Thursday, August 02, 2012

Moody and magnificent



A bit of virtual digging (just for a change!) led this 45 to drop through the letterbox recently and it has stayed close to the deck ever since. It continues to amaze me just how many old and obscure records are on YouTube nowadays, and this one is there. A comment on it describes this track as “great moody mid tempo”. A good description and I will go one step further and say moody and magnificent.    

Just about all I know about Patty & The Emblems can be found here on the now sadly defunct Supersoulsisters blog. The group debuted in 1964 with what turned out to be their one and only hit “Mixed Up Shook Up Girl”. “You Took Advantage Of A Good Thing” was on the B side of the follow up “Music Makes Me Want To Dance”. The A side was aimed fair and square at the dancefloor catching the Motown tide and was co-written by Leon Huff. This follow up single, as a double header,  was in my opinion much stronger than their hit debut but did nothing chartwise; possibly because at the time of its release the British Invasion was gathering pace and the R&B charts had been temporarily dropped. After a few releases on Herald Patti & The Emblems resurfaced a couple of years later in the Sixties with a handful of 45 releases on Kapp, but again chart success eluded them.

Pat Russell had a rich, strong voice and puts in an excellent performance here (and with some good phrasing on this track I would have thought she could have made a good jazz singer). The Emblems give an almost doo wop backing (demonstrating their influences and background?, after all this was 1964), and then there are the horns accentuating the tempo of the song as well as giving us some wonderfully dramatic fills.

A moody, magnificent masterpiece. I love it.           
   
Patty & The Emblems – You Took Advantage Of A Good Thing  1964  

2 comments:

ally. said...

couldn't be more up my street. ta ever so as ever mister. another for the list - is it one to save up for?

darcy said...

Hi ally,
Not easy to find but not rare I would say. I'm not one to spend stupid money on records.

Manship has one for £40 which would immediately put my target price at £20 max. - and as it happens Gemm have a couple for about £20. I count myself lucky to have picked this up off t'bay for under £10 including postage! Possibly because it was this sublime side that was listed rather than the dancing side which I guess would attract the Northerners.