One Song - Change feat. Luther Vandross "Searching"

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

You’ve heard his voice sampled by Kendrick Lamar and SZA in “Luther,” but do you know his story? This week on One Song, Diallo and LUXXURY unpack the track that helped launch Luther Vandross into the spotlight – Change’s “Searching.” They dig into his early days singing with David Bowie and Chic, explore the lore behind the Italo-disco group Change, and bask in the glow of Luther’s isolated vocals.  One Song Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40SIOpVROmrxTjOtH7Q1yw?si=fea71c7e24294487 Songs Discussed: “Luther” - Kendrick Lamar & SZA “Searching” - Change feat. Luther Vandross “If This World Were Mine” - Luther Vandross & Cheryl Lynn “If This World Were Mine” - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “A House Is Not a Home” - Luther Vandross “Young Americans” - David Bowie “Funky Music (Is A Part Of Me)” - Luther Vandross “Fascination” - David Bowie “Foot Stomping - Part 1” - The Flares “Fame” - David Bowie “Le Freak” - Chic “I Want Your Love” - Chic “Everybody Dance” - Chic “I’m A Man” - The Spencer Davis Group “I’m A Man” - Macho “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” - Steam “Sugar, Sugar” - The Archies “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” - Ohio Express “Man In The Mirror” - Michael Jackson “That’s What Friends Are For” - Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder “The Glow of Love” - Change “Yakety Yak” - The Coasters “Body Language” - Queen “Juice” - Eva Shaw & DillanPonders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She said stop, stop, stop. Get out your heart. It's so good. That's my question. Why is it so good? I know. It's making me upset, too, with how good it is. It's so good.

Every time we hit play, we have to just listen. No news, no, but. Like, it's too much. Somehow he takes a track that's already good. He just elevates it. Lectury, I got to say, one of the biggest songs of the year so far is Luther by Kendrick Lamar and Siza. If this world were mine.

Hey, Roman rule seven days, drop it like it's hot. If this world was mine, I take your dreams and make him most apply. But that's not what we're talking about today. I was going to say, be pretty good too excited. On today's episode, we're going to talk about who that Luther is. That's right, Zialo, because the Luther who's sampled voice is also the name of the longest-running number one single for a duet of all time, was himself a huge star in the 80s and 90s. as a solo artist. And what's interesting is he got his start in a similar way,

not as a lead artist, but as a background singer. Today we're going to talk about a song that helped bring him to the forefront. We're talking about one song, and that song is Searching by Change, featuring Luther Vandross. We're going to have some fun today. I'm after writer-director and sometimes DJ, D.Ollarroletal. And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist luxury, aka the guy who whispers, interpolation.

And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before. And if you want to watch one song, you can watch this full episode on YouTube and Spotify. And while you're there, please like and subscribe. So Diallo, where were you when you first heard the song searching? Funnily enough, it was, this is the first CD I ever own.

Really? My sister bought my mom and dad a CD player. It was like in a big, a wooden, cabinet. Okay. And it's a CD player. And you could see the CD spin. And the one CD she bought us was the best of Luther.

It was a double CD. Yeah. And I remember taking it out. And I didn't, you know, I knew Luther, but I didn't know Luther. You knew the name. Yeah, of course. I put in CD1. I just wanted to see that thing spin.

But of course, this was the first song on the best of Luther's CD. Which tells you a lot. Yes. It's an important song. It's an important song. And by the way, to this day, when Luther comes up in conversations, I forget sometimes. I forget sometimes that I know almost every Luther song by heart. And yeah, to this day, like these songs like evoke a weird emotion out of me.

Because his voice, and we're going to talk a lot about it, his voice is so emotional. It's so special. It's so special. My kid walks in the room last night. He's like, hey, check out this guy who can sing. And I was just like, listen to this. I was like, he's all right. But like, I needed to watch that Luther documentary because I need to know what real singing sounds. Every syllable that he sings.

Every note has real, authentic emotion that you just, you can't put your finger on. You can sort of, on this show, we deconstruct music. We talk about the artists. We talk about what's being done musically. We did mystify it. There is a level of, you cannot. Yes. I don't know why.

It's magic. It's magic. It's just emotional magic. And such a distinct sound. Yeah. And he just has a way of like, he can take the most basic song and make it and and lutherize it, so to speak. And all of a sudden,

You're like crying. You're just like, I can't take it. The Sesame Street song, I can't take it. His voice is a direct link to who he is to his emotional core. And you really feel his life story and his experiences. And when he starts writing music, you realize, oh my gosh, this man has a story to tell. And we have a story to tell about Luther today. What about you, Luxury?

What was the first time you heard the song searching? So what's interesting about this band, it's changed. When I first started as a blogger, right? I had my disco workout blog. We're not judging you. We're not, hey, listen, blog is not my favorite word,

but blogging was an activity I did with my chest back in the days of blog house. We talked about it on a few episodes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, as a few more. And it was a blog focused on deeper cut disco tracks, like Italo disco and disco and even some post-punk. And with my partners on the blog, Bear Baby and Jonatron, we made a lot of discovers,

we would turn each other on his stuff. And I think Bear Baby, Sarah, who, by the way, if you're out there, Sarah Dowardy, I've been looking for you for years, Hit me up. You're hard to find on Google. You're not on any of the social media. I think she brought me this song. She brought me change. And it was everything I love about like in that moment as a disco DJ and remix or blogger especially. The musical bed is like all the sounds and rhythms that I love. It's such a warm bed of bass and the drums and the timboles and everything. And of course, Luther's voice on top. So I was an instantly smitten with this with this artist with change featuring Luther Vandross, which is what we're talking about today. I will say when we started this podcast, there were certain voices that we knew we had to give a spotlight to. Absolutely. And this is kind of like, this is sort of a double episode within an episode, because it is a Luther van Dros and a change episode. These are two entities that are different that the marriage of the two of them is what makes the song so incredible.

