![]() ![]() But when a subsequent deal with Chess Records reached stalemate, they were on the verge of quitting for good. ![]() The O’Jays first worked with Gamble & Huff on Neptune Records, releasing minor hit One Night Affair, regarded as one of the earliest disco records, in 1969. “So, we gigged with the Dave Clark Five, the Beach Boys, Sony & Cher…we did shows with DJs, we’d do four or five gigs a night.” “In the Sixties, we were considered a pop act, not R&B,” says Eddie. Their biggest success before that was Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette) which went Top 50 in 1965. I was married, I had two kids, rent to pay…we did all kinds of clubs, Detroit, Buffalo, travelling around in a station wagon, sometimes with a five-piece band, which was pretty cramped.” And the more you get into it, it’s less about the girls and more about the business and trying to be a true star and make a living. “We were in Colorado, in the middle of nowhere, and on the radio, they started playing Back Stabbers, except we didn’t realise because all we’d heard when we recorded it was the rhythm section and they’d added strings. We didn’t recognise it was us until the singing started! That was the moment we realised we were in the business. “We’d just left for the West Coast doing dates, midnight specials, Hullaballoo on NBC and all that,” Eddie recalls. Real success came when they signed to ace Philadelphia producers Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff in 1972 and the silk smooth soul of Back Stabbers propelled them to Number 3 in the US charts and Top 15 here. “We didn’t have knowledge about publishing. “I was so naïve about the music business, I thought as soon as you made a record you were rich, you’d made it and you could buy your mum a house… “We played our first gig on a major stage in front of 3,400 people and we were thinking, this is what we were going to do for the rest of our lives! The bug had bit. After going out as The Mascots and The Triumph, they became The O’Jays in 1963 when Cleveland DJ Eddie O’Jay championed them, notching up a minor US hit with Lonely Drifter. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |