One Song - The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Today on One Song, Diallo and LUXXURY unpack Motown’s secret sauce through the lens of The Supremes’s electrifying 1966 hit “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” Diallo and LUXXURY highlight every element that makes this track a timeless classic: Diana Ross’s subdued vocals, James Jamerson’s groovin’ bassline, and the iconic Morse Code-esque guitar riff. Join them as they celebrate the brilliance of this song and give flowers to all the unsung heroes. Songs Discussed: “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” - The Supremes “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” - The Temptations “Buttered Popcorn” - The Supremes “Where Did Our Love Go” - The Supremes “Baby Love” - The Supremes “Come See About Me” - The Supremes “Stop! In The Name Of Love” - The Supremes “Back In My Arms Again” - The Supremes “Back to Black” - Amy Winehouse “Be My Baby” - The Ronettes “Take Me Home Tonight” - Eddie Money “Wichita Lineman” - Glen Campbell “I Want You Back” - The Jackson 5 “Starman” - David Bowie “London Calling” - The Clash “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” - Vanilla Fudge “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” - Kim Wilde “Set Me Free” - Ken Boothe “All I Want Is You” - Zilla Mayes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's song comes from one of the most influential and successful say groups of all time, and one of the most successful and influential black-owned music labels of all time. That's right, Tialo. This group is iconic. They had 12 number one hits in just five years. In 12 number one. In five years. In five years. And they were the first all-female group to ever reach number one in the UK.

Take that, Spice Girls. Today's song is number eight, number eight in their run of hits. Today we're talking about one song, and that song is the proposal. also pop genius of you keep me hanging on by the Supremes. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Root. And I'm producer, DJN's songwriter, and music college's luxury, aka the guy who whispers, Interpolation.

And if you want to watch one song, please go to our YouTube channel and watch this full episode. And while you're there, please like and subscribe. Okay, Diallo, so before we get into the Supremes of it all, I really want to start our conversation around the label that the screams came out of, which is the legendary Detroit, label Motown records. Yeah.

So a couple questions for you. Number one, what are your thoughts on Motown? And number two, perhaps more importantly, why are you wearing a suit? I'm wearing a suit because Barry Gordy, who came on as executive producer just for this episode, said I had to present myself with elegance and grace. And you certainly are pulling it off. And so that's why I'm here in this. And it's really quite comfortable.

It's really quite comfortable. No, here's what's crazy. Growing up, I don't know that I even liked Motown, so to speak. And before you guys start flaming me, I'm doing. understand, it's like the music that was forced on all of us of a certain age, just because it was the music of the baby boomers. Every Motown song I associate with a different movie, whether it's the big chill. Totally. Oh my God, you're right. Every movie had a Motown song. Yeah.

The 50s, the boomers that wrote movies that came out when we were a kid. It was all their nostalgia coming out on screen. I think I got the song's Reflections by the Supremes and Tears of a Clown, tracks of My Tears by Smokey. I associate that with Platoon. Every single Motown song I associate with a different movie from the 80s for obvious reasons. But now... We talked about this on the Beatles episode, too. There was something about them growing up where it was like wallpaper. Like you never thought about it because it was everywhere all the time.

You just sort of assumed you'd walk into a story, you'd be watching a TV show. It was always around on the radio. It was always around. You couldn't avoid it. And also, it's the 80s. So no, I was more into like Prince, Madonna, hip-hop, you know, proto hip-hip. I didn't want to hear all the songs from, you know, from the wonder your sound. Yeah, I don't think we realized, obviously, we didn't realize at the time because it was just around us,

how influential it was on the stuff we were paying more attention to, how the combination of funk and R&B and gospel and pop all in one place really does come out of Motown. If I was walking down the street dressed like this right now, you wouldn't probably think Motown. Right. And granted, dressed like this, I'd probably avoid most valet stands because I do not want your keys. But no, like, I think, like, you know, when I've been. first got out to L.A., I would dress like this, and I would go to, like, Brit Pop

nights, and I would go to, you know, places that played, like, The Jam. You're specifically doing the skinny tie. Yes. Especially with the skinny tie. There's like a two-tone thing? Yes, because they were copying the black artists and looks from 20 years early. You know what I'm saying? And, like,

