Another STAX Christmas

Booker T. and The MG’s

In the Christmas SpiritSome of my favorite sources for holiday music are the various STAX Christmas and compilation albums. Do you know STAX/VOLT of Memphis, TN? The OTHER major source of soul music in the 1960s besides Motown in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Black Christmas – The Emotions. The female vocal trio had its best commercial years after leaving the label with Best Of My Love. This is a black empowerment track.

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Carla Thomas. One of the first names I think of on the label. From 1966, when it got to #11 on Billboard’s special Xmas list, the same year her B-A-B-Y was #3 RB, #14 pop.

Silver Bells (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) – Booker T. and The MG’s. Released as a 1967 season single. Booker T. Jones was born in 1944 in Memphis, TN.

Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas – Staple Singers; a downer, social justice song. But I love Pops’ and Mavis’ voices here.

Jingle Bells (James Lord Pierpont) – Booker T. and The MG’s, #20 on the Xmas list in 1966

Gee Whiz It’s Christmas – Carla Thomas. written by Thomas, Steve Cropper, and trumpeter Vinny Trauth. #23 on the Christmas charts in 1963. It was inspired by Carla’s #10 pop/#5 RB hit Gee Whiz (Look In His Eyes)

Sort of a hit

Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday – William Bell. Written by Bell and Booker T. Jones. This went #33 RB in 1968 and was a regional pop hit in the DC area. Born in 1939 in Memphis, he was a prolific songwriter.

The Mistletoe And Me – Isaac Hayes. A keyboard player/songwriter for STAX, the singer died in 2008. This non-album invokes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, and We Three Kings, among other songs. I contend that this is a GREAT Christmas song. But I’ve never heard it on the radio

Winter Snow (Isaac Hayes) – Booker T. and The MG’s. Yes, it is a melancholy instrumental. Sometimes the season is like that.

In the Booker T. Christmas Spirit

Ecumenical: Blue AND White Christmas

In the Christmas SpiritIn 1966 – possibly my favorite pop music year ever – Booker T. and the M.G.’s put out a holiday album.

The group was an “American instrumental R and B/funk band that was influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul.” True, that. The members in 1966 were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Al Jackson Jr. (drums), and Donald “Duck” Dunn (bass).

Stax Records was the great record label out of Memphis, TN. Motown may have been “The Sound of Young America,” But Stax was “Soulsville U.S.A.”, the title of a tremendous book by Rob Bowman.

“In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single ‘Green Onions.'”

In the Christmas Spirit was their fourth album.

The songs

Jingle Bells (James Lord Pierpont). Periodically, Billboard had Christmas charts. This song, released as a single, got to #20 in 1966. This track also appeared on a 1968 compilation called Soul Christmas.
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town  (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)
Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard, Dick Smith) B-side of Jingle Bells.
White Christmas  (Irving Berlin)
The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells)
Silver Bells (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston). Released as a 1967 season single. Also on Soul Christmas.

Merry Christmas Baby (Lou Baxter, Johnny Moore)
Blue Christmas (Bill Hayes, Jay Johnson)
Sweet Little Jesus Boy (Bob MacGimsey)
Silent Night (Franz Xaver Gruber, Joseph Mohr)
We Three Kings We Three Kings (John Henry Hopkins, Jr.)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Traditional)

The B-side of the Silver Bells single was the non-album track, Winter Snow (Isaac Hayes), a song I love dearly.

Music throwback: Stax food choices

The Astors also spent 2 1/2 months performing on tour with The James Brown Review.

I was listening to one of my Stax-Volt box sets, which I usually do in the summer, in honor of the label’s co-founder Jim Stewart’s birthday. (His sister Estelle Axton ALSO belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BTW.) I’ve written about Stax before, including its complicated relationship with Atlantic Records.

I noticed that some of the Memphis soul label artists, especially the more obscure ones – we’re not talking Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas – had tracks with food-related titles.

This is not to say that some of the name artists didn’t ALSO choose a musical culinary route. Booker T and the MG’s had a song about popcorn, e.g. But I picked three songs to highlight, two of which may give you tooth decay.

Candy – The Astors. Composed by Booker T & MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper and Isaac Hayes, this is the only one of the Memphis group’s songs to chart. #12 on the R&B charts, #63 on the pop charts (Billboard) in the summer of 1965.

“As ‘Candy’ moved up the charts, The Astors performed on shows at the Uptown Theater in Philly, the Howard Theater in D.C., The Regal Theater in Chicago, and The Apollo Theater in New York. The other performers on these shows included The O’Jays, The Coasters, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, and Redd Foxx to name a few. The Astors also spent 2 1/2 months performing on tour with The James Brown Review.”

Listen HERE or HERE
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Sugar, Sugar – The Mad Lads (1966). The song was composed by Alvertis Isbell and Eddie Floyd, the latter a name artist, but, as far as I can tell, the song did not chart. The group is from Detroit.

Listen HERE or HERE
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Hot Dog- The Four Shells (March 1966). “A Chicago group recording licensed to Stax, produced by Jerry Butler and Eddie Thomas.” I cannot find any chart action for this either.

Listen HERE or HERE

Despite their relative obscurity, these all sound vaguely familiar, as though they were regionally popular, even if they were not always national hits.

Music Throwback Saturday: STAX Christmas

Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday was a minor success in 1967.

William Bell
William Bell

When I obtained two box sets of the Memphis-based soul label STAX several years back, I noticed that there were a few holiday-related singles in the collections. Here are just three.

