Florence Ballard

Listen/Download – Florence Ballard – Forever Faithful MP3

Greetings all.

Every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you’ll encounter a record that sets you right back on your heels.

‘Forever Faithful’ by Florence Ballard is one of those.

A few years back, Gene Meredith was kind enough to invite me to come up and spin at the Steel Stax Soul Club.

As is the case every single time I’m lucky enough to spin with someone with good taste and a heavy collection, my ears were wide open and my want list ready to update.

When Gene dropped the needle on ‘Forever Faithful’ I got chills up and down my spine.

Here we have a record that is both a great dancer, but also possessed of a dramatic edge and filled from end to end with memorable hooks.

‘Forever Faithful’, written by Robert Bateman and James Wicker, and produced by Bateman (who has appeared in this space before as a frequent collaborator of Lou Courtney’s), was Florence Ballard’s final 45, about a year after leaving the Supremes and 8 years before she would pass away.

The arrangement, opening with strings and angelic backing chorus, quickly adds pulsing bass and drums, and after a short verse, the absolutely beautiful chorus comes in, a perfectly constructed, economic work of art, perfectly engineered for Northern Soul dance floors.

Unfortunately ‘Forever Faithful’ didn’t catch on at the time of release. It’s flipside, ‘Love Ain’t Love’ got airplay on a handful of Northeast pop stations, but doesn’t appeared to have made any inroads on the R&B side of things.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you all next week.

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

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