Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff wrote and produced EXPRESSWAY TO YOUR HEART
for the Philadelphia/New York based group Soul Survivors.
Even at this early stage , Gamble and Huff are creating music with a groove ...
... hard hitting , well paced , confident ... a rhythm to get up and move to ....
EXPRESSWAY TO YOUR HEART climbed the charts exactly forty years ago ... #3 R&B .....
and peaked on Billboard's Hot 100 at #4 on September 24, 1967. :icon_cool:
There's a most fascinating footnote to this first hit for Gamble and Huff ....
a perhaps unexpected one if you aren't already aware of it .....
..... anyone????
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Last edited by remicks; August 14th, 2007 at 09:46 PM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Originally Written by remicks
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There's a most fascinating footnote to this first hit for Gamble and Huff .... a perhaps unexpected one if you aren't already aware of it .....
..... anyone????
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A wily clue could be to say that there's a strong reference to be found in the sound effects used on this record .....
******
Last edited by remicks; August 19th, 2007 at 03:21 AM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Platinum Record [Level 8]
They wrote it while driving in a car?A wily clue could be to say that there's a strong reference to be found in the sound effects used on this record .....
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Disco Funk
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Could be .........????
but this footnote has a little more notable a twist than that ....
With this first release by Gamble and Huff.... this is the first and I'm fairly certain the last time this takes place ... ( and DF , I'm sure you can , should, and will correct me if I'm wrong:icon_redface: )... this one time and then with all their many future hits .... never again
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Last edited by remicks; August 27th, 2007 at 11:05 AM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Never used a reverbed piano that sounded like it came out of the Lovin Spoonful's 'Summer In The City'? :)Could be .........????
but this footnote has a little more notable a twist than that ....
With this first release by Gamble and Huff.... this is the first and I'm fairly certain the last time this takes place ... ( and DF , I'm sure you can , should, and will correct me if I'm wrong
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Maybe it's the way the music fades out but the sound effects remain there and then eventually fade out too.
Disco Funk
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
No its really more about G & H starting off in an incongruous way from what would become their norm once they gain control of their own hit factory at Philadelphia International.
Its what sets the Soul Survivors apart from the rest on the roster of acts Gamble and Huff would bring to fame:
acts like:
LOU RAWLS
TEDDY PENDERGRASS
HAROLD MELVIN
THREE DEGREES
INTRUDERS
O'JAYS
BILLY PAUL
JONES GIRLS
JERRY BUTLER
ARCHIE BELL
JEAN CARNE
JONES GIRLS
PEOPLE'S CHOICE
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shenkin ..... where are you ????
Last edited by remicks; September 7th, 2007 at 03:45 AM.
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Chart Hit [Level 6]
The Soul Survivors were white and a bit more of a rock group.
No Longer Charting
The Gamble / Huff partnership is so amazing.
Those early Intruders records like "Check Yourself" and "All The Time" and records like Dee Dee Sharps fabulous 'What Kind Of Lady" plus the Neptune releases on The O'Jays and The Three Degrees contain all the hallmarks of what was to come.
A bunch of UK Soul fans made a trip to Philly last year and it included a visit to The Clef Club for a meet and greet of some early Soul heroes...the big surprise and delight of the day was when Mr Gamble himself turned up. It was as they say, a moment.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
That's it !!!
Gamble and Huff went that route this once ........but never again .....
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Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Platinum Record [Level 8]
LOL, and all this time I was thinking of the musical aspect of the track.That's it !!!
Gamble and Huff went that route this once ........but never again .....
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Actually, Gamble & Huff didn't really work with many self-contained bands either. I think Soul Survivors, People's Choice, Yellow Sunshine, and another one whose name I can't remember who did a psychedelic funk LP in '74.
Yup, Gamble & Huff rarely worked with any white artists. Most of the Philly artists (i.e. singers) were black, although many of the musicians were mixed. Bobby Eli was white; and I think it's Bruce Hawes who's the white guy at the piano on the Trammps LP covers?
The only other white philly group I can think of is Sons of Robin Stone. I always thought the lead singer from John Davis' group Monday After ('Merry Go Round') also sounded white, but I have yet to see a picture of them.
Disco Funk
Chart Hit [Level 6]
DF: did you know that Gamble and Huff offered Daryl Hall and John Oates positions as staff writers/producers at Philadelphia International? Hall and Oates declined, preferring to "not be part of someone ELSE'S sound". Since so much of their music, especially "Camelia", "Rich Girl" and several others sound so much like Gamble and Huff's music anyway, I didn't understand their turning down the offer....
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Daryl Hall was working at Philly as early as '69. He's got a writing or production credit on a track called Pass The Pipe by The Alliance. I think he co-produced that with Len Barry or Bobby Eli.
Disco Funk
No Longer Charting
Some might find this interesting !
The Temptones Discography
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Don't forget Archie Bell & The Drells ... PIR labelers anyway ... don't know how hands on G&H were with them ...?
Most DF .... or all ??Yup, Gamble & Huff rarely worked with any white artists. Most of the Philly artists (i.e. singers) were black,
Disco Funk
*****
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Was Archie Bell a band? I figured they were just a vocal group like The O'Jays, etc... I guess I should have said The Trammps as well, if Golden Fleece and the Disco Champs album counts.
