6 Degrees of Soul: From Day 1’s “Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes” we get Teddy Pendergrass, who played drums for a doo-wop group, The Cadillacs. A member of that group was J.R. Bailey, who crafted a beautiful album titled Just Me N’ You. In addition to that he penned the classic “Everybody Plays The Fool”, which brings us to Day 2: The Main Ingredient.
Similar to Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, the star of the group wasn’t apart of the original unit. Cuba Gooding, Sr. joined in the early 70s and began with the hit “Everybody Plays the Fool”. From there they delivered several solid albums and great songs, produced by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Leon Ware. However, none of their later work would top their initial hit. Some would come close like their version of “Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely”. Fortunately, due to the wonders of hip hop and today’s R&B their voices remain in our ears and soul in our hearts. Here are some of them to take…
…With You… as with most samples, the original outshines the revamped attempt… but Just Blaze did a damn good job this one…
…in just about a years time there were 3 versions released of “Just Don’t Wanna Be Lonely”… Ronnie Dyson, Blue Magic & The Main Ingredient… I prefer Blue Magic’s take… this is very solid though…
…Leon Ware of
“I Want You” fame wrote
“Rolling Down A Mountainside”…
…my favorite Cam’Ron song ever made was never released… I remember getting a hold of a promo copy of his debut album and replaying
“Pull It” featuring DMX… over and over and over… only to learn a decade later it’s The Main Ingredient’s
“Instant Love”…
…the end of my fandom with Alicia Keys came at the hands of
Kanye… after hearing “You Don’t Know My Name” there was no doubt that she about to knockout Jill Scott as my favorite female artist of the decade… but no… J.R. Bailey & The Main Ingredient were at it again… the original
“Let Me Prove My Love To You” is light-years ahead… around 1:45 is when I stopped enjoying her plastic soul music…
…dig their take of The Impressions hit “I’m So Proud” written by Curtis Mayfield…
“…before you do anything rash… dig this…”
thanks for reading and grooving…
more soul for you tomorrow,
