Doing it to Death (Part 7)
Still inside 1971, still mostly killers.
“Stick-Up,” Honey Cone (9/18/71)
“Help! I’ve been robbed!” thus opens the Honey Cone’s second #1 of the year, just as buoyant as its predecessor - actually, moreso. The jewels of HDH’s Hot Wax Records would go top 10 (and top 30 pop) another two times after this, and then they blazed out like a comet. It’s a shame, because between the trio’s natural-sounding vocal chemistry and having HDH behind them, they might’ve been an alternate-universe Supremes. I really love this record. A
“Make It Funky (Part 1),” James Brown (10/2/71)
And this opens with James opining “Whatever I play, it’s got to be funky!” I mean, there’s truth in advertising and then there’s JB in the early ‘70s, killing it on single after single after single. We’re gonna see a lot more of him in this series. A
“Thin Line Between Love and Hate,” the Persuaders (10/16/71)
An elegant, glacial ballad that leaves me oddly cold. I can see the craft in it, but it doesn’t move me. Their only #1, but a couple years later they’d have their final top 10 with the original version of “Some Guys Have All the Luck.” Spoiler alert: their version, a little Philly Soul-ish, is far superior to a certain someone’s oily ‘80s cover. B
“Trapped by a Thing Called Love,” Denise LaSalle (10/30/71)
I love the late ‘60s/early ‘70s intersection and cross-pollination of blues with soul (best exemplified by B.B. King’s 1974 top 10 “I Like to Live the Love”), and LaSalle nails it on her sole #1. Her voice is oddly clean for this kind of record, but it works. She’d follow it with two more top 5s, and then by and large receded into a career as a bluesy journeywoman, but what a great signature record. A-
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” Marvin Gaye (11/6/71)
His third #1 of the year from What’s Going On, on par with the others. Hearing Gaye sing about the still-current “trigger happy policing” on a single from 50+ years ago is striking but sadly, not at all shocking; the more things change etc etc (even though they barely have, apart from technology). Maybe the most plaintive and mournful of Gaye’s hits of the year. A