and nowadays, if you dress like this now, people think you're doing the Blues Brothers or men in black or whatever. But there was a time when this projected that style and grace that Barry Gordy felt like all his artists need. Now being a little bit older, I truly appreciate Motown

and the paths that it paved for not just black artists and black music, but for almost all pop music around the globe. And we're going to talk about how it's responsible for some of those first global hits. I mean, you have to remember, too, that the Supremes, and this is relevant to what you're saying, the Supremes were neck and neck, toe to toe with the Beatles

in the same era. And they were listening to each other and influencing each other. and covering each other's songs. And from 64 to 67, you have British invasion and you have Motown ruling the world. So I would ask all of our listeners, as we throw out these days, 1964, 1964, 1965, think about what else is happening in music at that time.

And this is where the heartbeat of black music is at that time, too. You've got to realize that it was all happening at once. Ever since we first started this show, I felt like we owe the listeners an episode where we focus on classic era Motown. We've already done some artists that were on Motown. But we did it in like a later period. They were later.

They were sort of more technically Motown records like the Marvin Gay and Stevie Wonder. This wasn't 60s Motown, which was a very specific thing. 60s Motown is so specific. It's the Motown of Dreamgirls and so much of what we sort of think we know. But we were like, we need to do this Motown episode. It's the sound and the image and the presentation. And you kind of get all of it when you talk about you keep me hanging on. This song more than others that we've talked about on the show is truly the product.

of Barry Gordy's assembly line-like process. Yeah, and that comparison is no accident because Barry Gordy literally worked on the assembly line in Detroit at the Lincoln Mercury plant, like making cars on the assembly line, and obviously something clicked, that there's something about this process that he can bring to music, and he did.

He writes in his autobiography, quote, At the plant, the cars started out as just a frame, pulled along on conveyor belts until they emerged at the end of the line, and I wanted the same concept for my company only with artists and songs and records. Only with people. Exactly. I mean, that says it right there. It's a great idea, but kind of a gross idea at the same time, where a kid off the street could walk in one door and unknown and come out the other a star.

And, you know, timing is everything. And I'm a little bit jealous of Barry Gordian timing. Like when we were researching this episode, the number of albums he could release by the Supremes in just one calendar year, four or five albums. Yeah. Like, that just wouldn't happen anymore because back then you literally had to go someplace and buy something physical to listen to the music. And just that business model, as they thought of it then, is just gone now. I also think it's a scarcity thing because at the time there weren't as many records. And in fact, they had a problem. They had so much output. That's why you have sometimes it's Tamla, sometimes it's Motown, all the different record labels because sometimes the radio stations would get so much product in for one label. They would have to make choices about, well, we have too much Motown.

So we don't have the problem of scarcity anymore. We have the opposite problem. There's like 100,000 whatever songs uploaded every day to Spotify, etc. So that was one thing that was very different in that time. But you're absolutely right. There's something about just like the physical product. Something about a physical product. Like he was like, some people sell you a telephone.

I'm going to sell you this piece of wax that brings you music. And because he was a self-contained operation, literally down to the mastering, they were able to control the distribution pipeline and put out, you can do the same thing today. Like if Justin Bieber wanted to put out 50 songs, whoever it is, they also do the assembly line thing to this day in pop. songwriting, but the output is limited by marketing dollars and, you know, they have a limit to how much they can actually put out based on their considerations. And how much the public is willing to spend. Absolutely. But back then, it was like four to five

records in one year. And they were all hits. All right. Let's talk about the Supremes. You know, this is not the story of overnight success. No, it's not. They struggle with it at first. Tell us about how the Supremes got started. It's not the story of overnight success. And it's also not the story of equal success. We'll be talking about how there were originally actually for Supremes, but towards the end, not all of the Supremes fared equally, shall we say. No, and by the way,

the Supreme is one of the most changiest lineups of all time. Up until Destiny's Child, perhaps, which is a good analogy for a lot of reasons, as we'll be getting into later. Really, you think? No, they're not an overnight success. So just a quick walk through

how they become the Supremes. There was a singing group in Detroit among the teenagers. It was called The Primes. It had Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks. this group, the Primes, will eventually become the Temptations. But they start off as the Primes. And their manager, Milton Jenkins, is like, we need a female group to open for you guys.

