So far this Radi'o'Paper has not always chosen only the songs which suit my taste. Despite it, as far as I put their names not on my lips where the words are blown away but on my web site where written records are reserved, I intend to try to concentrate on searching good things and not to speak so ill of bad things. That's not only because I can feel something I could have never had before, but because I can imagine more vividly their difficulties in delivering their works to others' ears, after when I myself did similar and subtle works. Van McCoy often reminds us of "the Hustle", and I often talk about it in a negative image of its converting anything and anybody into a simple and easy groove. To my surprise, however, I have found many tunes on my CDs having much to do with Van McCoy. Before being a disco kid, he had been a composer with many hits.
He provided some moderate hits such as When You're Young and In Love for the Marvelettes (which is found on "The Ultimate Collection"), Giving Up for Gladys Knight & the Pips ("Gold"), Stop the Music for the Shirelles ("The Best of the Shirelles"), Getting Mighty Crowded for Betty Everett ("The Story of Vee-Jay"), I Get The Sweetest Feeling for Jackie Wilson ("The Story of Brunswick"). Among them his more famous compositions should be Before and After for Chad & Jeremy, the folkish duo from the UK ("Pop Music : The Golden Era 1951-1975"), and Baby I'm Yours for charming Barbara Lewis ("Atlantic Rhythm and Blues"). His '60s tunes have something in common : that is, the gorgeous sound with the great help of orchestras, which was produced by professional composers in the east coast particularly including the folks of "the Brill Building" in New York. He was born in Washington D.C. and launched his career in church gospel. After releasing some sides as a vocal of a doo-wap group or a solo in his own right, he became a backing crew and started providing songs to various east-coast labels including Motown. There used to have been composers who had some assosiations with R&B, such as Jerry Leiber = Mike Stoller, Phil Spector or Bart Bacharach = Hal David. And then Van McCoy had kept a position just as one of their disciples.Earthy southern soul in around '70 was gone and orchestrated and dance-oriented Philly soul had come. I suppose that urban companies such as Atlantic should have thought southern soul as a discovery of a sound and Philly soul as a re-discovery which had hidden itself in thier bosom. It was the time when Van McCoy teamed up with Charles Kipps and rose again. He did major works including some arrangements of the Stylistics tunes, which were under the production of Thom Bell and characterized by ballads of sweet falsetto. And he also arranged David Ruffin's Walk Away from Love, authored and produced Heavy Love or Everything's Coming up Love (they appear on "The Ultimate Collection"). Moreover, he worked with Gladys Knight again, writing and producing Baby Don't Change Your Mind and so on ("Gold"). They are quite different from the same Gladys Knight's tune Giving Up, which makes a fine development and thrills me with her exquisite delivery. The sound is easy to listen, in other words, it is easy to be foreseen. It might be a by-product of his largest blockbuster The Hustle, which was written after he heard about the dance in vogue from a New York DJ David Todd.
As for the albums in his own right, it is said that he had a large Columbia-releasing "Night Time is a Lonely Time" produced by the anti-R&B Mitch Miller in 1966, and "Soul Improvisations" cut by Buddah in '72. It's a pity that they cannot be heard on CD. And then he kept making a relentless series of the rhythm of disco, which is softer and easier to be got by whites as you can hear on "The Hustle and the Best of Van McCoy", at a label Avco of the Stylistics' fame, which was owned by Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore who had put pops arrangements on Elvis or Sam Cooke at RCA. The clear and clean introduction of the trumpet on Love is the Answer. The typical African rhythm of African Symphony which occured to Europeans' mind. Discofied Theme from Star Trek whose concept was also taken by others and appeared on like Star Wars. These tunes keep rolling and they should have rather amused me if I had been in my childhood. My Favorite Fantasy reveals Van McCoy's soft and sweet vocal. When I read Amazon's reviews and find friendly opinions about him, I realize "Tastes differ", indeed. (2006/12/17)