On Friday we started looking back to June 1972 with the survey from WCUE in Akron, Ohio. Lurking below the familiar hits that haven’t been off the radio since that week were a few others worth noting, and here we go:
“Automatically Sunshine”/Supremes. This is the post-Diana Ross edition of the group, which slowed down barely at all following Ross’s highly publicized departure for a solo career at the end of 1969. With Ross soundalike Jean Terrell on lead vocals, they charted 11 more records through the end of 1972, among them “Up the Ladder to the Roof,” “Stoned Love,” “Nathan Jones,” “Floy Joy,” and a collaboration with the Four Tops, “River Deep Mountain High. “Automatically Sunshine” was the last to make the Top 40.
“Powder Blue Mercedes Queen”/Raiders. This is the Freddy Weller/”Indian Reservation” edition of the group, which unleashes some uncharacteristically big riffs on “Powder Blue Mercedes Queen.” Although it seems to have wowed ‘em in Ohio, it did so in few other places, reaching only Number 54 in Billboard.
“It Doesn’t Matter”/Stephen Stills. Allmusic.com loves itself some Manassas, the album from which this is taken, calling it “akin to the Beatles’ White Album, the Stones Exile on Main St., or Wilco’s Being There in its makeup.” It’s one of the founding documents of country rock, but it also features quite a bit of Latin-tinged stuff, too—the sort of ambitious artistic vision that frequently went wrong in the 70s, but didn’t in this case.
“Feel the Need”/Damon Shawn. What I have been able to find out about Damon Shawn is that he recorded two singles. Both were covers of songs by the Detroit Emeralds. In fact, both used the same backing tracks that the Emeralds used on their versions, and both were produced by “Katouzzian Productions,” a pseudonym for the Emeralds themselves—most likely Emeralds member Abe Tilmon. What I have been unable to find out is: Why?
“Everything Good Is Bad”/100 Proof Aged in Soul. The Invictus and Hot Wax record labels, helmed by the ex-Motown production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, featured some fine records at the end of soul’s brief heyday, by Honey Cone, the Chairmen of the Board, Freda Payne, Laura Lee, and 100 Proof Aged in Soul. The latter was a Detroit group featuring Joe Stubbs, brother of the Four Tops’ Levi Stubbs, best known for their lone Top-10 hit, 1970’s “Somebody’s Been Sleeping.” “Everything Good Is Bad” barely cracked the national Top 50.
Coming Monday: A fascinating bit of trivia involving one of the groups mentioned in this post and one of the last deep soul records ever to make the Top 40.
“It Doesn’t Matter”/Stephen Stills & Manassas (buy it here)
At WNEW.com: A Founding Father of rock who’s one of Wisconsin’s own.
Filed under: Uncategorized