So as we mentioned at the top, we put it to cover today's song because it's an important touch point in Luther's transition from being a background singer to a lead vocalist. And we also want to take the time to give the man his flowers while his name is still in the zeitgeist by way of that Kendrick Lamar and Sizzatrach, Luther, which samples his rendition of, if this world were mine. If this world were mine, I would place at your feet. He imbues every word with meaning. I get, he got my attention immediately. The second the breath turned into sound, like, when he does. This opens his mouth. It's so immediate.

Your focus is directly on your stop dead in your tracks. You have to listen. You can't be distracted. You cannot be distracted. Luther Saints. By the way, that's a cover. It was originally sung by Marvin Gay and Tammy Chappelle. If this world were mine, I would place at your feet.

Fine. Perfectly fine. Listen, Marvin Gay. No one is throwing shade at Marvin Gate on this show. No. But Luther. Think about what it takes on. Marvin Gay and Tammy Sorrell.

Think about what it takes to make Marvin Gay sound like Pet Boone. You know what I mean? Like, think of the talent that it takes to make him. That's not my take, but I hear where you're going. But you know what I mean. I know what you mean by that.

Yeah. Marvin Gay, Tammy Terrell, when that song was out, you were transfixed. But when Luther and Cheryl Lynn's version comes out, it just, that is the definitive version. That's the definitive version. But that's very Luther

because so many of his songs I found out while preparing for this episode are covers. and I'm like Dionne Warwick. She was like, when he covered one of her songs, A House is Not a Home, she was like, oh, you just did the definitive version of my song. It brings her to tears.

That's an incredible footage, watching her watch him. So let's talk about how Luther Vandross came to be in change, what his career was leading up to this moment where he does the song searching. Yeah, listen, at this point in the mid to late, 70s. Luther is killing it. As a background singer, you know, to hear one person tell it, he was the number one background singer in New York.

He was singing. He was arranging. He's doing backing vocals for albums by artists like Shaka Khan, Roberta Flack, Evelyn Champaign King, and some guy named David Bowie. Let's watch a clip of Luther performing young Americans live with David Bowies. I heard the news

today. That is the Beatles. Interpolation, right? That is a, absolutely. It's a reference. It's uncredited, but they didn't need to. From musician to musician, that's like back in the day, it's like, you'd be a jerk if you were like, hey, hey, faming. It's really whack if he's like, hey, I went with you on fame, but I really need some money for that. I need my point five percent. And it's really fun seeing like a young Luther back there just singing. A guy get creative boy, he saw it right away.

He was like, this guy needs to like shuffle up to the front. Yeah, there's something special about this. Yeah, absolutely. And also, didn't realize how tall Luther was because we all know David Bowie is a pretty tall dude. and Luther's taller than him. Luther's apparently 6-3, which, you know, you just don't even... I never thought of Luther's being that tall,

but, like, Luther's tall, dude. They may have contributed to some of the power. Certainly the frame plays into what the sound is. Well, they talk about that in this wonderful documentary, never too much. Such a good documentary. Absolutely good props to, you know,

you see Luther like on Sesame Street singing. But, like, you know, as they say in the documentary, he's like a little bit chubby, and he's dark-skirts. at a time when like that was frowned upon by the entertainment industry. So like the idea that he would be the lead. Yeah, there were some limitations in other words that were put on him just by the marketing departments of record labels who were afraid that it would turn people off, which of course does not.

Even as a singer in this group that sings at the Apollo, listen up brother, they're just like, no, he wasn't the lead because they felt like that wasn't marketable at the time. You either had to be skinny or you had to be, you know, something else. and like he was neither of these things. And yet, the voice of an angel. One of the things we love about Bowie is when he saw talent, he recognized talent, he brought them into the fold and gave them credit where it was due. For example, he heard one day, according to the documentary that we mentioned,

he hears Luther singing a song, one of his own songs, called Funky Music. It's so good. I love how Luther finds like those notes that just compliment what's going on musically so perfectly. By the way, I'd never notice. the album cover for Luther. This 1976 album cover for Luther, it looks like a heavy metal, like logo. It's so cool.

It's so like hard. It goes really hard. Yeah, I mean, his face isn't on the cover, but this like heavy metal, I would have assumed that this would go right in the stacks next to, you know, Zeppelin or whatever. Absolutely. For those marching on you two,

we've got the picture up, you got to see it. It looks like Judas Priest or something. Totally. So when Bowie hears this, he loves the tune. and they work together to turn it into a David Bowie song. They work kind of sideways from it and create a new song, but Luther is giving credit. And the song is called Fascination.

Great song. It's funny because I'm thinking about how in this period, this is, by the way, these are two of my favorite Bowie records, in between the Ziggy years and the Berlin years, which are also great. Like these, he has so many periods. Station to Station. It might be my favorite Bowie record. Really?

That's the one that comes after this one. It's great album. But he's obviously also kind of in a period of like chaos in his personal life and with his cocaine intake and not eating a lot of food. The thin white duke comes out of him, you know, not being a terribly healthy person. And it's interesting because I'm thinking about his creative process. He did a similar thing. The song Fame famously comes out of a similar writing sideways from a tune. He was covering a Flair's song called Foot stomping.

And they're choking to. And they were doing a similar thing where they were covering it, and they decided, hey, wait a second, let's make some changes and just make a new song. And that's where the song, Fame comes from. Fame, what you get does no tomorrow. So it's interesting because clearly he was sort of looking at this songwriting method of like absorbing something about another song. Like maybe its rhythms, maybe a few of its chord changes, maybe a word or a melody or two. And in this case, he did that and, of course, credited Luther. And I love that he's like being so collaborative.

Because, like, you know, to hear Bowie tell it in footage from that, period, he's like hearing what Luther's bringing to songs like young Americans. And he's like, oh, yeah, that's it. Right, because it's not just, hey, I've got a part for you sing at the end. Yes. Luther is crafting. He's making choices about note placements, yeah. About syncopation, about what the harmony stack should be.

Luther is really owning that process of making the background vocals, not just a sort of afterthought, but a really crucial part of the song. And this working with Bowie is, I would imagine, a huge break for Luther. Absolutely. It sets the stage for the next level of his career. He says that his work with Bowie is when his career really started. Because up into that point, he was living with his mom. And then Bowie took him on the road and his life changed. So Luther's working with everybody.