Booker T. and the MG’s

The STAX house band, included Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg, replaced in 1965 by Donald “Duck” Dunn (bass), and Al Jackson, Jr. (drums). They also had some hit singles.

The group released a holiday album, In The Christmas Spirit in 1966. It put out one seasonal single that year, Jingle Bells, b/w Winter Wonderland. “Jingle Bells peaked at #20 on Billboard’s list of Christmas-related singles in 1966. It did not make the standard pop charts.”

The next December, STAX released another single, Silver Bells b/w the non-album track, Winter Snow.
Booker is still playing music, often with Steve Cropper.

LISTEN to Silver Bells with the painfully lovely Winter Snow at 2:30
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William Bell

The singer/songwriter/pianist had a number of soul hits. Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday was a minor success in 1967, getting to #33 on the r&b charts.
Bell was still performing at the beginning of 2015.

LISTEN to Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday
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Isaac Hayes

The keyboard player/songwriter for STAX, the singer, who died in 2008), released a couple of albums in 1970, but also a holiday, non-album single, one that invokes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, and We Three Kings, among other songs.

LISTEN to The Mistletoe and Me

Sam Moore of Sam & Dave is 80 (tomorrow)

Sam Moore was blown away, and uttered “Play it, Steve” spontaneously.

sam-and-daveSamuel David Moore (born October 12, 1935) and the late Dave Prater (May 9, 1937 – April 9, 1988) comprised, inarguably, the most successful and critically acclaimed soul-singing duo, Sam & Dave, from 1961 to 1981. They are members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1992) and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Sam Moore has continued his career as a solo performing and recording artist.

They had a complicated recording situation, signed to Atlantic Records, but leased to the soul label Stax for a time in order to get the Memphis feel. Their working relationship was also strange; “according to Moore, they did not speak to each other offstage for almost 13 years.”

A Place Nobody Can Find, written by David Porter, was their first STAX single, b/w Goodnight Baby (Isaac Hayes/Porter), both sides featured Dave Prater singing lead. It failed to chart. That would soon change.

Many of the song description narratives are from the great book Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of STAX RECORDS by Rob Bowman. Links to all songs.

10. I Take What I Want (Hayes/Mabon Hodges/Porter), 1965 – another early song that failed to chart. Note that many of these songs were written by the team of Isaac Hayes (of “Shaft” fame), and David Porter, who also produced these and many future songs. They also wrote hits for other STAX artists.

9. You Got Me Hummin’ (Hayes/Porter), #77 pop, #7 r&b in 1967 – such nice rhythmic humming, it wasn’t the bawdy song that the writers had envisioned.

8. You Don’t Know Like I Know (Hayes/Porter), #90 pop, #7 r&b in 1965 – their first hit, due in no small part to the promotional skills of STAX’s Al Bell. It was inspired by the gospel song You Don’t Know Like I Know What the Lord Has Done for Me. Sam Moore hated the song, and about half the tunes presented to him at STAX because Hayes and Porter made him sing high in his vocal range. Dave sings the first verse, then they trade lines. Instead of a solo, Hayes and Porter put in a horn ensemble, inspired by Otis Redding’s In the Midnight Hour.

7. You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me (Eddie Floyd/Steve Cropper) #48 pop, #20 r&b in 1968 – I’m not a great fan of talking in pop songs. But when Sam & Dave do it – “Eddie FLOYD wrote the song” – it’s different. Steve Cropper is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s.

6. Soothe Me (Sam Cooke), the live version went #56 pop, #16 r&b, #35 UK – smooth like Sam Cooke was.

SamMoore 5. Soul Man (Hayes/Porter), #2 pop for three weeks, #1 r&b for seven weeks, 24 UK in 1967. A Grammy Hall of Fame song. Isaac Hayes suggested Steve Cropper play a slide guitar lick, and Cropper, not having a proper slide, used a cigarette lighter. Sam Moore was blown away and uttered “Play it, Steve” spontaneously, which was kept in the mix. The success of the Blues Brothers’ cover, for some reason, made me irritable.

4. Wrap It Up (Hayes/Porter) – B-side of I Thank You, 1968. The lead vocals were recorded in Paris while the duo was on tour, because the label thought, correctly, that the A-side was going to be a big hit.

3. I Thank You (Hayes/Porter), #9 pop, #4 r&b, #34 UK in 1968 – more talk that works. Sam’s “I want everybody to get off your seat, And get your arms together, And your hands together, And give me some of that old soul clapping” sounded like church, especially the word “old.” Also love the clavinet, played by Hayes. It features background vocals by Ollie and the Nightingales.

2. Hold On, I’m Comin’ (Hayes/Porter), #21 pop, #1 r&b in 1966 – the first Sam & Dave song I was aware of. Hayes had yelled to Porter to hurry, and finish up in STAX’s washroom. Porter responded, “Hold on, man, I’m coming.” Sam is on lead vocals from the start. Little mistakes, such as Wayne Jackson missing a trumpet entrance, were left in. Often covered, never surpassed.

1. When Something is Wrong with My Baby (Hayes/Porter), #42 pop, #2 r&b in 1967 – this song, a rare ballad for the duo, is gorgeous. Inspired by Porter’s bad marriage and his fantasies about what would feel like to be in love. Sung primarily by Sam, with harmonies by Dave. Also covered a lot, notably by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.
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Coverville 1096: The Villes are alive with the sound of Covers. And Sam & Dave. And Indie Hodgepodge!

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