Back in the 80s, I hit the road. I toured America looking for R&B stars of the past. The idea was to collect as many interviews as I could for a project called Harlem Hit Parade. In a couple of years, I was able to collect hundreds of hours of interviews. What I'd like to do is go back to these old recordings in a series that I'll call the Harlem Hit Parade Tapes.
Chuck Jackson:
“When people say, man, I got soul, I thought then, this is 20 years ago, I have feelings. I have feelings for what I do. I have feelings for my brother, man. No matter what color.”
It was at the end of the 1950s that Hank Ballard and the Midnighters recorded the original version of “The Twist,” a song that he feels was stolen from him a few years later.
Hank Ballard:
“But Dick Clark heard it. He heard it and went and found Chubby Checker.”
James Brown:
“I think soul was always here, but I think the form of arrangement, what we call soul changed with me because I took jazz and gospel and made funk. And we'd do a ballad like we were in church. I’d do “Georgia,” “Prisoner of Love” or something. And that brought out the soul of a different group of people, and it transcended us from just old Negro gospel to real music.”
Come back next time for another entry in the Harlem Hit Parade Tapes.
Listen to the segment, above.