Again, he's like the go-to background singer in New York. And I did not know this until we were working on the episode. He's on all those epic chic albums. And it makes so much sense now. When you hear it. Yeah, now you can go back and hear him. Through 1978, he's saying background on multiple hit records with Sheik, including Lafriek. I want your love.

And, of course, everybody dance, which has a do-do-do-do-do. Which is very Luther. Yeah. That's a very Luther thing to do. Considering all of the cosines that Luther had, you would have thought that his own, you know, singing group would have performed well on the charts. That's not the case. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

They put out a couple records, the Luther with that great metal album. Luther! Right? The heavy metal album, Luther didn't do that well. I think that was misbranding. And the second album called This Close to You, but both of them struggled to chart.

Yes, but little did he know that his work would travel all the way to Italy and push him to a whole new level of fame. Luxury. What can you tell us about the group change? Okay, well, that brings us to the second part of our two parts, That's one episode. What would you call that? The double episode that's this way? I feel like there's a horizontal visual.

We're doing this episode sideways. We're doing this episode sideways. It's one episode with two bands in it. That's what it is. Because on the musical underbelly of Luther's voice is a band, so to speak, comprised of a bunch of musicians, not all of whom whose names we know. Because there's an anonymous disco-era phenomenon going on. If we can now take you to Italy, where we're in late 70s, Bologna, and a couple of gentlemen meet, and they create this. that's going to make the underbelly, the musical bed of a whole bunch of hit records, very few of which have any names that we now know because not a lot of credits were put on these records. But we've pieced together with our crack research team. We've done our homework. And I think we can tell you a little bit about how this music was made and who made it. I apologize in advance. I may mingle some of these Italian names, but I believe Mauro Malavasi is his name.

This was a gentleman who was studying classical music in late 70s, Bologna, Italy, learning production, learning, arranging. And a friend came to him and said, hey, I want to do a cover of the Spencer Davis groups, I'm a man. So he meets another person named Jacques Fred Petrus. And again, I hope I'm saying these words right, who's a Guadalupean born record store owner in Milan.

It's called Goody Music. That name's going to factor into this story. And he had his, as a record store owner who catered to DJs and a DJ himself, he had his ear to what was being played and what people wanted. And at the time, to get records from America, they were all imports. They didn't have licensing deals. So he didn't have enough content.

He needed more material. So he ends up meeting Mauro. And he brings this idea to him. He's like, I need some 20-minute songs. Like we have Casablanca records, the Donna Summer, the Georgian-Mrodor stuff, these disco records that are really long. So people want this repetition. They want something they like to continue.

And there's just not enough of those long songs happening, extended mixes. So bringing it all together. We have Moro with a lot. this idea that his friend wants to cover, I'm a man, but like a disco version. And then this guy who wants a 20-minute song, he brings in his friend a bass player called David Romani. And this is the brain trust behind what becomes goody music,

this record label and production team that's at the core of all of these disco hits, starting with this one. This is 1979. Macho is the name of the artist. It's the 20-minute I'm-a-man extended version. You got to hear it. I'm a man. Yes, I have.

I love so. So good. I hear chest hair. I hear medallions. Oh, yeah. This song becomes a gay disco anthem. There you. Like, listen, it's called I'm a man.

The cover has two men wearing leather and sunglasses and the artist is macho. Yeah, I love it. Pretty incredible stuff. Very cool. This group of musicians, the Goody Music Brain Trust, which again, it's Moro Malavasi, who's production, arranging, etc. David Romani on bass, and Paolo Gianolio appears to be the three main musicians, and then a lot of uncredited artists on drums in particular that we're going to do our best to name in the stems. But the point is they are cranking out music 24-7.

It all sounds amazing. And their production process is interesting because they'll record it in Italy, all the instruments. But then they send it to America to get some of the best and brightest American singers to sing on top of it. So it's this international affair. By the way, it should be said, we love change and we love chic, and you can play them back to back, and maybe someone who's not familiar with both artists would not be certain where one ends and one begins.

There's an overlap in not just musically what they sound like, but Luther Vandras sometimes on both of the songs, exactly. So there's a cross-pollination, basically, between Italy and America happening in the music. And we were talking before the episode about how part of that plays into this song where we're kind of transitioning from disco into some of the soul. More traditional R&B.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. Which is probably a result of having those singers from the scene we've been talking about. And I found a quote, so the bass player David, part of the core musical brain trust. These guys are studio rats.

They're making tracks all day long. And David Romani says, this song that we're talking about today, searching, was originally going to be for another band. But it sounded better for change. At some point, they decided this feels like it's not the people.

Peter Jacques band, which is another one of their entities, and more probably because of this R&B funk vibe that it had musically, before they were even vocals. Changes their vessel to do more traditional R&B. That's right. With a disco flare and maybe some of the instrumentation and four on the floor, but absolutely, especially with the vocals on top, the R&B vocals, takes it to a different place. Just a quick note about studio bands, these were really huge in the disco era. Yeah.

Sort of genre-based music where a group of musicians could create a lot of content and then decide later what the artist was, or even if the artist mattered, it should be noted that the artist name we're talking about today is really change. And Luther Vandross was a rare example of his name being added to the credits, but his face is not on the cover. The entirety of changes catalog doesn't have anybody on any musicians on the cover. There are all these abstract images. It's a tradition that goes back even further. Look, there was a whole spate of like in the late 60s, all these songs that like were one-hit wonders and they were completely not only faceless, but kind of fake bands. They would hire musicians to go on TV and pretend they were a band like Steam,

who famously did, nah, nah, nah, no, hey, hey, goodbye. Of course, the Archie's Sugar, Sugar. Oh, honey, honey. That wasn't Archie Andrews and his friends. Judge Ben, Betty, Veronica. And before that, even, the Ohio Express, another non-existent band did a song called Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. I've got love in my tummy. I don't know Ohio Express didn't exist. me, I'm me, I hope you're such a sweet thing good. This was called bubble gum pop at the time, right?

