Jackie Lee – African Boogaloo
Jackie’s back!
Listen/Download – Jackie Lee – African Boogaloo MP3
Greetings all.
Jackie Lee should be a very familiar name to those of you that hit Funky16Corners on the reg, considering how many times his sounds have appeared in this space, in mixes or on the podcast.
He was one of the truly great figures of the Los Angeles 60s soul scene, on his own, as half of Bob and Earl, and under a variety of pseudonyms.
You can brush up on his history here and here.
That all said, today’s selection is one of the very first Jackie Lee 45s that I ever popped into my crates, and it is one of his funkiest.
‘African Boo-ga-loo’ was released in 1968, and bears the fine pedigree of having been written by Earl Nelson (aka Jackie Lee himself), produced by Fred Smith (one of the signature producers on the LA scene) and arranged by James Carmichael (right up there with Fred Smith).
It was also one of his bigger hits, having grazed the R&B Top 40 in the Spring of 1968 as well as finding some regional Pop success in New York and New Orleans.
It has that patented, stylish LA sound, with a very heavy bass line, some groovy organ, sax and harmonica, and some cool female backing vocals.
Jackie is – of course – in fine shape, and he delivers the Jerry-O-esque lyrics with verve.
He would duplicate his success a few years later with the funky ‘The Chicken’ on UNI (which made a similar shot at the R&B charts and strangely enough more regional success in New York).
I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Friday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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