Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where Is The Love: Donny Hathaway Finally Gets His Due

Image
                                               Hathaway Suite I: Sack Full of Dreams (Prelude) "I've done everything right. I know how to touch people. What do I have to do to get people to love me like Stevie?" Hardly words you’d expect from a gifted and multi-faceted talent at the top of his game. Producer. Arranger. Songwriter.  Television. Film scores. When the stage lights went out after another triumphant show and the money was pocketed, Hathaway poured his heart out to mentor Quincy Jones and ponder---where is the love?   Donny was quick; he was truly a genius. But he couldn’t understand why Stevie Wonder; whom I ‘d known and admired since he was 12 was more popular than him. He used to travel with $200,000 to $3000,000 in cash and he felt safe enough to call me from almost every city in America, day or night. The last time was from his gr...
Read more

THOM BELL AND LINDA CREED: LOVE IS THE MESSAGE

Image
                                                                                                         Songwriting credits in today’s music industry read like names of prestigious law firms. It’s not uncommon to list five or six names as co-writers. Factor in samples/ interpolations and the number grows---a far cry from the days when writing and production teams were crews who worked in twos (and threes).  Ask your typical music aficionado these days to run down their short list of great songwriting tandems and they just might stop at LA and Babyface or Jam and Lewis and overlook the prolific genius predating contemporary R&B.                   ...
Read more

Greatest Love of All: A Story of Cancer, Courage and Collaboration By Sheldon Taylor

Image
 In April 1986, Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All was rising fast on the charts. Released a few weeks earlier as the final single from her triple-platinum debut Whitney Houston album, it was looking to be every bit the success of her previous hits like You Give Good Love, How Will I Know, and Saving All My Love For You. Composed, arranged, and produced by Michael Masser and lyrics penned by Linda Creed, Houston’s thrilling rendition of the 1977 original is permanently lodged in the public consciousness but the song's history and lyrical inspiration have been lost with time.               By 1976, Linda Creed was looking to spread her wings. As a staff writer at Philadelphia International Records, she joined forces with producer Thom Bell’s to create some of the greatest songs in the Philly Soul songbook.  In just four and a half years they'd racked up over 20 platinum and gold singles and albums. Creed was just twenty-t...
Read more