This is where the origin of that term is, where it's just faceless, nameless corporate pop has existed as a concept for quite some time. In 1969, these songs would have been sort of maligned for being like, you know, brainless problem for the, you know, preteen set. I like that they decided, you know what, guys, let's put Ohio in the name of the script. That'll really get the kids buying the records.

But these are great songs. And so, too, our songs. today, which at the time was one of these anonymous collective of musicians, no one's on the cover. But something really interesting happens where Luther Van Drosu is the vocalist, unusually for this band, for this time, for this type of music, his name is in the credits. He was able to use his leverage to get not a songwriting credit, unfortunately, but he is at least credited. His name is on the title. So how do these guys end up recruiting Luther?

In fact, it was his work on commercial jingles, which is where he was making his fortune at the time. Wow. There's nothing like a roller coaster ride. There's nothing like a view from a mile in the sky. And there's nothing like the flavor of juicy fruit. It's so insane because you can make the case that Tyrese blew up because of his Coca-Cola commercial.

Right. There's something about commercials in general that really, like, put... I think Cokeout's life is what it is. So the jingles put him on their radar. Right. And then when they hear his background vocals, they're like, oh, this guy can sing Lee. Yeah. Which is awesome.

It's a little bit of what happened during the young Americans. And even Roberta Flack, this keeps happening to him. It keeps happening. And by the way, I just had to say right now, Luther has a habit of stealing the show. He steals the show. There's the performance of 98 degrees, Usher and Luther when they're singing Man in the Mirror at an award show. Right. He steals the show.

He's never truly a quote-to-quote background singer in the background. He shines through and people hear it. They bring them up. But also, think about when Luther steals the show, when it's Stevie, Dion, Gladys Knight, and they're all singing, that's what Friends are for. He steals the show with, like, three of the other greatest singers of all time. Luther steals the show.

He's your favorite singer's favorite singer. So Luther went on to nail his vocals for searching and Glow of Love, which was a huge hit. He does both songs in one take. By the way, that's one of my favorite songs of all time. It's also one of Luther's favorite songs of all time. an interview, quote, the glow of love is the most beautiful song I've ever sung in my life. It's such a great song. Let's hear a little bit of glow of love.

And the beauty seems to say it's a pleasure when you treasure all that's new and true and gay. Listen, this is such good music that I'm in tears. I'm just like, it's such, it's got everything I like in music in this song. Now, I've said that line many times on this show for songs that did not sound like that because clearly I love music, but this has the warm. I just love how it's mastered, man. It sounds so good. It sounds so good. And like the reverb, like everything sounds classic about it.

Classy even. Yeah, classic and classic. The song is perfection. That piano does exactly what a piano should do. Yes. That little melodic line there. So, so good. So good.

Well, listen. We're talking about Luther Vandros. We're going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we're going to hear Luther's isolated vocals in all their glory. You don't want to miss that. Stick around. Welcome back to one song. Luxury. Let's get into the stems. All right. So this song was recorded, as we mentioned, in two different cities, in two different countries, two different continents.

One of which was in Bologna, Italy, at Fontopin Studios. That's where all the instruments were recorded. The vocals, however, were recorded at Power Station, New York City. As mentioned earlier, we have a lot of deciphering and research and musical archaeology we had to do to get some of the credit information. Yeah. Even where the song was recorded, because I found a different... interview where somebody said searching was actually recorded and mixed in New York at Media Sound. We're not exactly sure. But what we do know, what we do know is that the musical brain trust were those gentlemen we mentioned earlier, Mauro Malavasi on production and I think keyboards, David Romani on bass and Paolo Gianolio on guitar, and probably not Jacques Petrus. He's

given a producer credit, but he's one of those producers. His story ends a little tragically with with a gunshot when he had to flee the country because of tax evasion and then he was murdered in Guadalupe by a Swiss gunman who clashed out with him who had an argument with him

earlier that night at a club he owned. I'm only laughing because I feel like you buried the lead. I didn't know this story was going to take that route. I want to know more about that. I feel like we probably don't know more about that. Let's stop the episode and start from this.

We'll do a true crime episode on change at a later time, but please continue. Right. So we're pretty sure that, and the way the story ends also is that all the musicians I've named later in life talk about how they got kind of screwed over financially by this gentleman. So Jacques Fred Petrus, we love the band, we love the musicians, the producer who's given credit, may or not have made many contributions to the music, but now we will talk about the people that we know who did. Wait, wait, can we find out more about the change murder?

Listen, according to a Vice article, In 1986, he fled the U.S. because of tax evasion charges. And moved back to Guadalupe, where he's from. Apparently, he maybe owned or bought an interest in a nightclub there. And the night he was murdered, earlier that night, he had been seen arguing with the person who shot him. So we're not sure exactly what went down. But he was unfortunately murdered in 1987. Bummer.

Let's talk about the music. What's going on in the steps? Okay. So what's fun about this song is that it starts with. a lot of rhythmic things that are a little bit hard to find the one, and wonderfully so. So I'm going to play for you some of the elements that are syncopating and merging to, like, start the song with this like, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, triplet kind of shuffle thing we've talked about on the Londie episode.

Here's the highhats, and I'm going to add some more elements, and you'll hear how it all comes together. Yeah, that's there. Or is it there? Wow. right where's the damn one and there's one more thing and it all comes together right now was the one where you thought it was

no it wasn't for me no and by the way as a DJ this is a mean thing to do to DJs because like you don't know where to bring the song in until that like come on guys give us a break it's a long night people have spilled drinks on the DJ's stand

and then you give us a song where we can't find an easy one give us a break so we just heard all of these 16th notes and syncopated. What you're hearing, that was a high hat at the top. I'll play that again. And then there's this clavinet with kind of like a wa. And then there's a sequencer synthesizer playing that single high note. Which gives us the triplets, the 12-8 feel.

One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five-six. But that clavonet's like making me wobbly. It's a brain melt. I feel like my brain is melting. One thing that helps link it together is there's this one little thing that only happens at the beginning. I even labeled it timekeeping help. Sounds like a snap or something. One, two, three, four.

I believe that's the two and four. Do we know it's the two and four? Or is it the two and four. It might be the one or three. We have no idea. That clav is so crazy. Let the drums come in. Let's see if we got it.

