Donald Jenkins And The Delighters, "Somebody Help Me" c/w "Adios My Secret Love," Cortland C-112 (rel. 11/1963)
Beloved for their 1975 basement soul favorite "Music Revolution," Donald Jenkins and The Delighters were a long-standing group with many members and a few names. The first aggregation was as The Daylighters. They formed in Birmingham, Alabama in or around 1956. Tony Gideon was still in high school when he got the group together. They recorded several singles from 1959-1964. They also sang backup for Gerald Sims and Betty Everett, which shows their presence in Chicago by the early 1960s.
The Windy City was a major center of Black music; a distinct sound emanated from the town's performers, arrangers and producers via a plethora of labels including Vee-Jay, Mercury, M-Pac and OKeh, whose Chicago branch became a force to reckon with in its development of soul music.
As The Daylighters continued to record, Donald Jenkins, Ron Strong and Walter Grainger splintered off for three releases on Cortland, a lesser-known Chicago imprint with several beguiling r&b/soul singles and some iffy pop sides. Jenkins and group made three singles for Cortland. Long ago, we played their debut "Native Girl (Elephant Walk)"/"Wang Dang Dula."
Today we'll hear the second Corland 45, which straddles the schools of rhythm and blues and soul. "Somebody Help Me" is a powerful beat-ballad of the "Stand By Me" school. This melodic plea for recognition and human kindness is given dramatic gravitas by Jenkins' vulnerable, appealing vocal performance. The three singers co-wrote the song, which acknowledges its narrator's sense of isolation and alienation. There must be acceptance and community somewhere, and the narrator's plight is moving and compelling.
A simple, tight arrangement with percussive guitar chords and occasional brass, woodwinds and orchestral percussion, frames a strong song well. This is a favorite of soul fans and collectors; it sounds like a hit, and ought've been. America was in a state of mourning at the time of its release, and many fine singles got zero reaction; it couldn't be helped. It has become a spendy disc; not many copies were pressed due to this black hole of shared trauma.
The Windy City was a major center of Black music; a distinct sound emanated from the town's performers, arrangers and producers via a plethora of labels including Vee-Jay, Mercury, M-Pac and OKeh, whose Chicago branch became a force to reckon with in its development of soul music.
As The Daylighters continued to record, Donald Jenkins, Ron Strong and Walter Grainger splintered off for three releases on Cortland, a lesser-known Chicago imprint with several beguiling r&b/soul singles and some iffy pop sides. Jenkins and group made three singles for Cortland. Long ago, we played their debut "Native Girl (Elephant Walk)"/"Wang Dang Dula."
Today we'll hear the second Corland 45, which straddles the schools of rhythm and blues and soul. "Somebody Help Me" is a powerful beat-ballad of the "Stand By Me" school. This melodic plea for recognition and human kindness is given dramatic gravitas by Jenkins' vulnerable, appealing vocal performance. The three singers co-wrote the song, which acknowledges its narrator's sense of isolation and alienation. There must be acceptance and community somewhere, and the narrator's plight is moving and compelling.
A simple, tight arrangement with percussive guitar chords and occasional brass, woodwinds and orchestral percussion, frames a strong song well. This is a favorite of soul fans and collectors; it sounds like a hit, and ought've been. America was in a state of mourning at the time of its release, and many fine singles got zero reaction; it couldn't be helped. It has become a spendy disc; not many copies were pressed due to this black hole of shared trauma.
When this single was recorded and released, no one had any idea how stunned and saddened the American public would be for the last weeks of 1963. Dozens of high-merit singles went unheard as a nation grappled with its shared grief.
"Adios (My Secret Love)" has an exotic arrangement with the Chicago soul sound much more present. It's an atmospheric ballad co-penned by Windy City cleffer Bob Catron and Jenkins. Elements of doo-wop infuse this mood-piece (listen to how the other Delighters roll their Rs on a repeated nonsense syllable); Jenkins again plays up the drama of this story-song with a melancholy twist. This, too, had hit potential, and sounds like a record the coastal Carolina states beach music scene would've embraced; this may account for the record's higher-than-usual pricepoint.
The vocal arrangement is polished but never bland; the listener may marvel at how well the three voices do their collective thing. Curtis Mayfield's influence is heard in the guitar played at the song's introduction.
The vocal arrangement is polished but never bland; the listener may marvel at how well the three voices do their collective thing. Curtis Mayfield's influence is heard in the guitar played at the song's introduction.
The group's final single bills them as Donald Jenkins and The Daylighters, as if to confuse record collectors ever after. They didn't record for a decade and their return to the scene with "Music Revolution" wasn't hyperbole; Black music had morphed into a new being with tenuous connections to the sound of this 1963 single.
Tomorrow: back to the dawn of the 45 era with a cool jazz-flavored vocal group twin spin by The Ray-O-Vacs, who deliver a noirish mood piece and a sprightly jump blues on a 1950 Decca Records single with superb sound quality, given its age and the then-new format.
Tomorrow: back to the dawn of the 45 era with a cool jazz-flavored vocal group twin spin by The Ray-O-Vacs, who deliver a noirish mood piece and a sprightly jump blues on a 1950 Decca Records single with superb sound quality, given its age and the then-new format.
Two lovely songs!. Too bad that "Somebody Help Me" was released that November. It's just as strong a song as KIng's 1961 "Stand By Me." It's interesting that cultural events shape/censor when we hear (or don't hear) music and or see (or don't see) movies. I'm thinking about "The Manchurian Candidate" and how that was not released because of a presidential assassination.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. These items of pop culture were created with no notion that tragedy would strike, and it's surprising none of the record companies attempted a second issue of the winter 1963 singles in early '64. I guess there was so much material awaiting release that they couldn't look back. I feel for the performers whose work didn't get heard; it wasn't anyone's fault...it was just life.
DeleteVery nice tracks and I never heard them before--thanks, Frank! Jenkins' voice reminds me a bit of Jimmy Hughes.
ReplyDelete