Inez And Charlie Foxx, "No Stranger To Love" c/w "Come By Here," Musicor MU 1201 (rel. 9/1966)

Inez and Charlie Foxx were siblings in real life. Inez was the first to record as a solo r&b vocalist. I have her first single, released as Inez Johnston by Brunswick Records in 1960; we need to hear that one sometime soon! Chuck made one solo single as Chuck Johnson for Symbol Records, where the duo had a smash pop and r&b hit with their classic ear-worm "Mockingbird" in 1963. Though credited just to Inez, it's one of the great r&b duets and a much-covered song that kept both siblings in royalty money for years to come.

        Though they managed another r&b Top 20 single, none of their follow-ups came anywhere close to the success of "Mockingbird." 1964's "Hurt By Love" got to #54 on the pop charts during a time when Billboard didn't have an r&b list. It may have been a bigger record in the Black music market.

     By 1966, when today's single appeared, their fortunes pepped up in the r&b market; this was the first of four consecutive hits. Pop-wise, these singles were ignored. Musicor, a subsidiary of United Artists Records, was a hotbed of future Northern Soul favorites at the time. "No Stranger to Love" joined those lofty ranks some time after its original release in the fall of 1966. 

        It was upstaged by its flip, a secular rewrite of the gospel standard "Kumbaya," which got more airplay; having two active sides of a single was often a recipe for failure. The two competing songs cancelled one another out most of the time. Those with a double-sided hit were rare but it did happen.

        "No Stranger to Love" is the superior side. Co-written by producer Luther Dixon, Inez Foxx and Barbara Gaskins (who also recorded), it's a stately mid-tempo soul stand for solo Inez. It seems to have been created in advance to meet the UK demand for non-hit soul singles with a certain beat, elegance and mood. If Charlie Foxx is on this side, he ain't doin' anything; this is Inez' show all the way. Her performance is striking; she excelled at the less-is-more approach, and how she holds back emotion rather than let it all hang out gives this song an impact less subtle singers would ruin.

 

This Cash Box ad is much more interesting than their

brief, dismissive review. Some singles they deemed

unworthy that week went on to become hits!

"Come By Here" wasn't the first secular revamp of this African spiritual. To a simmering soul tempo, this agreeable toss-off features a breathy stand by Inez Foxx with a femme soul chorus in fine support. While this side is more pop-friendly, and perhaps the best performance of the two songs, it is just another public domain song rewrite. Nothing wrong with that, or with the recording. It approaches the future sound of The Jackson 5. Just hop the beat up a bit, replace Inez with a hyperactive kid, and you've got a smash hit!

        This side performed well enough for Dynamo (a subsidiary of Musicor and the first label for the Jacksons, BTW) to issue an LP, seen in the marquee.

The Foxx siblings would have one more pop hit with "Count the Days," which got to #71 and was one of a flurry of singles for Dynamo Records from 1967-69. Inez married Luther Dixon and the two co-composed a comeback hit for The Platters in "I Love You 1,000 Times." The two divorced; after their run on Dynamo ended, Charlie (who had little to do in most later recordings) and Inez called it a day. Inez continued to record (including a string of 1970s sides for Memphis label Volt Records).

        Inez outlived her brother by many years, and she passed on in LA in 2022 at age 84. I'm sure she got royalty checks for "Mockingbird" right up to the end of her stay on this green globe.

Tomorrow: LA vocal group The Jewels deliver a spirited pair of r&b sides via a 1955 Imperial Records single-the last (for now) of our Dollar Bin Doozies.