Okay. Yeah. So the snap for all DJs listening. If you're ever mixing in searching. Listen for the snap. The snap is the two of the ones. the four. That's the anchor. That's going to give you, that's the two and four. That's right. Because otherwise, you're just going to be lost. Beats going to drop a weird place.

Everybody's going to clear the dance floor. Exactly right. So let's listen to the drums now. Now, this is a situation where no idea who's playing the drums. We have a few names, but no one's taking ownership. It's not in the album credits, first of all. There are three drummers who are talked about as being part of the change operation in Goody Music. Lino drums, maybe, but I'm not sure. I haven't seen any cooperation anywhere else. Terry Silverlight, I thought he was playing drums on this, but then his own website says he's playing drums on a lot of change songs, but not this one.

And last but not least, a few interviews have mentioned a very famous drummer in Italy called Lele Malati, who was a huge list of credits. And I want through every single one to see if there was a misprint or something, song does not show up there. Do we think that maybe there's no drum credit because, like, Jock himself programmed the drums? And at that time, we didn't think that, like, programming drums are the same as playing the drums?

I mean, to my ears, this really sounds like a live drummer. I don't think it's a drum machine. It doesn't sound like any of the drum machines that would have been available. No problem. I don't know the reason. Maybe lost to time. Somebody had to dispute over, I don't know, payments over credits.

I mean, the guy did get shot a few years later. It sounds like his business practices, according to all of the artists whose names I mentioned, they all sort of say, we stopped working with him when he stopped paying us appropriately. So it's unclear what happened, A drummer played this beat. And I hear a kick drum overdub there because there was a flam.

It has to be said, everything you're about to hear, this is eight minutes of musical performance for every instrument. Yeah. As I listened through, I did not hear what appeared to be splices or somebody, like, made a mistake, and then they went back and overdubbed it. It doesn't mean they're not there. I just didn't notice any. But all of these parts, what they have in common is that they're a little bit exhausting. there isn't an A section B section in the song. There's no musically different thing happening in the verse

and different thing happening in the chorus. You have eight minutes. It doesn't really change. If you're a performer of an instrument on this song, your job is for eight minutes to play one thing. We do have, in addition to that, some claps, which sound like this. And those are clearly live.

They're a little bit, a little different on two from four. And then you have a cowbell, which is doing this. And finally, you have timbales, which are part of when you hear fills and what sounds like Tom's. They're often overdubbed timbales, isolated sounding like this.

And here's the entire percussion mix together. So that's what's happening in the drums. That's crazy. With some mysterious performers who are uncredited, unfortunately. Not the timboles, but a lot of that drum, I think, is drum machine.

The thing is, when I listen to those high hats and it's 1979, 1980, there isn't a machine I'm aware of where you could... But don't you think they probably looped it? That would have been like a sampler, which I don't know that they had access to. I think they had a sequencer. They weren't without toys and gear,

but sort of like bringing together when this is. Just because it's so repetitious, it doesn't need change. To me, it just feels like we don't need a human being to play that for eight minutes. Do you think there's anything here that's sequenced? That's a great question. So, Davidei Romane, part of the Brain Trust,

who plays bass guitar may or may not be playing this, which to me, I believe, is a mini-mogue playing the baseline, one of two baselines because it's doubled. When I listen to this, man, this sounds sequenced to me, but I'm not sure.

Let's listen together. Ooh! Love it. With like a filter suite opening and closing, that's what changes the sound. Open. Kind of closed. Letting it some high.

But this is going on. There are no variations to that rhythm. It's perfect every time for eight minutes. But you know what? I will say that Moog makes... Other than Luther, that Moog makes the song. It does. Like, how is it so good?

In the studio just out, we were like stabbing our figures to that. And like that sounds like a hit. It sounds like a hit. It's doing that for the entirety of the eight minutes, which would really... It would make my finger. cramp up, and I wouldn't be able to do it perfectly. It may have been Davide Romani.

It might have been Malavasi. It's unclear, and it might have been sequenced. My guess is that it's sequenced, because it's so perfect sounding, just in time. And that is doubled with bass guitar by Davide Romani. You can tell it's got more high-end. And those little... It's fine, but it's not the Moog. You know what I mean?

I feel like the Moog makes that sound. Not only that. It makes it sound like the 80s as opposed to just like a... I think that's a great point. That brings us more into the 80s, the new decade that we're entering here. So when you put that together with the other baseline, the mini mode, they're playing the same lines, but one of them is a human and one of them is, I think, a sequencer.

Right. On a synth, and they sound like this together. And the human baseline version gives the combined sound a human imperfect touch, kind of like the hi-hat stage. That's where you hear there's like it's a little bit A little bit yeah A variety perfect perfect Yeah it's so good

But I won't say that Moog feels like 80s action film Yeah yeah It feels like I'm going to the warehouse Yeah and something bad's getting around The gun runners are there Oh it's not gonna be a guy who plays by my own It's not gonna be a happy scene yeah

Bad stuff's about to go down in the warehouse Totally There are some moments where you hear Romani Overdubbing his bass with another bass sounding like this So he's popping and slapping a little bit, giving it more human feel. Here's one more overdub, and then I'll add the MoG to it. So you can hear how it all comes together.

And I'll bring in some drums after that. Let's get those drums in there. So that's the rhythm section. So good. Rhythming, grooving, eight minutes of groove going on in the song. Just like that, no changes. You know, and before we did this episode, I hadn't thought of this, but it feels like searching, serves as a bridge between,

like the disco funk era and the 80s. You know what I mean? This doesn't sound like 1976. This is sort of post-disco in a way. It feels like a very early entry into the 80s catalog. Yeah.

If that makes sense. I totally agree with you. And I think you're right. So far it's that MoG is making a difference. It just adds to the tone color of the song, something different from what we're used to in sort of B. EGs or whatever era, disco. That would have been a few years earlier.

We've gone beyond that. And when we get to Luther, as we've been alluding to, when we get to the vocals, it's a completely new. That brings in the funk, the R&B. Absolutely. That genre completely transforms the material. What's going on with the roads? Because now that we've heard the Moog, I didn't know that there was a Rhodes on the song. Right.

