Al Thomas solo, and with the Sweet Delights

Listen/Download – Al Thomas – I Had a Good Thing (But I Blew It) MP3

Listen/Download – Al Thomas Ork – Cornbread and Molasses MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, so I will beseech you once again to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show. You can subscribe to the show as podcast in iTunes (maybe review and rate it while you’re there?), listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, check it out on Mixcloud, or grab an MP3 right here at the blog.

We’re going to close out the week with a groovy Philly 45 that I’ve had in my crates for years but only just recently made a discovery about.

I picked up the Al Thomas Ork 45 ‘Cornbread and Molasses’ after hearing it in a mix back in the day. I was already buying up any Philly soul and funk I could get my hands on, especially anything on the Virtue label.

My assumption at the time was that Al Thomas was the same cat as ‘Big Al T’ who did the two-sided instrumental funk 45 of ’25 Miles’ b/w ‘Do the Slide’ which I already had.

So – as is often the case – I didn’t really dig into the flipside, the vocal version of the song ‘I Had a Good Thing (But I Blew It)’ until years later.

When I did, with my aptitude and taste for sweet soul more highly developed, it really made a mark. It has that groovy, slightly funky, late 60s (1968) vibe that you heard a lot coming out of Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.

So I started digging around, looking for information on the participants and I discovered some interesting things.

First off, ‘Al Thomas’ was in fact Albert Thomas Byrd. Secondly, Al Thomas was the sole male member of the Sweet Delights, who made an excellent 45 for Atco ‘Baby Be Mine’ that same year.

As it turns out, ‘I Had a Good Thing (But I Blew It)’ is in fact the Sweet Delights. It should have been their second 45, but someone decided that they’d be better off marketing it as a solo single by Thomas/Byrd.

Unfortunately, neither 45 seems to have made a dent either inside or outside of Philadelphia, though the funky, instrumental side of the Sweet Delights ATCO 45, ‘Paul’s Midnight Ride’, credited to the Delights Orchestra got some regional airplay in the Midwest and the South.

It’s an excellent 45, and I hope you dig it.

See you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.