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Still Water (Love)
"Still Water (Love)" is a 1970 hit single written by Smokey Robinson and Frank Wilson (who also produced the track) for the Motown singing group Four Tops. The B-side was "Still Water (Peace)" and both songs appear on the 1970 album '' Still Waters Run Deep''. Background The socially conscious single was a departure from the group's past recordings and produced a smoother sound than the raucous Norman Whitfield productions that belayed on The Temptations. The single features Miracles member Marv Tarplin on guitar and The Andantes adding in additional background vocals shouting out "Still water!". Singers Brenda Joyce Evans and Billie Rae Calvin, brought to Motown by Bobby Taylor (and soon to be part of Norman Whitfield's group The Undisputed Truth), also add backing vocals. This song was noted for its repeated chord structure, beginning with E-Flat Major, shifting to C Minor, then to B-Flat Major over F, before starting again at E-Flat Major, over and over again, witho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Four Tops
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Andantes
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers, among others. It is estimated they appeared on 20,000 recordings. The Andantes provided back-up singing on Motown singles starting in 1962. The group was most prominently used on all of the Four Tops' Holland–Dozier–Holland-produced hits, including " Baby I Need Your Loving", " I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", " Reach Out I'll Be There", and more. Motown began to use the Andantes as background vocal substitutes for the vast majority of recordings for its girl groups beginning with the Marvelettes recordings in 1965, Martha & the Vandellas in 1966, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Ashford
Jack Ashford (born May 18, 1934), known to his friends as Jashford, is an American musician widely known as the percussionist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the 1960s and early 1970s. Ashford is most famous for playing the tambourine on hundreds of Motown recordings. With the death of Joe Messina in April 2022, Ashford is the last surviving member of the Funk Brothers. Instruments he is known to have played are the tambourine, vibraphone, marimba, maracas, cabasa, bells, chimes, bell tree, finger cymbals, kazoo, triangle, wood block, handclaps, foot stomps and hotel sheet. His definitive performance is on " War" by Edwin Starr. Other notable songs Ashford played tambourine on include " Nowhere to Run" by Martha & the Vandellas, " You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes, " I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, and " Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston. He played vibes, shakers, and the marimba on Motown recordings such as The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Messina
Joseph Lucian Messina (December 13, 1928 – April 4, 2022) was an American guitarist. Dubbed the "white brother with soul", he was one of the most prolific guitarists in Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers. Early life Messina was born in Detroit on December 13, 1928. He started playing the guitar when he was thirteen, after his father purchased one for him. Messina initially attended Central High School in his hometown, before studying music at Cass Technical High School. He eventually dropped out to focus on becoming a professional musician. Career Messina first played in jazz clubs in Detroit starting in the late 1940s. By his mid-twenties, he was playing in the ABC Television studio band, accompanying such guests as Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Jack Teagarden, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Giuffre, Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Frank Rosolino, and Dizzy Gillespie. Also while at ABC, Messina played on '' The Soupy Sales Show'', alongside guests su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Willis
Eddie "Chank" Willis (June 3, 1936 – August 20, 2018) was an American soul musician. Willis played electric guitar and occasional electric sitar for Motown's in-house studio band, The Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Career Born in Grenada, Mississippi, Willis was known for his signature style of muted guitar riffs which added a distinctive tone or "color" to the beat, often timed with the snare, of the hundreds of hit songs recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. for Motown artists. Among the recordings Willis performed on are " Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes, "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by The Temptations, "You Keep Me Hanging On" by The Supremes, and "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder. Influences for Willis included Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery, and Albert King. He played a Gibson Firebird guitar on most of his early 1960s work, later moving on to use a Gibson ES-335. On recordings such as The Supremes' "No Matter What Sign You Are", Willis per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert White (guitarist)
Robert Willie White (November 19, 1936 – October 27, 1994) was an American soul musician and a guitarist for Motown's in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers. Born in the small town of Billmeyer, Pennsylvania, he received music lessons from his uncle. He toured with The Moonglows and played bass prior to making Detroit his home in 1960. He did session work at Anna Records and later became one of the three core guitarists at Motown, along with Joe Messina and Eddie Willis. There, he performed primarily as a rhythm guitarist and played lead guitar when particular melodies needed his distinct tone. He is best known for writing and performing the guitar riff on The Temptations' number-one hit single " My Girl", and performed on numerous Motown hits, including "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and " What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, " You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes, and " My Cherie Amour" by Stevie Wonder. Oscar Moore and Wes Montgomery were among White's influences ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Jamerson