And we're going to call them the primates, which I love. I know. We don't do that anymore. By the numbers. They have the name before they even have the group, before they even had the lineup. Paul Williams had a girlfriend named Betty McLeown and Florence Ballard. And, you know, she recruits a friend of hers who sings Mary Wilson. meanwhile Paul Williams also recruits Diana Ross

and so you have this original They're like four there's Betty, there's Diana There's a Another Destiny's Child Florence, yeah exactly There's Florence and there's Mary And right away people are like Oh wow they sound pretty cool

They're teenagers right These are teenagers These are teenagers And it's actually Smokey Robinson Who at the time was already working with Barry Who was able to give them an audition With Barry to be signed as their own group now known as the Supremes at Motown.

And by the way, this is sort of a fun fact. Florence and Diana are both sort of equally singing lead. Yeah, it's not Diana Ross and the Supremes yet. Yes, it's not that means. Yeah, and in fact, there's an early single I wanted to play it for you. The song is called Buttered Popcorn, and it's the Supremes, but it's Florence Ballard on lead vocal. Wow.

You know, this reminds me of that Mr. Show sketch where, like, whenever songs, like, needed, like, a topic, They would always just sing about some new invention. I imagine this is like when, like, you were like... They added butter to popcorn like the first time. Pop-what? This is the future. Flying cars next.

It's worth pointing out how different Florence's voices from Diana's. And Florence has got more of like, she's richer kind of belting it. It's more of a kind of churchy gospel kind of thing. So she's got a couple blue notes in there, which you don't hear in later Motown. Like it's more of a blues tradition thing. And she's also kind of belting it. And the topic, it should be said, is a little bit saucy. You know, when Barry Gordy heard this song, apparently, he wasn't, it had to be pointed out to him how sexual it was.

Like, he didn't get it at first, apparently, which is hard to believe. These girls really like the salty buttered popcorn. They thought it was, you thought it was quite literally about the buttered popcorn and not the obvious double entendres that happened in every single line that I just heard. I just think song were hungry back then because there's a very famous song called Salt Peanuts. There was like a huge hit during the bebop era. Now, these musicians were literally hungry. We're going to get into that when we talk about the Funk Brothers. little bit later. That's like you're not far from the truth on that one.

So Barry signs the girls, as he calls them. He always referred to them as the girls. And it took a few years and seven singles, including the one we just played, before they even charted on Billboard. There was a time that the people at the label actually called them the no-hit Supreme. That is so mean. That is so mean. It's walking through the office, you know. Hey, it's a no-hit Supreme. I don't think they ever said it to their face. They may not have a minute. Hey, good see guys. And then they passed by that. I think they knew. They felt. What a boondoggle.

So it begs the question, when did the Supremes actually take off? It's 1964. And the Supremes that we all know and love finally arrived. This is the lineup of Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Florence Ballard. So from 1964 to 1965, they had five consecutive number one hits. Where did our love go? Baby love. Come see about me.

Stop in the name of love. And back in my arms again. I mean, this is all pure gold. It's pure gold. Pure gold, absolutely. By the way, it did make me ask the question. What is the number one biggest Motown hit of all time? Do you know it?

I don't think I know it. Is it stopping the name of love? Do you want to take a guess? My guess would be either stop in the name of love or something that was sort of a technicality, like a Stevie Wonder 80s hit that was like, you know, part-time lover or something terrible like that. You're closer. Here we go. It is the song, Endless Love from 1981.

Lino Richie. Lano Ritchie and Diana Ross, apparently the greatest selling Motown hit of all time, which does make me want to ask the question. And we talk about this not too often on the show. The early billboard charts were kind of on the honor system. It was like. Honor. No, it was no honor. Word choice here.

Yeah, I know. But it was like because like it was basically the people who ran the record stores. It was self reported. They would say, yeah, I think I sold this. They didn't have sound scan yet. There was no sound scan changed the game. game because that was an automated way of reporting it so nobody could cheat. I think we sold the most Beatles records this week.