So there's a Fender Rhodes, which is the first time we are getting some chord changes. So underneath that steady, I guess you'd call it a pedal or Austenot or something, the baseline is just one chord the whole time. The fender does this. And I'll bring in the baseline for context. That's right. Just courting. That's just chording. Just comping.

Playing those chords the whole time. Just complimenting. Complimenting. Complimenting. Complementing the roads. There's another Rhodes part which actually triples the baseline, I'm just noticing. But I listen to that and I just, I really can't tell if that's sequenced or alive. Again, it's the same question with all these.

just because to do that for eight minutes would hurt my hands. But you know, listen, we have some masterful musicians here. Yeah. Their hands may not cramp playing these parts for eight minutes. But they also sent these stems to New York. So a part of me does think that like in the interest of time and clarity, it could have been sequenced only because, you know, they're not in the studio playing along with Luther.

They clearly have a sequencer because that is where we are getting the sequence Marotory High Note thing. You can in 1979, using voltage control in the pre-Mittie era, you could lock that to another device. So it's very possible we're getting a lot of sequence instruments in here. But all this to say that we have now heard the musical bed of keyboards, bass, and drums. And that leads us to, on guitar, Paolo Gianolio, who plays this very chic-y sounding part. And mirroring those roads, chord changes. But it's another rhythmic thing.

16th notes. And let's bring that weird clav back. And let's bring the cowbell back. It's like five different rhythms happening. It's a total groove. And locking in together and making a groove. Yeah. Amazing.

I love that. And that guitar, like, it does a lot, but it's very low in the mix. Am I wrong? It's, yeah, a lot of so. Just to be clear, this happens most episodes anyway. The mix that we're doing in the room doesn't necessarily match the song. It's some of the parts were buried, and I think the guitar is a little less loud on the record than it is in this mix that I'm putting together. But you definitely feel it.

You definitely feel it. It's contributing to the rhythm. And there's another guitar speaking of which, this is definitely a felt sound. I was surprised to hear that this wasn't a synth. I'll play it for you. This is a crunchy guitar, almost like a rock guitar. I mean, not almost. That is a rock guitar.

And that's doubling the fender rhodes. Exactly. Yeah, that surprised me. That explains the Luther font that he used on his debut album. There is. There's the Luther metal. He was always there. There's some horns out here.

There's a brass section. I think it's just one guy. I think it's Rudy Trevisi, Trevisi, on Saks, who makes some cool contributions. Yes. And let's hear them in the form of a solo, about two-thirds of the way, in fact. Sorry for laughing.

That was funny, though. It's funny. Why are we all laughing? You know? Why are we laughing? I'm not laughing. I actually think the saxophone had just such a wonderful renaissance in the 80s. Like there's just something about the saxophone. It just feels like you should be driving that.

I always call it the cocaine dealer's Mercedes-Benz down sunset. And you're on your way to like an Eddie Murphy premiere. There's just something about saxophones in 80s music. You're right, too, to bring up that it is a resurgence. Because when you hear it isolated, my first thing, first thought was like yackety yack. Like, throw no more yackety yack.

I think about the movie Streets of Fire. Sure. You know, like there's something about... I mean, Bruce Springsteen and, you know... There was just a thing where like, white guys really wanted to like channel the blues. They wanted to blues it up, jazz it up. The blues and jazz it up. Adventures in babysitting.

Everybody had a saxophone. Not just in America. Rudy Trevisi in Italy felt the same way. They were like, hey. Trevisy. They're like, we need a saxophone. Yeah, we need the... Hey, I'm Rudy Trevisy.

And there's a horn section, is there? There are some horn parts, possibly played by Malavasi himself, who was a trumpet player, and possibly as well with travisi. But they are uncredited. So we are not sure. But we do know they sound like this. So these are lines that are written. He's kind of remind me of those Fred Wesley, Macyo Parker, you know, bebop.

The bop. The bop lines we were talking about in the parliament episode. Totally. What's going on with the strings section? Well, the strings in true disco form. are adding an awful lot of warmth. Let's listen to them. Wow.

A lot of bleed. You hear the band. These are obviously overdubbed. These are obviously overdubbed after the band had played. You can hear the music being piped in. But I'll add just warm chords mirroring the roads. Playing a bed. Playing a bed.

And it's rising to a crescendo. That's nice. Beautiful. And high note. Hearing all these percussive components to the song, it reminds me of Axel Niehaus from our episode about the roots. That's right. Where they were like,

what is in the bad boy records of the late 90s that makes you want to dance? What's the secret sauce that makes the girls move? Yeah, exactly. And I feel like it's here too. It's like, it's like, it's like, it's sitting here. The answer is 16th notes. We love 16, like syncopated 16 notes. And it's syncopation.

It's amazing. It really. taps into something in our reptilian brain. I think all the building, as we're going through it and we're listening to one thing, it is, I can't stop building, adding, and subtracting things. I know, there's so many, there's so many remixes to be here.

So many layers of this. But now we've come to the layer that I think everybody who's listening wants to hear. There's one thing that makes this song just tower above so many other songs in 19. Do you want to hear the sax pleat again? That's not the element that I was talking about. I was actually talking about

an element known as Luther Van Dr. Vandross. We want to hear some vocals. We want to hear him isolated. We want to bathe in the purity and the sound of the glows of the war of luther's vocals. So I would say just give me the opening of the first verse. Hit the town in the cold of the night. Looking around for the warmth of a light. There was fog on the road so I guess no one saw me arriving. Stop it. Why'd you make me stop it, man?

Just because there's so much to even unpack there. I'm thinking about Morrissey's verse on this charming man. Like there's something about like a, when a singer tells you a story. Yeah, yeah, you're locked in. You're like, I'm already like, wow, this is like an incredible story. Once upon a time. Who wrote these lyrics? So the song, it's a 50-50 split between our Moro Malavasi, our main composer of this entity,

of the production entity Goody Music. And he worked with a British lyricist called Paul Adrian Slade. And Paul worked on anything else we might know? He wrote, I mean, among other things, he wrote Grace Jones's, I Need a Man. You know, so this is a gentleman who writes good lyrics. That's interesting because Morrissey is British

and this guy is British. I mean, like, there might have been something in the sauce, so to speak. Yeah. At that time where people were just like, we want to tell a story. Give us some more of the verse because, like, it's just, he's painting a picture. here. Yeah, I want to know what happens next.

