{"id":5707,"date":"2015-06-04T12:14:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5707"},"modified":"2015-06-04T12:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T17:14:00","slug":"ben-aiken-if-i-told-you-once-i-told-you-a-million-times-bw-you-were-meant-to-be-my-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=5707","title":{"rendered":"Ben Aiken – If I Told You Once (I Told You a Million Times) b\/w You Were Meant To Be My Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Ben Aiken<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Ben Aiken – If I Told You Once (I Told You a Million Times) <\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Ben Aiken – You Were Meant To Be My Baby <\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

As the end of the week is near, allow me to remind you once again about the Funky16Corners Radio Show,<\/strong> which takes to the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/a><\/strong>. If you can\u2019t be there at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, listening on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.<\/p>\n

Also, all mixed are in-house, and the go date for this years’s Funky16Corners Allnighter\/Pledge Drive<\/strong> will be 6\/15<\/strong>, with a new mix being posted every weekday for the next few weeks. This year you’ll get mixes from Ben Gibson (Mo’Soul), DJ Prime Mundo, DJ Prestige, Tarik Thornton, Chris Lujan, Vincent the Soul Chef, DJ Bluewater, DJ RP of Funkdefy, HeavySoulBrutha<\/strong> and of course, two new assemblages from my own crates!<\/p>\n

There’s a groovy new badge for this year’s premium (and lots of stickers), so dial into the vault and get ready!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s selection found its way into my crates via that old standby, brand loyalty.<\/p>\n

I was out digging at a stoop sale, and though I had never heard of Ben Aiken<\/strong> before I put my hands on this 45, seeing the Loma label, and the name of the mighty Jerry Ragovoy<\/strong>, it moved immediately to the keeper pile, and came home with me.<\/p>\n

Possessed of an Eddie Holman<\/strong> level tenor, with a sweet touch, and based in Philadelphia, Aiken recorded a string of 45s for labels like Squire, Roulette (he had his biggest success with his 1965 Roulette 45 \u2018Stay Together Young Lovers\u2019), Loma and Philly Groove between 1965 and 1972. I have also seen references that seem to indicate that he also sang with a number of other groups on Philly Groove during his time with the label.<\/p>\n

\u2018If I Told You Once (I Told You a Million Times)\u2019, written and produced by Ragovoy and arranged by Herb Bernstein<\/strong> was Aiken\u2019s first 45 for Loma in 1967.<\/p>\n

A classic Ragovoy ballad, \u2018If I Told You Once\u2026\u2019 starts off slow and easy, but picks up a little steam with a really interesting key change in the bridge.<\/p>\n

Aiken\u2019s vocals are excellent, and the flip \u2018You Were Meant to Be My Baby\u2019 is a nice, upbeat dancer.<\/p>\n

Once again, another excellent Jerry Ragovoy production is cast into the ether and inexplicably, all but ignored by the listening public.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, you can only pick up Aiken\u2019s Loma material on original 45s, or on the series of Loma reissue LPs that came out in the 70s. His later Philly Groove stuff is accessible on a Collectables CD.<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tracks, and I\u2019l see you all next week.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

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

Ben Aiken Listen\/Download – Ben Aiken – If I Told You Once (I Told You a Million Times) Listen\/Download – Ben Aiken – You Were Meant To Be My Baby   Greetings all. As the end of the week is near, allow me to remind you once again about the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which takes […]<\/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":[14,74,12,18,142],"tags":[166,177,164,190],"class_list":["post-5707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-philly-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","category-sweet-soul","tag-funky16corners","tag-philly-soul","tag-soul","tag-sweet-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1u3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5707","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=5707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5754,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5707\/revisions\/5754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}