James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on twenty-three ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits. In its special issue "The 100 Greatest Bass Players" in 2017, '' Bass Player'' magazine ranked Jamerson number one and the most influential bass guitarist. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time. Early life A native of Edisto Island, South Carolina, he was born to James Jamerson Sr. and Elizabeth Bacon. He was raised in part by his grandmother who played piano, and his aunt w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uriel Jones
Uriel Jones (June 13, 1934 – March 24, 2009) was an American musician. Jones was a recording session drummer for Motown's in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Biography Jones was first hired by Motown as a fill-in for principal drummer Benny Benjamin; along with Richard "Pistol" Allen, he moved up the line as recordings increased and Benjamin's health deteriorated. Hits that Jones played drums on include "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - both versions, by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell in 1967 and the 1970 remake by Diana Ross, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Ain't That Peculiar" by Marvin Gaye, " Cloud Nine" (in which he was augmented by Spider Webb), " I Can't Get Next to You", and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by the Temptations, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin, Jr. Walker's "Home Cookin'," "The Tracks of My Tears" and "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history. Among their hits are " My Girl", " I Heard It Through the Grapevine", " Baby Love", " I Was Made to Love Her", " Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", " The Tears of a Clown", " Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and "Heat Wave". Some combination of the members played on each of Motown's 100-plus U.S. R&B number one singles and 50-plus U.S. Pop number ones released from 1961 to 1972. There is no undisputed list of the members of the group. Some writers have claimed that virtually every musician who ever played on a Motown track was a "Funk Brother". There are 13 Funk Brothers identified in Paul Justman's 2002 documentary film '' Standing in the Shadows of Motown'', based on Allan Slutsky's book of the same name. These 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaldo "Obie" Benson
Renaldo "Obie" Benson (June 14, 1936 – July 1, 2005) was an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member and the bass singer of Motown group the Four Tops, which he joined in 1953 and continued to perform with for over five decades, until April 8, 2005. He also co-wrote " What's Going On" which became a No. 2 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971, and which Rolling Stone rated as No. 4 on their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in 2004. Biography Early career 1954–1964 Benson attended Northern High School in Detroit, Michigan with Lawrence Payton. The pair met Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir while singing at a friend's birthday party in 1954 and decided to form a group called the Four Aims. Roquel Billy Davis, who was Payton's cousin, was a fifth member of the group for a time and a songwriter for the group. Davis played an instrumental role in the group being signed by Chess Records who were mainly intereste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Payton
Lawrence Albert Payton (March 2, 1938 – June 20, 1997) was an American tenor, songwriter, vocal arranger, musician, and record producer for the popular Motown quartet, the Four Tops. In 1997, at 59 years old, Payton died of liver cancer. Biography Payton and Renaldo Benson both attended a Northern High School in Detroit and met Levi Stubbs and Abdul Fakir at a school birthday party. The four teenagers began singing in 1953 as The Four Aims but later changed their name to the Four Tops. Although successful in the local area as a performance group, recording success eluded them until signing with the newly established Motown label in 1963. They then became one of the biggest recording acts of the sixties, charting more than two dozen hits through to the early eighties. Payton is credited for the vocal arrangements and the "smooth seamless harmony" of the Tops' sound. He also sang lead on several songs such as "Feel Free" (from the ''Catfish'' album) and "Until You Love Someon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdul "Duke" Fakir
Abdul Kareem Fakir (born December 26, 1935), professionally known as Duke Fakir, is an American singer. He is a founding member of the Motown quartet the Four Tops, from 1953 to the present day. A first tenor, Fakir is the group's lone surviving original member, performing today with Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence "Roquel" Payton Jr. (son of original member Lawrence Payton), and Alexander Morris. Biography Fakir was born on December 26, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a factory worker who came from what is now Bangladesh. Fakir attended Detroit's Pershing High School, where he played basketball, football, and ran track. He first met fellow band member Levi Stubbs through neighborhood football games, even though he was not aware Stubbs was a singer. Later, attending a variety show featuring the Lucky Millinder band, the band announced a talented young singer who Fakir recognized as the boy he played football with. They became closer friends and Stubbs even traveled with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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