PERFECT PITCH: WILLIAM HART (1945-2022) BY SHELDON TAYLOR

 

In a scene from the 1975 cinema classic Cooley High, basketball prodigy Cochise (played by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and his crew bum-rush a quarter party nestled deep in a rough-and-tumble section of Chicago's Near North Side. Peeling off his varsity jacket, 'Chise makes a beeline for the record player as teen-aged girls squeal with joy and jockey for his attention. 

Lumdi, lumdi la........lumdi, lumdi la....

 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "Mickey's Monkey" moves the crowd like pieces on a chessboard. In a split second----Cochise ends their joyful romp. Wallflowers and dancers groan with frustration. Their groove has just been disturbed. Strains of Smokey's "Ooh Baby, Baby" now fill the room. Cochise barks out an order: just turn off the lights! 

From dimly lit basements, cellars, and rec-rooms, sexy slow drags sweet harmonies, and love affirmations of R&B vocal groups transported couples to a romantic oasis that was a world away from the one outside their window. 

 It was a heady time. Hip hop impresario Fab 5 Freddy born in '59---recalls the impact of these groups growing up in '70s Brooklyn as a teenager in a December '88 issue of Spin:

 "There was a time when a b-boy may want to get together with his girl and go to a club where you can chill, sip a little Dom Perignon, a little caviar, munch a little fried chicken or whatever may be, and cool out with his girl. And he would take off his sneakers and put on a pair of Clarks or British Walkers. When I was a kid we had the Stylistics and Blue Magic and if you went to see these people, that was how you dressed. You didn't put on sneakers to hear the Stylistics---you put on something kind of fly."        

These groups had names that were as vibrant as colors in a Crayola box. There were Dynamic  Superiors and Dramatics. Temprees and Unifics. Moments and Floaters. 

There was also the Delfonics. Cool and urbane, the group was tall, slim, and trim, hitting the stage decked out in natty suits or in variations of their signature traje de luces ("suit of lights" for the less bilingual) bolero-style outfits inspired by bull-fighting matadors that gave them an identical flair apart from other groups.

The group's choreography was minimal but not as pedestrian as the Four Tops. The Delfonics weren't going to dazzle you with flashy moves like the Pips or the O'Jays. Instead of Blue Magic's mystic animation and the Temptations'military precision, simplicity and subtlety were their forte: a hand clap here; a hip sway there---these Philly love troubadours were a true representation of what one of their album titles implied: the sound of sweet, sexy soul.

Unlike typical five-man lineups (the Whispers or Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes), Randy Cain (and later Major Harris) and brothers Wilbert and William Hart were a trio.  Like the  O'Jays, their harmonies were anchored by a two-pronged vocal attack that consisted of Wilbert's gritty rasp and William's falsetto.

Birthed somewhere between the Black gospel experience and the high-pitched vocals found in Zulu Mbube and Isicathamiya music originating in South Africa, the falsetto voice had been around forever. Prior to the Delfonics, high tenor voices and the husky tones of Johnnie  Taylor, David Ruffin, James Brown, and Otis Redding were R&B vocal cornerstones. 

When the three-man unit arrived in 1967 it was a new day. The potent package of producer Thom Bell's classical string-and horn productions, the group's vocal blend, and Hart's vocals ushered in the arrival of falsetto-led groups anchored by ethereal voices like the Blue Notes' Baby Lloyd Parks ("I Miss You") and Jerry Cummings, The Moments' Harry Ray ("Sexy Mama"),  the Stylistics' Russell Thompkins ("You're A Big Girl Now"), and Blue Magic's Ted "Wizard" Mills ("Sideshow") 

Taking a break from their five-man lead formula ("Cloud Nine"), the Temptations threw their hat in the ring with 1971's "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) featuring falsetto Eddie Kendrick on lead vocals in the vein of Philly Soul singers like Hart.

They mesmerized listeners like rap godfather Russell Simmons:

"People don't understand this but the falsetto crying singer were the most ghetto singers back then. For all their talk of love, there was something pimp-like, manipulative and fly about that sound. Like one of my favorite songs the Delfonic's Hey Love where the lead singer is begging for that ass in a roof-scratching falsetto...."

During an era of virile R&B singers, hard-driving soul, and emerging message music, the Delfonics were a throwback of sorts. Songs like "Break Your Promise," "Over and Over Again" and "Somebody Loves You" recalled the chaste romantic ballads from the Fifties.  Producer Thom Bell's symphonic pageantry, the group's harmonies, and Hart's lead provided the Delfonics with an enchanting vibe that struck a chord with teens and adults. They also resonated with young children like a You Tuber first transfixed by the group when they appeared on a January  1972 episode of Soul!: 

"I remember watching this show with my family. I was eight years old and totally into the Delfonics. The very first album I ever owned was "Didn't I Blow Your Mind (This Time) after I begged my father to no end to buy it for me."

In 1969 five brothers from Gary, Indiana would arrive on the heels of their favorite group and reel off three Delfonics remakes ("Can You Remember," "Ready Or Not", "La La La Means I Love You") in pitch-perfect fashion. 

Hart's keen songwriting transformed hip talk ("Didn't I Blow Your Mind (This Time"), infant babble ("La La La (Means I Love You'), and kiddie chants ("Ready Or Not, Here I Come") into hit records. In time, changing musical tastes, nefarious industry practices, brotherly conflict, and personal challenges would derail the group splitting them into two factions.

Like Ron Isley and Charlie Wilson----when contemporary music came calling, their fortunes would change. Delfonics' music appeared in film ("Jackie Brown") and hip hop samples ("Holla" and ("Playa Hater"). The Fugees recorded a rap version of "Ready Or Not." Nas and Lauryn Hill's "If I Ruled The World" incorporated the hook from the group's "Walk Right Up To The Sun." There were collaborations with Wu Tang's Ghostface Killah ("After The Smoke Is Clear"). William Hart would collaborate with musicologist Adrian Younge (''Stop and Look, And You Have Found Love") and record a full-length album.

The Delfonics' "Hey Love" would inspire the titles of a mid-eighties album compilation filled with 70s classic soul. If you're old enough---you'll remember the classic commercial ("no my brother, you've gotta get your own").

Across the water, the Bee Gees languished in musical purgatory. Relocating to the states, they rebounded with a style inspired by R&B.  Their ballads ("Nobody Gets Too Much Heaven") were admittedly in the vein of Philly Soul classics "You Make Me Feel Brand New" and "Betcha By Golly Wow."

 In a 2001 Billboard interview, lead singer Barry Gibb revealed the origins of the group's 1976 hit "Love So Right"----"that was us trying to be the Delfonics."  

Before New Kids on the Block became pop phenoms, producer Maurice Starr crafted them in the R&B tradition of his old group New Edition. Early singles "Please Don't Girl" and Delfonic remake "La-La-La (Means I Love You)" featured falsetto lead/high tenor leads in the vein Hart's own vocals.

 William Hart and the Delfonics' legacy among the greats of Black music's pantheon is solidified. Their soulful sonnets helped jump-start a musical movement. Their reach was far.  Their songs traveled from inner-city street corners and blue-light basements to the jungles of Vietnam and beyond---their messages of love and vulnerability will live on in eternity.