They did produce an album of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. Mel was a white jazz drummer, Thad a black trumpeteer, if I'm not mistaken. They did a nice cover version of For The Love Of Money, big band funk style, which I recall was released in '74.
Disco Funk
No Longer Charting
Just re - reading this thread and I think it's all become a bit confused... the original point iseems to be to celebrate Gamble & Huff's first big hit and then it seems to move onto the fact that the Soul Survivors were White and not Black as most of the Philly International acts were. I still don't hear the clue to this in 'Expressway To Your Heart' but still, we all hear different things.
So, was your original point Remicks, that G & H didn't produce any White acts after the Soul Survivors or just that they didn't work with them ? Because re-reading your posts in this thread you seem to be implying that G & H didn't work with White acts at all apart from the Soul Survivors ?
I think it's pretty well known and obvious that Gamble & Huff favoured Black acts for their labels and music... you only have to look at the releases for that.....but why wouldn't they ? They were successfully making Black music and as such didn't compromise to achieve that sound.
Certainly there were releases on G & H's labels by White acts...theres a terrible Pop/Rock record on PIR by Lenny Paluka for instance, Disco Funks pointed out another and something tells me there was another mixed race group too.
In answer to Disco Funk's post about Archie Bell and The Drells being a self contained band, the instrumentation of the Atlantic sides was by the The TSU Tornado's, at least some of the time. Obviously later cuts were MFSB in its various forms.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
No , my original point Simon, was that it was forty years ago that Gamble and Huff had their first break-thru hit . As an aside, my secondary point was that this was the only white artist HIT of Gamble and Huff .I chose to use the word "hits" on purpose. While I had my suspicions , I wasn't absolutely certain just how solidly black their total non-hit output was .remicks: With this first release by Gamble and Huff.... this is the first and I'm fairly certain the last time this takes place ... ( and DF , I'm sure you can , should, and will correct me if I'm wrong :icon_mrgreen: )... this one time and then with all their many future hits .... never again" Favoured " is putting it mildly :icon_razz: . ( I didn't realize that whiteness compromised any sound? When did that get determined ? )Simon: I think it's pretty well known and obvious that Gamble & Huff favoured Black acts for their labels and music... you only have to look at the releases for that.....but why wouldn't they ? They were successfully making Black music and as such didn't compromise to achieve that sound.
Isn't it a bit disappointing that in the more enlightened age of the seventies a successful label like PIR had still boxed themselves into an antiquated mold of just making race records .....
Lenny who ????????????? and who, who, and ..... who ???Simon: Certainly there were releases on G & H's labels by White acts...theres a terrible Pop/Rock record on PIR by Lenny Paluka for instance, Disco Funks pointed out another and something tells me there was another mixed race group too.:icon_mrgreen:
A review of the clue :Simon: ..... and then it (this thread) seems to move onto the fact that the Soul Survivors were White and not Black as most of the Philly International acts were. I still don't hear the clue to this in 'Expressway To Your Heart'
OK Simon ... here goes:remicks: A wily clue could be to say that there's a strong reference to be found in the sound effects used on this record .....
.... The sound effects used in this record are of what ... gnarled congested traffic ... car horns blaring away ... all sounding a bit .....
*****
hey I said it was "wily" ......
*****
Baby, take me
high upon a hillside
high up where the stallion
meets the sun
No Longer Charting
Surely Remmy, wouldn't the car horns have been used because the song is called "Expressway to Your Heart" ??
Just like 'Leader of The Pack' uses a motorbike revving to signify a motorbike, or 'Remember Walking In The Sand' and 'Dock Of The Bay' use seagulls to signify (1) a beach, ( 2) a dock.
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I found a couple more white artists on Gamble & Huff labels: The Jaggerz released a rock album on Gamble a year before they put out The Rapper on Kama Sutra. And a guy name Dick Jensen had an LP on PIR in 1973.
Lenny Pakula was one of the members of MFSB. His name pops up on a the credits of many PIR albums. I haven't heard that single yet that he put out on PIR.
Disco Funk
Indie Release [Level 4]
Nobody in MFSB was white?
SERIOUSLY???????lol
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I wish I had read the comment above about the Lenny Pakula record before ordering it. It sounds really crappy. Like really bad Fleetwood Mac. I can't even believe that Gamble & Huff let it get released on the main label with MFSB as the credited band. They should have credited to Lenny Pakula and his Bohemians or something along those lines, then I'd know NOT to buy it. :(
Disco Funk
No Longer Charting
LOL.....it's not the best record in the world thats for sure..definitely an oddity on the label !
Chart Hit [Level 6]
funny we're talking about Gamble and Huff. I was just in my local 99 cent store and their P.A. system was playing what I consider Gamble and Huff's finest composition EVER (if not their best known), "You're My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration", performed by Teddy Pendergrass. Words can't express how unbelievably sexy this song is.....Teddy must have agreed, as he even breaks into a falsetto at the end. It sounded so darn good I forgot a couple of the items I had gone to the store to buy....
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Oddity is an understatement. I'd call it a blight, almost false advertising if you ask me! Not even Tom Moulton could have saved that record!
Disco Funk
No Longer Charting
This post went very quiet after the original, specious argument was easily proved to be so obviously untrue! :icon_rolleyes:
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