The Raw Addict 05.10.09: SHALAMAR!

Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 05.10.2009

“Hey…I have an idea for a new singing group…and I’m naming them after…A GARDEN!!! What do you think?”

I have made it known from the get-go that my columns won't just be about Hip-Hop. Yeah, it'll focus on Hip-hop about 99.9999% of the time, but then there's that 0.0001% that will shift focus to R&B. Last year, I did a 2-part feature on The Temptations' Psychedelic Soul period (which I did as a tribute to their producer Norman Whitfield, who passed away around that time.) A few years ago, during the month of April, I did a 3-part series on Marvin Gaye. Before then, I did a feature about S.O.L.A.R. Records, and some of the artists that made hits there. In this episode, I'm only focusing on ONE of them…


LIVE AT THE GARDEN: A Shalamar Retrospective, Part 1


Dick Griffey had a great thing going for him. In the early 70's, he and Don Cornelius had this show called SOUL TRAIN, a lip-sync show where they played all the hits of the day (come to think of it, probably the only time when the artist didn't lip sync was when the Godfather was there. Anybody who was anybody in soul music was in there. Riding high in with the popularity of the Soul Train show, both Griffey and Cornelius formed SOUL TRAIN RECORDS, where they signed such artists as The Soul Train Gang, Griffey's wifey Carrie Lucas, and The Whispers.


Around 1976-77, Griffey and Cornelius had an idea for a disco-driven group that concentrated strictly on the dance floor. For some reason, they decided to name it after a garden…the Shalimar Gardens. Why? Well…who knows? Whatever the case, Griff & Corn thought it had a nice ring to it. They just replaced the 'I' in the middle of the word to an ‘A' and they were set. With that out of the way, there's one detail to work out: WHO TO PUT IN IT. Griff & Corn decided to group together some of Soul Train Records' session vocalists and just have them sing some straight-up disco. It didn't look as if they were trying to put over any individual talent: they just wanted to make people dance.


The first album, 1977's UPTOWN FESTIVAL was driven by the title cut, which was a discofied medley of Motown hits (Smokey & The Miracles' "Going To The Go-Go" and "Tears Of A Clown",. the 4 Top's "Can't Help Myself" and "Same Ol' Song", the Supremes' "Stop In The Name Of Love", etc.) Unfortunately, the album was forgettable and sounded manufactured. If Shalamar was to be a success, the group was in need of an overhaul.


During this period, Griffey and Cornelius decided to split up. They felt that both the show and the label would be handled a lot better of they were to handle them individually instead of having them both try to juggle the two together. Therefore, Corn continued to man the Soul Train line, while Griffey took over the label, changing its name to Sound Of Los Angeles Records, a.k.a. S.O.L.A.R. However, since the split was amicable, they still would keep connections.


First order of business was the Shalamar overhaul. Griff felt that the second time around, the group needed some FACES…and he looked no further than the Soul Train line. At the 0:55 second mark, you'll find both Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel dancing to the aforementioned discofied Motown medley. They probably had no idea that they would soon get approached by Griffey to join the group whose music they're dancing to. And to round out the group would be talent scout/singer Gerald Brown (I think he was a former member of the Soul Train Gang--I'm not sure, so correct me if I‘m wrong.).


Now that they got some faces, the group now needs a SOUND.


At this point, I'm going to set Shalamar on the back burner for a minute and talk about another group: THE SYLVERS.


The Sylvers were a group that never really got the credit they deserved. Many people (including me when I first heard them) saw them as just another kid group trying to be the Jackson family. In reality, they were so much more than that. Their early MGM/Pride Records material had a much funkier edge with more emphasis on their multi-part harmonies (and somebody needs to snatch up the rights to that material and re-release it IMMEDIATELY!)

Sadly, once they hit the majors, the labels did their best to give them the same music they gave the Jackson 5, even to the point of bringing in Freddie Perren (who wrote J5 staples like "ABC" and "I Want You Back") to write and produce for them, giving them songs like "Boogie Fever" and "Cotton Candy". With songs like that, the Sylvers wound up getting more J5 comparisons than they'd like. This lead to the group fighting for more creative control. NEW HORIZON and FOREVER YOURS both featured Leon Sylvers III's skills as a producer, as he took everything he learned from all the years in the music business and tried to give the group their own sound (not to mention developing his trademark basslines). But as always with label politics, it didn't jive well with what the LABEL wanted, which was to make them to the J5 what the Monkees were to the Beatles. Who knows what kind of group they would've developed into if they would've been allowed to.


Thankfully, there was at least ONE label exec that appreciated what Leon was doing…and that label exec was Dick Griffey. Leon was given the opportunity to be SOLAR Records' in-house producer, an opportunity that he just couldn't pass up. So he departed the Sylvers and went straight to SOLAR.


And with that, Shalamar now has a SOUND.


DISCO GARDENS (1978)


Thanks to all the changes, Shalamar went from a group of random singers doing the kind of disco music that could've came from anybody, to a group with an actual identity. You had Jeff, who had everybody standing in front of their mirrors trying to dance like him. You had Jody Watley, who had the cat-like eyes and the 5-finger forehead. And with Gerald handling most of the lead duties, Shalamar was all set.

