The Parliaments

Listen/Download The Parliaments – Don’t Be Sore At Me

Greetings all

Here we are, mid-week, and what better time for a little bit of stylish Northern Soul to lift the spirits?

I will assume that most of you are already familiar with the pre-P-Funk years of George Clinton as leader of the Parliaments.

Though they got their start in Plainfield, NJ, by the mid-60s the Parliaments had relocated to Detroit, where Clinton was working as a songwriter/producer.

They recorded their first Detroit-based 45, the mighty ‘Heart Trouble’ for Golden World in 1965.

It was a few years later that they hit with their first 45 for Lebaron Taylor’s Revilot imprint ‘(I Wanna) Testify’(#3 R&B, #20 Pop) in the summer of 1967.

The upbeat, Northern Soul fave ‘Don’t Be Sore At Me’ appeared as the flipside of their second Revilot 45 (and second hit) “All Your Goodies Are Gone’ which reached the R&B Top 20 in the fall of 1967.

As I’ve mentioned in this space before, Clinton and the Parliaments had a habit of pairing a more mainstream sound (like ‘Don’t Be Sore at Me’) with a slightly freakier side (like ‘All Your Goodies are Gone) which allowed both sides of their sound to get exposure. All of their Revilot 45s follow this pattern, with the exception of ‘A New Day Begins’ b/w ‘I’ll Wait’ (issued on both Revilot and Atco and the final chart entry – grazing the R&B Top 40- in 1969) where both sides have a more progressive bent.

‘Don’t Be Sore At Me’ features some great (and unusual, especially in the verse) group harmonies, a great melody and a nice kick from the bass and drums. The song was co-written by Clinton, fellow-Parliament Grady Thomas and singer Pat Lewis (who would cover two Parliaments tunes, ‘Look at What I Almost Missed’ and ‘I’ll Wait’ for Solid Hit).

This is one of the harder Revilot sides to turn up, so dig the sounds and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Until then…

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.