1974 RCA lp "PHILADELPHIA"

**remicks** · July 7th, 2009, 02:51 AM

*****

Disco Funk (particularly) .....have you this ??

with no artist listed on the cover (!!!!) :

& with not very "Philadelphia" song choices:

Tracklisting:

A1 Artificial Low (5:24)
Written-By - Akiens* , Bellman* , Turner* , Drayton*
A2 Smilin' Faces Sometimes (6:12)
Written-By - Strong* , Whitfield*
A3 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (5:02)
Written-By - Wonder*
A4 Benny And The Jets (4:55)
Written-By - John-Taupin*

B1 Inner City Blues (6:54)
Written-By - Nix* , Gaye*
B2 Keep On Truckin' (4:09)
Written-By - Poree* , Wilson* , Caston*
B3 Hippo (6:58)
Written-By - Akiens* , Bellman* , Turner* , Drayton*
B4 Natural High (3:45)
Written-By - McCormack*

produced by Jimmy Bishop

& with no performance credits included
but looks to be the same crowd as behind:

and

Jazz LP

BENNY & THE JETS is a clever (Spinners-esque?) reworking with heavy use of bongos and ....trombone :icon_eek:
HIPPO has sort of that LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY slow groove and is probably the most "disco" song on here with its' prominent bass line , wah wah guitar , organ, whistles and sticks (a fake fadeout song too)
and NATURAL HIGH is just a pleasant , beautiful version ... lots of smooth horns and hard working drumming w/ insistent high hat .... reminds me of Al Green's slower songs ... I think its the album's best.

*****

**Disco Funk** · July 7th, 2009, 10:09 AM

It's an okay LP. As far as I can tell, it doesn't have the regular Sigma guys, so no Earl Young on drums. At least, it doesn't have the sound of a typical philly dance album. It's pretty generic sounding, but it's got a nice version of Inner City Blues with a long drum break, which is why I bought it. Otherwise, I wasn't blown away by the record. I think it was recorded at Virtue studios, which was a rival philly-area studio to Joe Tarsia's Sigma.

Those four guys were collectively known as Silent Majority, at least that was one name they recorded under, which I think was at one of the Holland Dozier labels (Hot Wax, Invictus, etc...). But their main contribution was to the philly sound as writers. Here's a brief discography of who they recorded as

Formations

Force of Nature is a pretty good group, which I think was one of the few self contained groups (i.e. didn't use MFSB for rhythm) on a Gamble & Huff label. They recorded an album before Unemployment Blues, which was self-titled, and released through Tommy, an obscure sub-label for CBS. They also had a non-LP track Simba which was on Tommy, and is pretty good. They're more funk and soul than jazz.

Disco Funk

**remicks** · July 7th, 2009, 10:56 AM

*****

It's a curious release if nothing else .....why title it Philadelphia??? (Virtue Studios trying to claim its turf??)

Poor Jerry Aikins (sic??) gets his named spelled a half dozen ways ....
but he has the proud claim to fame as writer of TK Disco's first 12" of which this is the accompanying 7" :

which was writtten back in the early 70's ('71) for the group you've mentioned The Formations

and look at who arranged it ......

*****

**Disco Funk** · July 8th, 2009, 06:29 PM

I think by '74, anything coming out of Philadelphia was considered musical gold. Jimmy Bishop was one of those guys churning out the northern soul in that city along side Gamble & Huff, etc..., in the mid to late 60s, although his name rarely if ever turned up during the disco era. Perhaps he was hoping to get a piece of the money-making pie that was TSOP.

I've seen so many artists names misspelled on LPs and singles over the years, I've since realized that their contribution probably begins and ends with what is committed to the tape on the initial sessions, and everything afterward is all the work of the production company. I can imagine how many times these poor guys have looked at the final product in the store and seen that their name was misspelled, even though a quick phone call to them before press time could have avoided all that! I guess Jerry Aikens wasn't too upset as long as the royalty cheques showed up at the right address! :)

The first TK 12inch with that horrible marketing strategy of calling one side Part 1, and the flipside Part 2, even though they were both the exact same!! They did that for quite a number of 12inches for at least two years. Disco Magic by T Connection is another one that comes to mind.

I like At The Top Of The Stairs, at least the Wild Honey version. The original sounds definitely like it was a Motown knock-off. Long before Richard Rome had established is show-tuney trademark arrangment style. He had been around for quite some time in the 60s.