J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX, here again.
Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.
1465. Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series - Freda Payne
Arguably the most famous Motown songwriting/producing team was Holland-Dozier-Holland — Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland — best known for writing many hits by The Supremes, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, and others. After they left Motown to strike out on their own, the three formed two record labels — Hot Wax (in 1968) and Invictus (in 1969). The biggest hits on Hot Wax were by the R&B trio The Honey Cone, who had four Top 40 hits, most notably "Want Ads" (#1 pop, #1 R&B). Other artists with pop success on that label included 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), The Flaming Ember, and Laura Lee. Meanwhile, on Invictus, the two big artists were Chairmen of the Board, whom I mentioned in my previous entry, and a great female R&B singer by the name of Freda Payne. Like Chairmen of The Board, Payne is best remembered for a huge #3 pop hit from 1970, "Band of Gold" (#3 pop, #20 R&B). That single did even better on the charts of Billboard's rivals (#1 Record World, #2 Cash Box) and also topped the U.K. pop chart. Payne didn't have quite as many hits as Chairmen of the Board, but she did have three additional Top 15 R&B hits — two of which hit the pop Top 25 — "Bring the Boys Home" (#12 pop, #3 R&B), "Deeper and Deeper" (#24 pop, #9 R&B), and "Cherish What Is Dear to You (While It's Near to You)" (#44 pop, #11 R&B). They can all be found on The Best of Freda Payne (part of the Ten Best series), which also included "You Brought the Joy" (#52 pop, #21 R&B), "The Unhooked Generation" (#43 R&B) and "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" (#75 R&B). Her only Hot 100 hit missing was "The Road We Didn't Take," which just barely sneaked onto that chart (it stalled at #100) and never made the R&B chart. From 1976-79, Payne was married to singer Gregory Abbott, who went on to have a #1 pop and R&B hit in 1987 with "Shake You Down." The couple had a son together, Gregory Abbott Jr., who was born in 1977.
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