Johnny Adams - Part Of Me (Watch 633)

Part Of Me

Here's a little bit of Christmas 'lagniappe' for ya, Johnny's big local B side turned A side that I was telling you about over on the other side (got that?). It would become the Watch label's biggest hit, at least until Earl King and Wardell Quezergue collaborated on another little number for the label called Big Chief...

In the liner notes to the great New Orleans Soul 60s: Watch Records, King (aka 'E. Johnson', the songwriter) says "I did 'A Part Of Me'. Johnny and I had worked so many gigs prior to that... Johnny's easy to work with, anyway. He's a terrific singer. It did good up in New York..."

It's still doing good as far as I'm concerned. Check out this man's pipes!

I wonder whatever became of 'The Spellbounds'?

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Solomon Burke -Take Me (Just As I Am) (Atlantic 2416)

Take Me (Just As I Am)

Hey everybody, here's that other 'Chips-Moman-Dan Penn' production I was talking about over on the B side.

Just like Cheater Man, it's a cover of a Penn-Oldham tune that had been released by Dan Penn earlier on Fame. This certainly is the definitive version, as the King of Rock and Soul takes it home and makes it his own. I love the ad-libbed name check of his future Soul Clan members, and I believe this is the first appearance on record of his admonition to all of us lovers to give our woman 'what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, where she wants it, and every time she thinks she wants it' (which, believe it or not, he would use as our wedding vows all those years later...). I'm lovin' the Sweet Inspirations there at the end, man!

Absolutely top shelf stuff.