ERNIE HARRIS, "WITH YOU" C/W "IF I," DUKE 323 (REL. 6/1960)

Don Robey was the meanest man in music. You didn’t want to get on his bad side. For dirty deals, sucker punches and highway robbery, he was your one-stop shop. His labels Duke, Peacock and Back Beat served up some of the roughest, bluntest r&b music ever recorded. Many great records came from his labels, despite his being an abusive con artist and chiseler.

In the early 1960s, perhaps aware of his vibe and concerned that it was bad for business (no moral compass applied), Robey toyed with more pop-friendly material. He saw others succeed with this approach and he wanted in on the action. A few trial balloons were launched, including today’s single, one of two 45s released by Ernie Harris. It’s not a great record, but not bad; it suffers a bit from trying to be something by necessity rather than choice.

It’s possible these two sides were recorded in New York and leased to Robey, since they sound nothing like his usual made-in-Texas material. Nothing is known about the performer, so let’s rotate this record…

“With You” is a song Harris co-penned with Dave Clark (not the UK guy) and has humorous, well-parsed lyrics and a solid, familiar bluesy melody, Harris sings this witty song well—about a guy who’s fine with whatever his gal wants to do, be it mundane or monolithic. For pop r&b, it plays its cards well. There is an instrumental riff that has the potential to annoy but never succeeds; background chorus is cloaked in studio reverb and avoids becoming a Dread Chorus. Harris sings in a Brook Benton vibe, but he has a soulful bent to his warm tenor that forgoes the cloying sound of that popular vocalist.

There’s nothing wrong with this record; it sounds like many others of its day, but it was an effective mix of mainstream pop and rhythm and blues and has a likable quality that might’ve sold some records; Robey included it on a various-artists LP whose cover is seen in today’s marquee. It was the mildest side-dish on this spicy line-up.

“If I” bears all the baggage of its A-side status: heavy, busy strings, a full-on Dread Chorus (tho’ of a mild temperament) on a song by someone named McCoy. It's not Rose Marie McCoy; the song has no apparent copyright in the Library of Congress song registration ledgers. This is a paint-by-numbers pop ballad; well-written but unexceptional. The woozy string arrangement works against the song and is a distraction/annoyance from Harris’ vocal, which tries its best to overcome the schmaltz. Spoiler alert: Ernie loses the battle.

The record must have sold; it’s reported in Cash Box as being among Duke Records’ better items of mid-1960 and its inclusion on the LP suggests it had appeal long beyond its 1960 single. The album remained in print into the late 1970s. Ernie Harris made his final single for Okeh Records in 1964; I’ve not heard it but its A-side, “Hold On,” is reported to be “a wailing soul ballad” that was co-written by Parliament member George Clinton. One to look for!

Tomorrow: soul duo Bob and Earl in disguise as Charles and Walter on a 1964 platter for Chene Records.