I was tired, I'd been awake for sometime. Then my lights hit a welcoming sign. It said if you're alone, you can make this your home. If you want to. I'm on board, man. There's something about a vocalist who really understands that the job is to not just sell the lyrics or sell the story. It is those things, but just to make you believe that they are the lyricist.

they are the storyteller, that this thing not only happened to them, but maybe is happening to them as they're singing it. And I'm there. I'm like in the fog with the lights. You make this your home if you want to. The searching, the loneliness. He is on the road, right?

I mean, that's what I'm picturing. Being on the road. Yeah, absolutely. You can see the fog. You can see his headlights hitting. It's fog, so maybe he's touring with Bowie, you know? Like, I mean, it's so specific. And I'm obviously appending my own knowledge of his story

because he didn't write the lyrics. The Slade guy did. It's funny that I'm applying my own thing to the lyrics because Luther is such a fascinating person, with such a fascinating story. And when I hear him saying, you know, you're welcome. You can make this your home if you want to.

I'm applying that to his life story. You know what I mean? Like it's probably not even, it's probably not even there. But because he seems with so emotion, it feels like it's there. I mean, that's as valid as any explanation is. My interpretation is actually not just that it's him,

on the road, but more specifically, I'm bringing myself to this and I'm, I'm knowing what it's like to be like in England as a DJ and like away from my family for a few weeks. And like you like meet people and like you kind of have moments. This is a true revelation, which is not a revelation. It's like sometimes you're away from home and you're just being a DJ and like about to leave the club and you're like, someone starts talking to you and you're like, you can make this your home if you want to is like there's a flirtation and it's maybe being received, but maybe not what you're going to be doing. Yeah, yeah.

And that's what I thought of. I just flashed to this, I'm going to go back to my hotel room and save my, you know, marriage. And it's like, you can make this your home if you want to is that flirtation. It's that moment. That happens.

That's happened to all of us. To me, the chorus is searching, searching for so long. Yeah. But he does something in the second chorus, which I just, I want to hear isolated because it's so good to me. And anybody who knows the song knows it is when he says, no news, no by,

no how, no why. Like, it's so. good. If we can hear the second course, that'd be amazing. Just came out here by chance, only wanted to dance. No, no. Get out your heart.

It's so good. That's my question. Why is it so good? It's making me upset, too, with how good it is. It's so good. Every time we hit play, we have to just listen. No news, no, but. Like, it's too much.

Somehow he It's a perfection. It's already good. Yeah. He just elevates it. And the lyrics are so good. And that harmony stack that comes in then, I mean, to me, that's the chorus, but it doesn't matter. That's just another incredible melodic moment in the song, if you want to put it that way.

It's got the shuffle bead, which, you know, as we've talked many times about doing it to death by Fred Wesley and James Brown, like, you know, you don't really change that. Yeah. Like, the beat is a groove. Right. But he's giving you verses and choruses and refrain. You know what I mean? Like, he's just, he's giving you so much on top of a song that says, there's a groove. not musically changed that much. One reason I was so excited to do searching is because I don't even

think it's a nostalgia. Sometimes I'm like, oh, you know, we're talking about a song and I'm definitely attaching a certain nostalgia to it. But this song, to me, again, feels like I've jumped into a time machine and I'm in a, and I'm in another place. I'm in a different New York. Yeah. You know. An Italian New York. An Italian. That's what's ironic is that it's made by Italians, but no, I, I'm almost forgetting about, you know, Jacques Petru and all these people. I'm like, for me, it's Luther. It's that shufflebeat. It's that Moog. And it just feels like the Wall Street Journal has been delivered at my doorstep and the city smells like freshly baked bagels at 6 a.m. Like, I'm just, we're waking up to a new decade. Yeah. And that decade is the Ed Koch, New York.

So let's talk about another unsung hero. I suppose the drummer, the unknown drummer is the unknown sung hero. But Jocelyn Shaw Brown, aka Jocelyn Shaw, aka Allen, is on backing vocals on this song. And we're fans of her work with Saron and Sal Soul Orchestra. She's on Gimmie the Night background vocals. Oh, wow. Yeah, along with Patty Austin. That's right. But one of my favorite examples of her vocals is this. That's right. She is the sample of vocalist on Snap's 1989, The Power. That's originally from Love's Gonna Get You, Jocelyn Brown, 1985. Here's the source of that sample. That's Jocelyn Brown, aka Shaw.

So here she is in the stop, stop. I guess we'd call this the chorus technically. Stop, stop. The refrain, maybe. She said stop, stop, stop. You can hear at the top there. That's almost like a second chorus to the song. Yeah.

It actually seems criminal now hearing the song that Luther is not a part of the splits. I completely agree with you. As we go through it and listen to these by piece. He makes the song. And what's sad is he probably got paid a check on the day. Absolutely. And yet another singer just doesn't make the song that it is.

No, absolutely. Listen, we just sort of named a whole bunch of artists who made, we liked everything we heard when we were going from stem to stem. Every kind of part made a real contribution. The fact that we don't know, the name of the drummer is, pretty lame. Luther's elevation of that incredible musical bed, which by itself is amazing, but Luther

takes it to the next level. Thank goodness his name was on the credits, at least on the record, unlike the drummer. But yes, I agree with you that he should have been cut into the publisher. Well, you know, I will say this. After the success of Change's album, The Glove of Love, change actually wanted Luther

to sign on full on as their lead singer. Yeah. And in that case, he probably would have gotten some splits, but Luther declined. He was like, I want to make my own music. He had his vision. He had a vision. He had a roadmap and he was on his way.

