers 2) Love Rollercoaster (Reached #1 on Jan 31, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Ohio Players 3) 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (Reached #1 on Feb 7, 1976 Lasted for 3 wks) by Paul Simon 4) Love Machine (Pt. 1) (Reached #1 on Mar 6, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Miracles 5) December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) (Reached #1 on Mar 13, 1976 Lasted for 3 wks) by The Four Seasons 6) Disco Lady (Reached #1 on Apr 3, 1976 Lasted for 4 wks) by Johnnie Taylor 7) Welcome Back (Reached #1 on May 8, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by John Sebastian 8) Boogie Fever (Reached #1 on May 15, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Sylvers 9) Silly Love Songs (Reached #1 on May 22, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk, then off the top for 2 wks [Love Hangover] then back to #1 for 4 more wks) by Paul McCartney & Wings 10) Love Hangover (Reached #1 on May 29, 1976 Lasted for 2 wks) by Diana Ross 11) Kiss And Say Goodbye (Reached #1 on Jul 24, 1976 Lasted for 2 wks) by The Manhattans 12) Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Reached #1 on Aug 7, 1976 Lasted for 4 wks) by Elton John & Kiki Dee 13) You Should Be Dancing (Reached #1 on Sep 4, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Bee Gees 14) (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty (Reached #1 on Sep 11, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by K.C. & The Sunshine Band 15) Play That Funky Music (Reached #1 on Sep 18, 1976 Lasted for 3 wks) by Wild Cherry 16) If You Leave Me Now (Reached #1 on Oct 23, 1976 Lasted for 2 wks) by Chicago 17) Rock'n Me (Reached #1 on Nov 6, 1976 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Steve Miller Band 18) Tonight's The Night (Reached #1 on Nov 13, 1976 Lasted for 8 wks) by Rod Stewart 19) You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show) (Reached #1 on Jan 8, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. 20) You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (Reached #1 on Jan 15, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Leo Sayer 21) Car Wash (Reached #1 on Jan 29, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Rose Royce 22) Blinded By The Light (Reached #1 on Feb 19, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Manfred Mann's Earth Band 23) Evergreen (Reached #1 on Mar 5, 1977 Lasted for 3 wks) by Barbra Streisand 24) Rich Girl (Reached #1 on Mar 26, 1977 Lasted for 2 wks) by Hall & Oates 25) Dancing Queen (Reached #1 on Apr 9, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by ABBA 26) Don't Leave Me This Way (Reached #1 on Apr 23, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Thelma Houston 27) Hotel California (Reached #1 on May 7, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by The Eagles 28) Sir Duke (Reached #1 on May 21, 1977 Lasted for 3 wks) by Stevie Wonder 29) Dreams (Reached #1 on Jun 18, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Fleetwood Mac 30) Got To Give It Up (Part 1) (Reached #1 on Jun 25, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Marvin Gaye 31) Undercover Angel (Reached #1 on Jul 9, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Alan O'Day 32) Da Doo Ron Ron (Reached #1 on Jul 16, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Shaun Cassidy 33) Looks Like We Made It (Reached #1 on Jul 23, 1977 Lasted for 1 wk) by Barry Manilow 34) Best Of My Love (Reached #1 on Aug 20, 1977 Lasted for 4 wk, then off the top for 1 wk [I Just Want To Be Your Everything] then back to #1 for 1 more wk) by The Emotions

Ron Townson and Florence LaRue on touring, their favourite Fifth Dimension hits, and carrying on without original members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. Recorded at the Legends of Rock'n'Roll at EXPO 86 in Vancouver.

just for fun and not commercial thanks to the artists

Our legendary guests today has inspired millions of people with their songs. Now they are inspiring people yet in another way. It's our pleasure to discuss the topic of prostate cancer with Billy Davis Jr and Marilyn McCoo.

This week we welcome to the Groove Studio's MARILYN McCOO & BILLY DAVIS JR. ~ iconic recording artists who are former lead singers in The 5th Dimension, winners of 6 Grammy Awards, plus 15 Gold and 3 Platinum Albums. As a duo, they earned a 7th Grammy for their #1 Hit Song, “You Don’t Have To Be A Star”. They have enjoyed tremendous success performing to sold-out audiences all over the world and acting in starring roles on television and stage. Billy & Marilyn attribute their lasting marriage commitment to their friendship and their faith.Enjoy a great evening of music and conversation.