Under the new line-up of Jody, Jeff, & Gerald, they hit paydirt on their first try with the song "Take That To the Bank". The song showed that the combination of switching to a trio and Leon III's tight arrangements was the way to go. And best of all, it didn't involve butchering Motown tunes!

"Take That To The Bank" was really the only big hit that came from the album, but there were some other decent song in it. "Tossing, Turning, Swinging", a fun little disco joint, is the type of song that Leon III would've given the Sylvers if he had the chance. "Leave It All Up To Love" is a song about depending on love when things go bad. Yeah, the lyrics were kinda nutty, but at least it sounded good. Then there‘s the nice little love ballad, "Stay Close To Love", which was co-written by Gerald and shows him front and center. And The title cut puts over the fact that, yes, the group was named after A GARDEN!


Overall, this album was far from their best, this was a good start to a great run.


However, as the year was winding down, the group was in for yet another shakeup. Gerald butted heads with management over money issues, which resulted in his departure. Gerald was a really good singer and held his own in DISCO GARDENS, but in the end, it wasn't enough to keep him from facing the same fate that befell Eldridge Bryant of the Temptations: getting replaced and ultimately forgotten to the point where many people often consider your REPLACEMENT as an ORIGINAL member. It seems no one knows what happened to him since…


Of course, it takes a certain kind of replacement to have that kind of an impact.


The search was out for a new lead singer, with Griffey holding auditions. Both Jody & Jeff suggested this singer named Howard Hewitt, who was working the nightclub circuit for a living. Howard jumped at the chance to be a part of the group, so Griffey had him sing a little something (Peabo Bryson's "Feel The Fire"), and then, pretty soon…


"There I was…standing in front of a camera…lip-syncing to a song I had nothing to do with!"


Welcome to the music industry, Howard…hope you survive the experience!


BIG FUN (1979)


Even though he felt pretty nervous about going on lip-sync shows mouthing Gerald's vocals, he would take solace in the fact that the group would have some new material coming in…which includes one song that would become their signature:

"SECOND TIME AROUND"


"Take That To The Bank" put Shalamar on the map. "Second Time Around" shot them to the stratosphere. The song (in which Howard was the focus) had the crossover appeal to hook in the pop audience, with just enough soul to make the R&B fans happy. This would be the formula that Leon III and Shalamar would stick with from this point on. Another big hit was the energetic dancefloor favorite, "Right In the Socket", which had Jody front and center. Problem is…well…Jody thought the lyrics were pure SHIT. ("I have to say - I did not like singing 'Right in The Socket' - AT ALL!! The lyrics are so lame - but the groove was smokin'!") Thankfully, she went and gave it her 100% and sounded like she had a good time singing it! And also, thank God the open verse from Howard and Jeff was cut from the album version (SUBTEXT, anyone?) "I Owe You One", another Howard-centered song, would prove to be a small hit for them (I wish it would've done better). My personal favorite would be "Let's Find The Time For Love", a song that not only recalls Leon III's work with the Sylvers' ballads, but would be the first of many great Jody/Howard duets.


BIG FUN would bring Shalamar to GOLD status, they would become a huge name in the R&B/pop charts, as every single lip-sync show in the planet was tripping over themselves to book them. In fact, even the Seattle Supersonics (who won the championships the year prior) asked them to revise the lyrics of "Second Time Around" for one of their commercials ("The Sonics Came To Play!")


But as big as thing got, it was only going to get better…


THREE FOR LOVE (1980)


Even though some of the songs in BIG FUN made a huge impact, it's obvious that the trio felt kinda iffy about singing some of them (see Watley's comments on "Socket"…and I'm willing to bet that Howard felt just as iffy about singing the wonky "Take Me To The River"). So this time, they asked for a little creative control for THREE FOR LOVE.


The trio made their first attempts at songwriting in THREE FOR LOVE, while Leon III and his team of arrangers kept the sound alive. The album starts off with "Full Of Fire", another classic Jody/Howard duet, in which Jody had a hand in writing. This proved to be a big hit for them. Meanwhile, Howard had a hand in putting together the classic hit ballad, "For The Lover In You", which would become another Shalamar staple. Jeff had a hand in writing "Pop Along Kid", a fun little song about…well…HIMSELF: "He's got more moves/than he can use/they call him THE POP ALONG KID!!"


The album had some other hits as well, from the dancefloor classic, "Make That Move", the memorable love ballad "Somewhere There's a Love" (in which Howard gives it his fullest), and "Attention To My Baby" where Howard chooses his girl over hanging with the boys.


Out of all their records, THREE FOR LOVE is regarded as one of their best, as the trio truly hit their stride and Loen III's sound keeps getting better.


NEXT: The second half of the Howard/Jody/Jeff Shalamar recordings. Plus--the Sylvers make the jump to SOLAR Records…well, at least temporally.


**************


MUSICAL OUTRO


De La Soul, "FOREVER"


The Three Plugs are still alive and still going strong, this time with Young RJ (½ of BR GUNNA with Black Milk) behind the boards. Will this lead to a new De La album this year? Let's hope so.