Cover of the Jackson Sisters LP

 

Listen/Download The Jackson Sisters – I Believe In Miracles

Greetings all

The new week is upon us, and in the spirit of getting things off to a banging start, I thought I’d whip a little dynamite on you.

Last year, whilst I was nearing the end of a very fruitful vinyl dig out in Pittsburgh, I realized that the store in question had a box of pricier items propped up on the front counter.

Not one to let an opportunity such as this pass me by, I set my stack o’wax down, and started digging anew.

I ended up pulling another dozen or so discs out of that box, including the gem you see before you this very day.

I do not recall where I first encountered the Jackson Sisters ‘I Believe In Miracles’ but I can almost say with certainty that I knew the record’s label before I ever heard the song.

Back when I used to frequent a certain funk/soul/hip hop oriented message board, ‘finds’ lists used to be be one of my favorite things to peruse, always with amix of wonder and jealousy.

The Jackson Sisters 45 of ‘I Believe In Miracles’ used to pop up now and then (it is not a common 45) and the very groovy Prophesy Records label found itself a niche in my memory.

When I finally got around to actually hearing the record, I was blown away.

‘I Believe In Miracles’ is that perfect mixture of funk and disco, combined with an actual, catchy song (as opposed to the stand-alone groove of so many discs of the era).

First recorded by Mark Capanni, and co-written by Capanni and Bobby Taylor, ‘I Believe In Miracles’ was a much mellower affair in it’s original form.

The Jackson Sisters – Jacqueline, Lyn, Pat, Rae and Gennie – who hailed from Compton, CA but operated out of Detroit recorded one album (for the Tiger Lily label) and a few 45s in the early 70s.

‘I Believe In Miracles’ made it inside the R&B Top 100 in September of 1973, but dropped off the charts, and that was all she wrote for the Jackson Sisters….

Until the mid-80s, when ‘I Believe In Miracles’ was rescucitated as an anthem on the UK Rare Groove scene and made it back onto the UK charts.

The record, arranged by Gene Page is a masterpiece of dance floor engineering, with some hard-hitting drums (listen to those snare hits!), clavinet, and just enough horns and strings to class up the joint (but not too much).

‘I Believe In Miracles’ has a remarkable amount of kick to it (I’m posting the slightly more muscular mono version) and it’s hard to imagine anyone managing to stay in their seat when the needle hits the grooves (check out the way the song – another version – was used in the film ‘Cemetery Junction’).

The Jackson Sisters recording went on to be sampled a number of times, and the song was covered in 1992 by the UK group The Pasadenas.

The Mark Capanni 45 is exceedingly rare and sells for several hundred (sometimes over 1,000) dollars. It has been reissued by Jazzman in the UK and even that 45 can be pricey.

The Jackson Sisters OG runs around 200USD, especially version you see above, the vinyl promo issue with the stereo and mono mixes.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

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.