THE HUSTLE

VAN MCCOY
SONGWRITER: VAN MCCOY
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: DISCO BABY
LABEL: AVCO RECORDS
GENRE: DISCO
YEAR: 1975
 
           Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American musician, record producer, arranger, songwriter, singer and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle". He has approximately 700 song copyrights to his credit, and is also noted for producing songs for such recording artists as Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, Brenda & the Tabulations, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, Lesley Gore and Stacy Lattisaw.
  "The Hustle" is a disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. It went to Nº. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK. It would eventually sell over one million copies. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance early in 1976 for songs recorded in 1975.
         While in New York City to make an album, McCoy composed the song after his music partner, Charles Kipps, watched patrons do a dance known as "the Hustle" in the nightclub Adam's Apple. The sessions were done at New York's Media Sound studio with pianist McCoy, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarists Eric Gale and John Tropea, and orchestra leader Gene Orloff. Producer Hugo Peretti contracted piccolo player Phil Bodner to play the lead melody.
         During the summer of 1975, "The Hustle" became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts. Billboard ranked it as the Nº. 21 song for 1975. It also peaked at Nº. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and Nº. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.
          According to producers Hugo & Luigi who owned the Avco record label that originally released "The Hustle", McCoy met with them shortly before his death in 1979 to discuss ideas for a new, longer version of the song, in order to appease Avco's UK and German affiliates who were clamoring for a 12" disco single release. The new version, clocking in at just under 6-and-a-half minutes, was assembled posthumously as a remix, using parts of the original recording plus new parts, including drum, Syndrum, and a "little" Moog synthesizer. It was credited to Van McCoy alone or with an unnamed orchestra, mixed by "The Mix Masters", identity unknown.
Do it!
Do it!
Do it!
 
Do the Hustle!
Do the Hustle!
 
Do the Hustle!
Do the Hustle!
 
Do the Hustle!
Do it!
Do the Hustle!
Do the Hustle!
 
Do the Hustle!
Do the Hustle!
 
Do the Hustle!
 
Do the Hustle!

DIAMOND GIRLS

SEALS & CROFTS
SONGWRITWE: SEALS & CROFTS
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: DIAMOND GIRL
LABEL: WARNER BROS RECORDS
GENRE: SOFT ROCK
YEAR: 1973
 
          Seals and Crofts were an American soft rock duo made up of James Eugene "Jim" Seals (born October 17, 1942) and Darrell George "Dash" Crofts (born August 14, 1938). They are best known for their hits "Summer Breeze" (1972), "Diamond Girl" (1973), and "Get Closer" (1976), each of which peaked at Nº. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Both members have long been public advocates of the Baháʼí Faith. Though the duo disbanded in 1980, they reunited briefly in 1991–1992, and again in 2004, when they released their final album, Traces.
         Jim Seals and Dash Crofts were both born in Texas, Seals in Sidney and Crofts in Cisco. They first met when Crofts was a drummer for a local band. Later, Seals joined an outfit called Dean Beard and the Crew Cats, in which he played guitar; later on, Crofts joined Seals in the band. With Beard, they moved to Los Angeles to join the Champs, but the two did so only after the group's "Tequila" reached No. 1 in 1958. Seals also spent time during 1959 in the touring band of Eddie Cochran.
           Seals had a composition ("It's Never Too Late") recorded by Brenda Lee in 1961, which featured as the B-side of her U.S. Billboard Nº. 6 single, "You Can Depend on Me". "It's Never Too Late" nevertheless reached Nº. 101 on Billboard and Nº. 100 on Cash Box (week ending April 8, 1961) in its own right. In the UK, the sides were switched when the single was released, but the single failed to make the UK Singles Chart (at that time only a Top 50 listing).
             In 1963, Seals, Crofts, Glen Campbell and Jerry Cole left the Champs to form a band named Glen Campbell and the GCs, which played at The Crossbow in Van Nuys, California. The band only lasted a couple of years before the members went their separate ways. Crofts returned to Texas and Seals joined a band named the Dawnbreakers (a reference to The Dawn-Breakers, a book about the beginnings of the Baha'i Faith). Crofts eventually returned to California to team up with Jim again, in the Dawnbreakers, and thus both Seals and Crofts were introduced to and became members of the Baháʼí Faith. After becoming longtime adherents of Baha'i, a number of their songs began to include references to and passages from Baha'i scriptures. When they appeared in concert, they often remained on stage after the performance to talk about the faith, while local Baha'is passed out literature to anyone interested.
          "Diamond Girl" is a song by American soft rock duo Seals and Crofts, released as a single in 1973. It is the title track of their fifth studio album, Diamond Girl. Like their previous top 10 hit "Summer Breeze", "Diamond Girl" also reached Nº. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Nº. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Diamond Girl
You sure do shine
Glad I found you
Glad you're mine
 
