James and Bobby Purify – Let Love Come Between Us
James and Bobby Purify
Listen/Download – James and Bobby Purify – Let Love Come Between Us
Greetings all.
I hope everyone’s head is screwed on securely and that you’re all enjoying the summer so far.
As has been discussed here many a time, I have a serious Northern Soul jones and as a result the large and throbbing ‘to-be-blogged’ file in the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault is verily swollen with it.
However, firm in the knowledge that it’s not everybody’s bag, and one must keep the stylistic lamp lit in all corners of the soul spectrum, it behooves me to let it out one small, delicious bit at a time so as not to tax the sensibilities of those who dig things on the funkier tip.
That said, today’s selection hails from a 45 that has lived in my crates since the earliest days of my soul collecting, when my mind was fixed on all things southern and I was grabbing up everything I could from the region.
James and Bobby Purify (aka James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey) hailed from the sunny state of Florida and recorded a grip of tasty soul during the 60s and 70s (when the role of Bobby was taken over by Ben Moore).
They got things rolling with a huge hit, the certified soul classic ‘I’m Your Puppet’ in 1966, following it with a string of Pop and R&B chart hits through 1968 (though the continued to record for Bell, Casablanca and Mercury through the mid-70s).
The tune I bring you today ‘Let Love Come Between Us’ was a Top 20 hit in the US in 1967, charting again in the UK in 1969.
It’s a stellar bit of semi-sweet, danceable soul with a beat that endeared it to the UK Soulies (not yet dubbed Northern). It had enough of a poppy edge to maintain their hit momentum in 1967 but remains solidly soulful in all other respects.
In an interesting footnote, ‘Let Love Come Between Us’ was originally recorded in 1966 by the Georgia-based Rubber Band and was written by two of it’s members, Joe Sobotka and John Wyker. The original version (which you can check out on YouTube) was sung by the group’s lead singer Johnny Townsend who would go on to sing lead on the Sanford-Townsend Band’s 1977 FM hit ‘Smoke From a Distant Fire’. John Wyker was later a member of the group Sailcat, and co-wrote their 1972 hit ‘Motorcycle Mama’.
Very groovy all around, and I hope you dig it.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
that’s a great tune! quite poppy w/o over-doing it . . . no real grit there, but surely nice ear candy and a good mid-tempo floor-filler! thanks, as always, for dredging it up and sharing.
doug