{"id":4388,"date":"2013-11-17T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4388"},"modified":"2013-11-17T13:20:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T18:20:00","slug":"robert-john-raindrops-love-and-sunshine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4388","title":{"rendered":"Robert John – Raindrops, Love and Sunshine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\"
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\nRobert John<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Robert John – Raindrops, Love and Sunshine<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings all<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to another groovy week here at Funky16Corners.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s entry is yet another chapter in the sometimes strange world of Northern Soul.<\/p>\n

There was a period some years back where it seems a new book about Northern Soul \u2013 reference or otherwise \u2013 was coming out every month or so, and I think I bought them all.<\/p>\n

In addition to countless familiar soul artists, I was turned on to tons of new ones.<\/p>\n

What I also kept finding were seemingly incongruous artists, who one would never (at first glance) consider soulful (Paul Anka, Joey Heatherton, Bobby Goldsboro<\/strong> etc), yet who all recorded great, soulful 45s.<\/p>\n

Northern Soul playlists have always been a home to records that in one way or another, fit the mold whether it was a one-off record that was recorded\/performed in a soul style, or a wide variety of instrumentals that provided enough of that powerful, four on the floor beat.<\/p>\n

The record I bring you today is a great example of the former.<\/p>\n

When I saw the name Robert John<\/strong> pop up in a soul playlist, my brain had a brief short circuit, during which I was unable to reconcile the singer of the 70s AM hit \u2018Sad Eyes\u2019 with anything remotely soulful. I figured it had to be someone else with the same name.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the Robert John of \u2018Raindrops, Love and Sunshine\u2019 is the very same guy who had a number of hits in the 70s.<\/p>\n

John \u2013 born Robert John Pedrick<\/strong> \u2013 had been recording since he was 12 years old, first charting in 1958 (as \u2018Bobby Pedrick<\/strong>\u2019), and then continuing to record through the 60s for a variety of labels.<\/p>\n

He recorded \u2018Raindrops, Love and Sunshine\u2019 in 1970, featuring his powerful (nearly ear-shattering) falsetto, and an arrangement that owes a huge debt to the previous year\u2019s mega-hit \u2018More Today Than Yesterday\u2019 by the Spiral Starecase.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are at all familiar with Northern Soul, it is immediately obvious why this record became popular on the scene.
\nIt has both the solid, propulsive beat, and an anthemic, nearly explosive chorus.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if some folks thought they were hearing a female singer the first time they heard the song.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, the record\u2019s A-side \u2018When the Party Is Over\u2019 was a minor hit (Pop #71).<\/p>\n

John went on to have a number of hits in the 70s and 80s, including the aforementioned \u2018Sad Eyes\u2019 (#1 1979) and even and putting that falsetto to use again in 1983 with a remake of the Newbeats<\/strong> \u2018Bread and Butter\u2019 (#68 1983), which came out on Motown.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tune, and I\u2019ll see you all on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

___________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a>
\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert John Listen\/Download Robert John – Raindrops, Love and Sunshine Greetings all Welcome to another groovy week here at Funky16Corners. Today\u2019s entry is yet another chapter in the sometimes strange world of Northern Soul. There was a period some years back where it seems a new book about Northern Soul \u2013 reference or otherwise \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,80,14,24,12,18],"tags":[166,169,164],"class_list":["post-4388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-equal-opportunity-soul","category-funky16corners","category-northern-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-northern-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-18M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4427,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388\/revisions\/4427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}