Oh, my love
You're like a precious stone
Part of earth where
Heaven has rained on
 
Makes no difference
Where you are
Day or night time
You're like a shining star
 
And how could I
Shine without you
When it's about you
That I am, woah, oh
 
Diamond Girl
Roaming wild
Such a rare thing
Radiant child
 
I could never find
Another one like you
Part of me is
Deep down inside you
 
Can't you feel
The whole world turning
We are real and
We are burning, yeah
 
Diamond Girl
Now that I've found you
Well, it's about you that I am
Whoa, Whoa, oh
 
Diamond Girl
You sure do shine
Diamond Girl
You sure do shine
Diamond Girl
You sure do shine
Diamond Girl
You sure do, you sure do
You sure do shine.

SOUTH CITY MIDNIGHT LADY

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
SONGWRITER: PATRICK SIMMONS
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: THE CAPTAIN AND ME
LABEL: WARNER BROS
GENRE: ROCK
YEAR: 1973
 
           The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band from San Jose, California. Active for five decades, with their greatest success in the 1970s, the group's current lineup consists of founding members Tom Johnston (guitars, vocals) and Patrick Simmons (guitars, vocals), veteran member Michael McDonald (keyboards, vocals), longtime member John McFee (guitars, pedal steel, violin, backing vocals), and touring musicians including John Cowan (bass, vocals), Bill Payne (keyboards), Marc Russo (saxophones), Ed Toth (drums), and Marc Quiñones (percussion).
          The band's history can be roughly divided into three eras. From 1970 to 1975 it featured lead vocalist Johnston and a mainstream rock and roll sound with elements of folk, country and R&B. Johnston left the group in 1977 due to health reasons, and was replaced by Michael McDonald, whose interest in soul music changed the band's sound until it broke up in 1982 with Simmons being the only constant member having appeared on all of their albums. In 1987, the Doobie Brothers reformed with Johnston back in the fold; McDonald, who had previously made several guest appearances since their reformation, returned to the band full-time in 2019 for their upcoming 50th anniversary tour. Every incarnation of the group has emphasized vocal harmonies. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 7, 2020. The group has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide.
          The Captain and Me is the third studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers. The album was released on March 2, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. It features some of their most popular hits including "Long Train Runnin'", "China Grove" and "Without You". The album is certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.
          It was voted number 835 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
Up all night I could not sleep
The whiskey that I drank was cheap
With shakin' hands I went and I lit up my last cigarette
Well the sun came, night had fled
And sleepy eyed I reached my bed
I saw you sleepy dreamin' there all covered and warm
 
South City midnight lady
I'm much obliged indeed
You sure have saved this man whose soul was in need
I thought there was no reason
For all these things I do
But the smile that sent out returned with you
 
When day has left the night behind
And shadows roll across my mind
I sometimes find myself alone out walkin' the street
Yes, and when I'm feelin' down and blue
Then all I do is think of you
And all my foolish problems seem to fade away
 
South City midnight lady
I'm much obliged indeed
You sure have saved this man whose soul was in need
I thought there was no reason
For all these things I do
But the smile that sent out returned with you.

TRUE LOVE

COLE PORTER
SONGWRITERS: OTTO BREDI & JIGGS WHIGHAM
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: TRUE LOVE
LABEL: POLYDOR
GENRE: JAZZ
YEAR: 2009
 
           Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891– October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
             Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.
          Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "You're the Top". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the song "You'd Be So Easy to Love"; Rosalie (1937), which featured "In the Still of the Night"; High Society (1956), which included "True Love"; and Les Girls (1957).