Off air for a while there. Blame the
sunshine.
Visited a couple of low key carboots
today in an effort to avoid the “usual suspect” dealers and collectors who
almost inevitably seem to just beat me to the vinyl stacks.
Picked up this one – a Motown album from
1978. I wasn’t expecting much in truth, the cover was anonymous and the year suggested
bland disco-esque workouts would lie within.
How wrong I was, and how much I enjoyed
this whole LP when I got it home.
Plenty of names in the writing and
production/arranging credits – e.g. Pam Sawyer, H-D-H, Mike & Brenda Sutton
to name a few – but no clue as to the identity of Three Ounces Of Love save for
the picture in the pendant.
A bit of googling around tells me that
Three Ounces Of Love were three sisters – Ann, Elaine, and Regina Alexander – Detroit
girls who were, by all accounts, slim and petite, hence the “three ounces” I
guess.
Listening to this album the similarity to The Emotions is undeniable.
There is a nice mix of the uptempo, mid tempo and ballad and it’s a mystery why
Motown put so little effort into the cover – nowhere do the Alexander sisters get
a namecheck and their only picture (shown) is a small affair relegated to the back
cover.
“Star Love” opens the album and was a
single. The “star love” chant on this track is driving me mad – it reminds me
of something else, and something well known too I think, but I can’t bring it
to mind. Help me, please!
“Today Will Soon Be Yesterday” closes the
album and unfortunately the title would predict Three Ounces Of Love’s future tenure
at Motown. Motown’s loss, and fault? A shame.
Checking YouTube for other
tracks of theirs I stumbled on an obscure local label – Ecology out of
Souhfield Michigan - 45 issue that is really nice and must predate their Motown
album by some years I would guess.
1 comment:
Yes! What a great article. The Three Ounces were just a fantastic group and never got the success they deserved at Motown. My favourite of theirs is "I Found The Feeling"... groovy!
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