July 13, 2019 | Ben Stein, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Aaron Tippin | Huckabee by Huckabee

Stevie Wonder/Stay Gold The O'Jays/Stairway To Heaven Freddie Hubbard/Yesterday's Dreams Quincy Jones/The Midnight Sun Will Never Sleep Monk Higgins/Little Green Apples O.C. Smith/Little Green Apples The Chi-Lites/I Want To Pay You Back Yvonne Elliman/ Hello Stranger Sister Sledge/Thinking Of You Lionel Ritchie, Diana Ross/ Endless Love Olivia Newton-John/Hopelessly Devoted To You Andy Gibb/I Just Want To Be Your Everything David Soul/Don't Give Up On Us Maria Muldaur/Midnight At The Oasis Odyssey/Native NewYorker Maxine Nightingale/Right Back To Where We Started From Maxine Nightingale/Lead Me On Captain & Tennile/Do That To Me One More Time Paul Davis/I Go Crazy England Dan, John Ford Coley/I'd Really Like To See You Tonight Peaches & Herb/Reunited Isley Brothers/ Groove With You Willie Hutch/I Choose You Curtis Mayfield/Love To Keep You In Mind Tyrone Davis/Can I Change My Mind Jerry Butler/Just Because I Really Love You Bobby Womack/That's Heaven To Me Jeannie Reynolds/The Fruit Song Commodores/Zoom Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr./You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show) The O'Jays/Darlin' Darlin' Baby Candi Staton/Young Hearts Run Free Tavares/Whodunit

This episode will soar through the sultry vocals of pop singer Halsey and into the funky and free spirited 5th Dimension. 
What we geek out over in this episode: Power duo Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. and The 5th Dimension, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969), roller skating, R&B singer Jaheim “Could It Be” (2001), Terror Squad “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me” (2004), rapper/producer Black Milk “Shut It Down” (2007), and chipmunk soul.  