And arguably, this song kind of sets the stage for that next artist's career. Here's a deal. He goes on to produce amazing music for the next, you know, three decades. Look at the trophy cabinet. He's got 11 platinum albums, 40 million records sold worldwide. I mean, look at who benefited from Luther's genius. And Trace it to now, you've got Roberta Flag. You've got Aretha Franklin.

You've got Sheik, Dionne Warwick, Mariah Carey, as we mentioned earlier, all the way up into the future, you know, posthumously with Kendrick Lamar and Siza. All massively influential artists who took so much inspiration from Luther Vandross. And what's incredible as we've listened to the song Searchin by Change from 181 featuring Luther Vandross. What's really incredible is to hear it was all there on day one. Like you, as we listen to his isolated vocals in the stems, all of that was ready to pop out and go global and go like planets. That's instinctual, right? It was already there. Those are instinctual choices that he's making.

That talent was already there. Before we move on totally from Legacy, I think we should say something about change. Change never reached those levels that they reached during, I feel, their Luther Vangera. I mean, I think it's baked into an anonymous band. That there's going to be a ceiling to how far you can go when the members aren't somebody people can gravitate towards.

Once they had Luther and lost Luther, you know, the music was still good. I mean, they're still incredible. change records that come out through the 80s. Absolutely. And they're still touring, I believe, to this day even, which is a rotating cast. I mean, I would go see them.

Like, they have Lovers Holiday, which is a great song. They've got The Glow of Love, which is an absolute classic. But, actually, what do you think the legacy of searching is? I think one thing we've talked about today and is really clear from the story is it's unusual for in an anonymous band situation

or in these sort of genre-based musical projects for the vocalists, especially an unnamed one, without a face on the cover, to break out. to have the opportunity to go to the next level. So I think that's a really clear, I mean, there's some luck in this mix in this story. Maybe there's some confidence that he gets from the David Bowies and Roberta Flacks of the world, helping him to be like, you know what? No, I deserve a little bit more.

It's difficult to say why the confluence of events led him to be able to break out of the background singer box. But he did. In the best possible way, a background singer can possibly do it. And I think that's because his talent was just undeniable. I mean, like, you know, there's so many wonderful stories where somebody got, like, that leg up or they got the platform. But I feel like, in a weird way, this might be the story of somebody who was just kind of destined to make it. He didn't know, you know, his father died when he was eight. He didn't know when he told his mom, hey, mom, I'm dropping out of college to become a singer.

He didn't know that his father was a great singer. Yeah. He didn't know that he had this genetic legacy, I guess, if you want to call it back. That song is so poignant to, what is it called? Dancing with that? with my father. Dance with my father is, I mean, his performance on that is just so devastating. Can I admit? I can't listen to it. Literally can't listen to it without getting choked up. Thinking about it, kind of choked me up a little bit. So, you know, like, it's just one of those

songs because I lost by Pops when that song came out. It's one of those songs I don't dare go near. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's too honest and it's too vulnerable. And this is why we love music. Here it is again. We're having a Roy. We're having another Roy. era's moment. Gotta be strong. Because these incredible musicians, they touch us. They record the podcast.

But yeah, seriously, like, don't be too tough. Wait, hold on. I'm too tough. Don't be too tough. Oh, man. Don't be too tough. I never cried in my life.

He's a beautiful artist who brings out beautiful emotions. That's it. That is the name of the game. That's the entirety of the goal of this to bring out, to connect with that emotion. Absolutely. Thank you, Luther. Thank you for your talents and your songwriting and everything else. You know, we could have spent a whole episode talking about your solo career,

but we wanted to share this song because we just wanted to hear your instrument, your voice, isolated. Thank you. Thank you so much, bro. And how wonderful is it that we're literally living in a moment where Luther's legacy is being shared with a new generation? The fact that it's not just his voice, but also the title of the song, feels kind of like Kendrick and says are helping teach a lesson to make it, to ensure that his legacy gets passed down to the next generation, who are hearing him and maybe looking to discover where

it came from. Maybe they're going back to his catalog and hopefully they'll be listening to this song when they do that. 100%. Okay, luxury, it's time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or hidden gym with you, the one song nation, and with each other. You go first. All right. Well, listen, that song,

the baseline to that song sure reminds me of this one. This is Body Language by Queen. We love this song. Both songs can exist and they go back to back really well in a DJ set. We've talked about this on a previous episode. I think that this song came out a couple of months after searching.

Sure. And I think Freddie was probably in New York and probably searched on the radio. Yeah, it came out about a year later. It's got the same 12-8, you know, beat. And that baseline and the fact that it's a Moog and John Deakin usually plays bass guitar. It sounds very, very similar. Very similar. But hey, two great and different songs.

And if you're a DJ, play it back to back, see what happens. What about you, Diallo? What's your one more song? Today I have a song by Eva Shaw and Dylan Ponders. This is a song called Juice. Avidstead on my moving to a zoo. It's all getting chew. Eva Shaw and Dylan Ponders.

This is just one of those songs where I feel like I love that people are, you know, experimenting with mixing rap and dance music in a real way. Yeah. You know, it's not cheesy. It doesn't feel pandery. It actually just feels like it's a groove. It's a bop and it slaps. My kids just cringe.

All kids just cringe. As always, if you have a suggestion for one more song, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok and just message us. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, D-A-A-L-L-O, and on TikTok at Diallo-R-R-L-R-L. And you can find me on Instagram at luxury, L-U-X-X-U-Y, and on TikTok at Luxury X-X. And you can also follow at one-song podcast.

Instagram and TikTok for exclusive content. You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube and Spotify. Just search for One Song Podcasts. We'd love it if you'd like and subscribe. Also be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all of the songs we discuss in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you made it this far, we think that means you like the podcast, so please don't forget to give us five stars.

And leave a review and share us with someone who you think might like this show. Your fellow music nerd, it really helps. Keep the show going. Luxury to help me end this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist, luxury. And I'm actor-writer-director and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And this is one song. We will see you next time.

This episode is produced by Melissa Duane. As our video editor is Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo. Mixing by Michael Harmon and engineering by Eric Hicks. Production of Supervision by Rizak-Boakin. Additional production of support from Z. Taylor. The show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Wile, and Leslie Guam.

Thank you.