New Birth

Listen/Download – New Birth – It’s Impossible (LP edit) MP3

Listen/Download – New Birth – It’s Impossible (45 edit) MP3

Greetings all.

A few years back I was down in DC with the fam, doing the sightseeing thing with a couple of (mandatory) digging stops. We had the Sirius ‘Soultown’ station on, and my ears perked up when the record you see before you (which I’d never heard before) came on the radio.

It took me a few seconds to get into the groove, no doubt caused by my mind fixating on the original hit version of the song, which was by Perry Como.

Once I got past that, I was kind of blown away.

I stopped into my fave DC record spot – Memory Lane – and asked my man Marshall is he had a copy for me. They only had one, and it was beat, but I bought it anyway.

So, I get home, decide I want the album, find one on Ebay, and get that.

Then, a few weeks later, I’m looking for something else, and discover that I already had a copy of the 45 (close to mint condition), and realize (yet again) I have way too many records.

Anyway…

The idea of a soulful version of ‘It’s Impossible’ seems…ahem…impossible (or at least improbable), but sometimes the right combination of talents can take a song and lift it right out of a familiar frame, turning it into something entirely new.

New Birth were the vocal adjunct of the mighty Nite Liters, which started out as the brainchild of Vernon Bullock and the mighty Harvey Fuqua.

Their self-titled debut LP had come out earlier in 1971 (and garnered little notice). ‘It’s Impossible’ was included on their sophomore effort ‘It Ain’t No Big Thing But It’s Growing’ alongside covers of tunes by Bread, the Five Stairsteps and the Jackson Five.

The group lays down a groove, with the vocal starting with a high female voice. Things move to the next level when a male singer comes in with a more traditionally soulful delivery, backed by the entire group’s harmonies.

Despite the ghost of Perry Como lurking in the wings, the New Birth version transcends the original completely.

It was New Birth’s first hit, grazing the R&B Top 10 and the Pop Top 40 in the Fall of 1971.

The group would go on to have more than a dozen hits between 1971 and 1979.

It’s a very cool tune (I’m including the LP mix of the song that runs almost half a minute longer than the 45 edit) and I hope you dig it.

See you on Friday

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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