Topics: Roots, by Alex Haley, with commentary by Adam DeCollibus (@adam_decollibus), author of "Caravan". (Bonus Artist: Luck Pacheco) (***Audio quality is spotty***)   1977 1.    General News snapshots 2.    Jimmy Carter President 3.    Jan - The world's first personal computer, the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) released 4.    Jun - The Apple II released 5.    Aug - TRS-80 released (Byte magazine referred to these as the "1977 Trinity" of personal computing) 6.    Aug - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. 7.    Aug - Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 8.    Oct - Atari 2600, this popularized the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code. 9.    Open Comments 10.    Economic Snapshots 11.    Min Wage = $2.30 (+.10) 12.    Avg. Income = $15,070 13.    New House = $49,300 14.    New car = $4,785 15.    Avg. rent $240 16.    Black unemployment 12.1% vs 7.6% 17.    Open Comments: 18.    Black News Snapshots 19.    Jan - Roots airs on ABC. 20.    Jul - The New York City blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours, resulting in looting and other disorder. 21.    Popular Music Snapshots 22.    Record of the Year: The Eagles for "Hotel California" 23.    Album of the Year: Fleetwood Mac for Rumours 24.    Song of the Year (Tied): "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" performed by Barbra Streisand & "You Light Up My Life" performed by Debby Boone 25.    Best New Artist: Debby Boone 26.    Popular Movie Snapshots 27.    Top Grossing Movies 28.    1 - Star Wars 29.    2 - Smokey and the Bandit 30.    3 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind 31.    Notable Black Films 32.    A Piece of the Action: Crime comedy film directed by and starring Sidney Poitier and co-starring Bill Cosby. It was the third film pairing of Poitier and Cosby, following Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let's Do It Again (1975). The films are considered a trilogy, even though the actors play characters with different names in each film. It was also Poitier's last acting role for more than a decade, as he focused his attentions on directing only. 33.    Which Way is Up? Comedy film starring Richard Pryor. It is a remake of the 1972 Italian comedy film The Seduction of Mimi. Richard Pryor plays three roles: an orange picker who has two women at the same time, the orange picker's father, and a Reverend who gets the orange picker's wife pregnant. 34.    Popular TV Shows 35.    1 - Laverne & Shirley 36.    2 - Happy Days 37.    3 - Three's Company 38.    Notable Black TV Shows & Snapshots 39.    The Richard Pryor Show was an American comedy-variety show starring Richard Pryor. [Lasted for only 4 episodes] 40.    Benson DuBois (Robert Guillaume) debuts on Soap as the wisecracking African-American cook/butler. In 1979, Benson leaves for his own spin-off. 41.    Janet Jackson (@11 yrs. old) joins the cast of the CBS sitcom Good Times for its final two seasons as Penny Gordon, an upstairs neighbor who is abused her biological mother. 42.    Open Comments: 43.    Black Social Scene [+ Television] 44.    Roots:  The Saga of an American Family - “One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots, galvanized the nation, and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past.” - www.litlovers.com 45.    Special guest commentator: Adam DeCollibus, Author of Caravan. 46.    Brief explanation for why Adam was invited 47.    Adam’s personal/writing background 48.    Adam’s professional/company background 49.    Adam’s personal/professional goals 50.    Adam’s biggest obstacles (past, present, or future) 51.    Summary of Adam’s book, “Caravan” 52.    Transition to Roots discussion 53.    Roots tells the story of Kunta Kinte - a young man taken from The Gambia when he was seventeen and sold as a slave - and seven generations of his descendants in the United States, which includes the author himself. [The Television mini-series focused mainly on Kunta, his daughter Kizzy, and her son “Chicken” George.] 54.    Open comments/general reactions to the story 55.    Brief layout of the main Characters / Conflicts / Resolutions 56.    Discussion Topics: [American-born African-Americans broken Identity with Africa / Kizzy's relationship with Missy Anne [i.e., happy pet and owner type relationship] / George's skin color] 57.    [Open floor topics] 58.    Has the context changed in 21st century America? Do different themes seem important now? 59.    Concluding question: Did you find anything hopeful about the story? [i.e. a spark curiosity / or pride / or determination] 60.    Thanks to Adam [Caravan recap/contact info] 61.    Black Music Scene 62.    Billboard Top 40 “Black” songs 63.    3 - "Best of My Love", The Emotions 64.    5 - "Angel in Your Arms", Hot 65.    7 - "Don't Leave Me This Way", Thelma Houston 66.    8 - "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher", Rita Coolidge 67.    11 - "I'm Your Boogie Man", KC and the Sunshine Band 68.    18 - "Sir Duke", Stevie Wonder 69.    20 - "Got to Give It Up", Marvin Gaye 70.    23 - "Rich Girl", Hall & Oates 71.    25 - "Hot Line", The Sylvers 72.    26 - "Car Wash", Rose Royce 73.    27 - "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)", Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. 74.    33 - "Easy", Commodores 75.    35 - "I've Got Love on My Mind", Natalie Cole 76.    40 - "Enjoy Yourself", The Jacksons 77.    41 - "Dazz", Brick 78.    Vote: 79.    Billboard Top Soul Albums 80.    Jan - Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder 81.    Jan - Good High, Brick 82.    Mar - Ask Rufus, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan 83.    Apr - Unpredictable, Natalie Cole 84.    Apr - Ahh... The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!, Bootsy's Rubber Band 85.    Apr - Live at the London Palladium, Marvin Gaye 86.    May - Go for Your Guns, The Isley Brothers 87.    May - Commodores, Commodores 88.    Jul - Rejoice, The Emotions 89.    Aug - Floaters, The Floaters 90.    Oct - Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom, Rose Royce 91.    Oct - Something to Love, L.T.D. 92.    Oct - Barry White Sings for Someone You Love, Barry White 93.    Nov - Brick, Brick 94.    Dec - All 'n All, Earth, Wind & Fire 95.    Vote: 96.    Movie Scene [Covered during Popular Movie Discussion] 97.    Television Scene [Covered during Social discussion] 98.    Biggest Legacy from 1977

The Commodores/Just To Be Close To You Marylin McCoo, Billy Davis Jr./You Don't Have To Be A Star The Moments/Look At Me I'm In Love Earth Wind & Fire/Kalimba Tree Earth Wind & Fire/Love's Holiday Earth Wind & Fire/Devotion (Live) The Ohio Players/Sweet Sticky Thing The Spinners/Mighty Love Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes/The Love I Lost Bobby Womack/That's The Way I Feel About Cha Chapter 8/I Just Want To Be Your Girl Atlantic Starr/When Love Calls Switch/There'll Never Be Rick James/Dream Maker Rick James, Teena Marie/Fire And Desire Teena Marie/Young Love Mary Jane Girls/On The Inside Prince/The Beautiful Ones Prince/Still Waiting James Brown/Try Me Otis Redding/Pain In My Heart Percy Sledge/It Tears Me Up Jackson 5/Who's Lovin' You Bill Withers/Ain't No Sunshine The Chi-Lites/Have You Seen Her The Manhattans/I Kinda Miss You The Chi-Lites/A Lonely Man The Spinners/Love Don't Love Nobody Brighter Side Of Darkness/Love Jones

My Interview with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr for the Heritage Awards on Nov. 11th, 2017

In this interview iconic Grammy® Award-winning recording artists Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. join us to chat about their upcoming performance in the holiday concert—The Colors of Christmas—also featuring Peabo Bryson, Ruben Studdard, and Jody Watley. The couple—who have been married for over 40 years—share with us the story of their success as both a duo and as the former lead singers of The 5th Dimension.

