Fantastic Johnny C – (She’s) Some Kind of Wonderful
Fantastic Johnny C
Listen/Download – Fantastic Johnny C – (She’s) some Kind of Wonderful
Greetings all.
I was recently doing a little of that ‘internal digging’ thing, heading back into the crates to turn the earth as it were and see what I might dig up for the radio show and the blog.
One of the first things I pulled out was the Fantastic Johnny C’s 1968 LP.
Johnny Corley was one of several acts in the Philadelphia area associated with (and largely controlled by) Jesse James.
Though he was born in Greenville, SC, Corley came of age in Philadelphia and hit the charts three times in 1967 and 1968, his biggest success coming with ‘Boogaloo Down Broadway’ which was Top Ten on both the Pop and R&B charts.
Phil LA of Soul decided to do an entire album on him in 1968, which included a nice balance of originals and covers of tunes by Robert Parker, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Ben E King.
One of the other covers is today’s selection, a very nice version of the Soul Brothers Six’s ‘(She’s) Some Kind of Wonderful’.
The original version by the SB6 had hit with the song (on Alantic) the previous year, and would eventually relocate from their Upstate NY base to Philadelphia.
Fantastic Johnny C’s version of the song is excellent (as is the rest of the LP) with a very nice, horn-laden backing track. It’s interesting to hear the song with a slick arrangement and (more importantly) a solo voice, as opposed to the harmonies of the SB6.
If you get the chance to pick up the ‘Boogaloo Down Broadway’ LP, grab it, since it is uniformly excellent and also includes the Northern-style killer ‘New Love’.
Fantastic Johnny C went on to record the Philly funk classic ‘Let’s Do It Together’ for the local Branding Iron label (it was picked up for national distribution by Kama Sutra) and continued to record for Phil LA of Soul into the 70s.
I hope you dig the cut, 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).
Themocracy