"Supernatural Thing" is a song recorded by American

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

and R&B singer Ben E. King. The single, released in 1975 by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, was a No. 1 hit on the U.S. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

chart for one week. It also reached No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Supernatural Thing" was written by

Haras Fyre Haras Fyre (born January 5, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. After writing songs for Sister Sledge and Ben E. King early in his career in a songwriting duo with his girlfriend Gwen Guthrie, Fyre spent some tim ...

(pseudonym Patrick Grant) and

Gwen Guthrie Gwendolyn Guthrie (July 9, 1950 – February 3, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter and pianist who also sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Peter Tosh, The Limit and Madonna, among others, and who wrote son ...

and was produced by Tony Silvester and Bert DeCoteaux. The song was included on King's 1975 album ''

Supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

''.

Personnel

Musicians

Al Caiola Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of t ...

– guitar * Ben E. King – vocals * Charles McCracken – guitar *

Ernie Hayes Ernest George Hayes (6 November 1876 – 2 December 1953) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey, Leicestershire and England. Ernie Hayes was a right-handed batsman, usually batting at No 3 and strong at driving and pullin ...

– piano *

Gary Chester Gary Chester (born Cesario Gurciullo; October 27, 1924 – August 17, 1987) was an American studio drummer, author, and teacher. Beginning in the 1960s, he played on hundreds of records for bands such as the Coasters, the Monkees and the Lovin' ...

– drums *

Lloyd Trotman Lloyd Nelson Trotman (May 25, 1923 – October 3, 2007), born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, was an American jazz bassist, who backed numerous jazz, dixieland, R&B, and rock and roll artists in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He resided i ...

– bass * Phil Kraus – percussion

Production

* Bert "Super Charts" De Coteaux – arranger * Tony "Champagne" Silvester – producer

Cover versions

*Rock band

Siouxsie and the Banshees Siouxsie and the Banshees ( ) were a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Post-punk pioneers, they were widely influential, both over their contemporaries and later ...

recorded it in 1981 as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of their "

Arabian Knights ''Arabian Knights'' is an animated segment of ''The Banana Splits Adventure Hour'', created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series is based on the ''Arabian Nights'', a classic work of Middle Eastern literature. The cast includes Jay North, Sh ...

" single; it was later included on the band's 2004 ''

Downside Up ''Downside Up'' is a four-disc box set collecting B-sides and bonus material from the catalogue of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Also included (on disc four) is '' The Thorn'' EP, originally released in 1984. Most of these songs (only present on ...

'' collection. *American soul duo

Charles & Eddie Charles & Eddie was an American soul music duo composed of Charles Pettigrew and Eddie Chacon. Their single " Would I Lie to You?", taken from their 1992 debut album, ''Duophonic'', won Ivor Novello Awards in 1993 in the Best Contemporary Song, ...

covered the song on the 1993 soundtrack album '' Addams Family Values: Music from the Motion Picture''. *British

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...

producer

Adam Freeland Adam Freeland (born 7 August 1973) is an English record producer and DJ. He is also the owner and creative director of the record label Marine Parade, which has released material by artists including Evil Nine, ILS, Alex Metric and Jape. ...

recorded a cover of the song for his 2003 album ''Now & Them'', which was released as a single the following year.

Popular culture

*The song was featured on the soundtrack to the 2020 film ''

Spenser Confidential ''Spenser Confidential'' is a 2020 American action comedy film directed by Peter Berg, with a screenplay written by Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland, and based on characters created by Robert B. Parker. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke ...

.''

References