The Colors of Christmas, featuring performers Peabo Bryson, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., Ruben Studdard, and Jody Watley (“Looking For A New Love,” “Real Love,” “Everything”) captures the magic of Christmas in one spectacular performance. In this interview, Pop/R&B icon Jody Watley discusses how great it is to be performing with this talented lineup of artists, how her catch phrase—"Hasta la Vista Baby"—became a pop culture sensation, as well as the ebbs and flows of her career as her debut album celebrates its 30thanniversary.

Relive the best of the 5th Dimension, Solid Gold, and Motown music memories with Brian and his guests, performing Friday and Saturday at http://www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com/

"We love each other; we just don't get along." The other day I was hanging out with a friend who was loosing his shit over boyfriend problems. About ready to bolt but feeling obligated to stay and console, I decided to pop in this set and groove out to my new tunes. I didn't think -- but should have assumed -- this tour de force of 70's and 80's love and unrequited love songs was helping him work through all that junk. In no time he was back in the game and dancing right along with the music. House does it every time. 1. Lenny Fontana pres Best Funky House Music - A Mystical Journey - Ubp Remix 2. The ReLOUD & Hang Massive - Once Again (David Morales Def Rework) 3. Kraak and Smaak - Alone With You (feat. Cleopold) [Purple Disco Machine Remix) 4. Ziggy Funk feat. Taliwa - What You Afraid Of (DJ Spen Disco Phobia Mix 5. Roberta - where is the love - womack rework 6. The Trappists - Maxi Super Love (Supermax - 'Love Machine'- The Trappists Remix 7. Michael Jackson - Rock With You - Miguel Migs Tribute Remix 8. Freemasons - Love on my Mind - Joey Negro Mix 9. Angelo Ferreri - DO YOU REMEMBER - Mood Funk Beat 10. Michael Jackson - Thrill Err (Betoko Rework) 11. Peter Heller - Big Love - D33P Remix 12. Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard (Feel Good Things For You) - Peter 13. Nik Kershaw - I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Alkalino Rework) Ellis 2013 Remix 14. Harold Melvin - The Love I Lost (Eric Faria Remix) 15. Patti LaBelle - Somebody Loves You Baby (Souldynamic Bootleg) 16. Giorgio Moroder - Right Here Right Now - Instrumental Mix 17. ORLANDO JOHNSON - Turn the Music On (Massimo Berardi Re-Edit) 18. Yam Wham 'Romance The Edit 19. The Shamen - Move Any Mountain (Alkalino Remix) 20. Wham & George Michael - 1982 - Young Guns Go For It - Master Said Edit 21. Diana Ross - The Boss (Discotron Remix) 22. Ann Nesby - Can I Get A Witness - Mousse T's Garage Mix 23. Alexander O'Neil - Lord - (Bah Samba Mix) 24. Pino Daniele - Yes I Know My Way (Francesco Cofano Epic Remix) 25. Groove Junkies feat Solomon Henderson - Inside My Soul - DJ Matt House Edit 26. Steve Miller Band - Abracadabra - DJ Garry M Rework 27. The Love Supreme - Sugar (Social Disco Club remix)Honom edit 28. Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. - Shine On Silver Moon (S. Nolla Edit Mix)

Morning Music or Sleaze, never cared much about the distinction. Another down tempo Morning mix with Disco, Pop, R&B. 1. Memories And Souvenirs - Freda Payne 2. Smile - Chris Rea 3. Never Stop Loving You (Specia Limited Club Mix) - Caviar 4. Real True Loving - Edwin Starr 5. Don't Pity Me - Faith, Hope and 6. Charity 6. Lay Your Lovin' On Me - Bobby Womack 7. Intro / My Love Don't Come Easy - Jean Carn 8. Tell Me What You Want (A Tom Moulton Mix) - Jimmy Ruffin 9. Beat of Love - Chris Thompson 10. Don't Cry Tonight 12 ' mix - Savage 11. I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You - The Alan Parsons Project 12. Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime) - Simple Minds 13. Thinking Of You (12'' Mix) - Sister Sledge 14. Lovestruck - Barbara Randolph 15. I Found Love (12'' Disco Mix) - Deniece Williams 16. Sacred Kind Of Love 'with Grover Washington) - Phyllis Hyman 17. You Don't Have To Be A Star - Marilyn Mccoo and Billy Davis Jr. 18. Simple - Johnny Mathis 19. Took The Last Train - David Gates