“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” Performed by The Elgins (1966)

The Elgins – How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You (1966)

Marvin Gaye originally released the song in 1965 and had a chart buster on it in 1965. Of course to reap the benefits of Gaye’s success  there were many covers of the song released  to try for more hits on the track.

The Elgins made a great cover of HSIITBLBY — don’t you agree?  Hard to believe that the following year (1967) this great group disbanded.

I had a post last year on the Motown versions of “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) ” made from 1964 – 1966. In it I mentioned there was one Motown cover of the song, by the Elgins, that I did not have a digital version of to share with you at the time.

I always keeps my promises (maybe latter than earlier) so here is the Elgins version and a poll so that you can finally select your favorite version of this awesome tune.

To refresh your memory here is the link to the original posting from 1/1/08 right here so that you can  listen again to the other three versions before you vote.

I am so looking forward to seeing what the results of the poll will be so please vote.

Musically Yours,

“Darling Baby” Performed by The Elgins (1966)

The Elgins – Darling Baby (1966) #4 R&B, #72 Pop

The Elgins came about from a merger of Motown/Tamla artists Saundra Mallett and The Downbeats.

It took three years before the group’s first single, “Darling Baby,” was released  on the Motown/VIP label.  With a little more promotion I am sure in would have been a national hit,  but you know how Motown did things,  hiring many, many great talented  artists but only promoting a select few!

Amazingly, even without promotion “Darling Baby”  made the top Pop 100.  Just goes to show you that good music will find a way!  Of course this was another great song composed by Holland, Dozier and Holland so it just had to be a hit — didn’t it?

Musically Yours,

Allen Klein, 77, Dies; Managed Music Legends

Photo of Allen Klein and wife Iris Keitel By Bob Gruen - Rock & Roll Photographer.

Allen Klein, a music executive who managed the business affairs of Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and, for a short time, the Beatles, and who was both admired and feared for his reputation as a fierce negotiator, died on Saturday in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 77.

The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Mr. Klein’s company, Abkco Music and Records

The NY Times Obituary By Ben Sisario continues (here).

“Step By Step (Hand in Hand)” Performed by The Monitors (1968)

The Monitors – Step By Step (Hand In Hand) 1968

Motown50 year 2009 continues here at OSML, in the month of July, paying tribute to the vocal groups I call Coed (both male and female members).

I am starting off with another of the talents that had little or no success at Motown due to lack of promotion. Please keep in mind that these groups didn’t lack chart busters because of any lack of talent — it was due to no support and promotion by the label IMHO.

The Monitors consisted of Richard Street, Warren Harris, and Sandra and John Fagin. They were great performers and yet they never had great chart success.”Step By Step” was their last single ever released on the Motown/Soul label.  It was composed by James Dean & William Weatherspoon.

Trivia: Monitor member Warren Harris was a high school mate of future Temptations Richard Street, Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin. Harris also spent time with Williams and Franklin in The Distants.

Musically Yours,

Fayette Pinkney, Soulful Singer With the Three Degrees, Dies at 61

July 1, 2009

By WILLIAM GRIMES

Fayette Pinkney, an original member of the Three Degrees who lent her strong, soulful voice to the 1970s hits “When Will I See You Again?” and “T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia),” the theme song of the television show “Soul Train,” died Saturday in Lansdale, Pa. She was 61.

The death was confirmed by Abington Health Lansdale Hospital. The cause was acute respiratory failure, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The Three Degrees formed in the early 1960s when Ms. Pinkney, who was still going to Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, joined with Shirley Porter and Linda Turner under the management of Richard Barrett, the record producer behind the Chantels and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

For more than a decade, Ms. Pinkney was the one constant in a group whose members came and went. She sang on the group’s first single, “Gee Baby (I’m Sorry),” on its 1970 hit “Maybe” and on the hits for Philadelphia International Records in the 1970s that helped the define the Philadelphia sound.

In a statement, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, the label’s founders, called the Three Degrees “our Philly sound version of Motown’s Supremes, but bigger and stronger and melodic.”

The group’s first two singles for Philadelphia International, “Dirty Ol’ Man” and “I Didn’t Know,” were modest successes, but “T.S.O.P.,” a mostly instrumental piece featuring the studio band MFSB, reached No. 1 on both the R&B and pop charts in 1974. “When Will I See You Again?,” which sold more than two million records, reached No. 2 on the pop charts that year.

Their close-harmony singing made the Three Degrees a popular nightclub act. The group performed with Engelbert Humperdinck at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas; a performance at the Copacabana in Manhattan ended up in the 1975 film “The French Connection.”

After leaving the Three Degrees and recording a solo album, “One Degree,” in 1979, Ms. Pinkney studied psychology at Temple University and earned a master’s in human services at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1985. She began working as an administrative assistant for the Medical College of Pennsylvania and rose to become an education coordinator there. She later counseled incoming patients at United Behavioral Health in Philadelphia.

She is survived by a brother, Nathaniel.

Ms. Pinkney continued to sing. “I travel with a unique group called the Intermezzo Choir Ministry,” she told the Web site thethreedegrees.com. “Yes, I do still love people and I love to make them smile.”

(Source: NY TIMES)