I mean, like, it was literally like a guy writing it down. Do you think that or did someone pay you to write that down? And more often than not, it was the latter. Well, I think even if there wasn't payable involved, it was also perception. Yeah. And sometimes they may not have seen people walking in and buying, you know, that Smokey Robinson album. You know what I mean?

So it does make you want. And then, of course, one sound scan takes effect. That was when the industry stood up and was like, holy shit, there's a lot of hip-hop being sold. Right. Like not even by all these black customers, a lot of white customers are coming in here and buying hip hop and that's when you see a real chain. Yeah, you couldn't gain the system anymore. You couldn't gain the system

anymore. Not in that way. They found other ways to do it. That was the beginning of a decline in the record industry's interest in rock music because all the guys who worked at the record labels thought well, of course the kids like what I like. But it turned out, no, a lot of people were listening to non-rock music. I think that's the only reason to the state that the record labels

take Spanish language music. So seriously, because I've been in these record labels, most of them aren't speaking Spanish in their day-to-day lives, but they see those numbers. Yeah. And then they recognize it. Would there be a bad bunny without sound scan? The answer is probably not. But getting back to the Supremes. Absolutely incredible run, uncaralleled, except by themselves.

I think they had two separate runs of number one singles. That was just the first of them. Yeah. You also have to take into consideration that they're topping the mainstream pop charts at the time when radio is super segregated. They're not just the radio. Race records. Records stores are segregated. The pop charts are segregated.

Where you go to dance and listen to music is still segregated. So it's really incredible that they're topping the pop charts in this era. You know, Corno West has a not terrible quote about this subject. He's known for his hot takes these days. Recently it's been a little bit different. The old presidential runs. But at one point he said, the genius of Barry Gordy was that he perceived a vacuum in the musical culture of the nation.

And he was able to convince young brothers and sisters like me on the black side of town that this was my music. And at the same time, convinced white brothers and sisters on the other side of town who were listening to the Beach Boys that Motown was also their music. He's not entirely wrong about this.

He's wrong about a life. Of other things, sure. But in this particular case, yeah, I would agree with that statement. This idea that we have black people listening to music that white people are listening to and vice versa and both going to the same shows

in this era. Like, I think it's interesting to think about how that came to pass, very consciously so. We'll talk about it a little bit later, but I was part of the assembly, but it was not just on the music side of it. It was also on the presentation side.

It was the politics of respectability, as they like to say. So while we're on this topic, I want to highlight Baby Love real quick because it was the song that in particular launched Motown into the global mainstream. It was the first song by an all-female group to reach, number one, on the UK charts. This is significant because this is the beginning of black music,

really becoming the face of pop music, not just in America, but abroad. I'm so glad you're playing this. And it's so interesting you bring this up because I mentioned the Beatles before. A lot of people forget, we think of the British invasion, right? It was kind of a two-way street. We were the American invasion. The Beatles came here.

And the Kings came. Well, the Kings didn't come here. We'll save that for another episode. The Rolling Stones came here. The Beatles came here. But we also exported to them. We had the Motown groups that were touring and making a huge impact on the rest of the world, especially in England. We call it the British invasion, but the Yankee or whatever you want to

call it invasion. We could almost call it the black American invasion. They were hearing our music and they were selling it back to America in a different package. It's really crazy how that worked out like that. I got two things to say. First of all, man, the biggest, I'm one of the biggest Amy Winehouse fans, Mark Ronson fans you'll find. And I love how that is the same. There's that back and forth British black music invasion. Right. It's still happening. Amy Winehouse and Mark runs and meet in New York and they make this Motown to British like back and forth, back and forth to this day. And then the other thing I wanted to say is like when you hear Diana Ross's voice, especially in comparison to what we know Flo Ballard sounds like since we

heard the hot buttered song or butter popcorn song. It's interesting to think about like technically Flo Ballard has a quote unquote better voice like just a powerful singer. But Diana Ross's voice is incredible in a way different way that I think is, I think it was understood to be quote more palatable. I think palatable is exactly the word. non-threatening you could also say. And it's really interesting because I actually want to talk about a comparison I've seen online a lot. You know, the Ronettes, you know, great group, Phil Spector's group every bit as much as the Supremes were Barry Gordy's group. And a huge fan of all the artists, a little bit less so than the men behind the scenes pulling the strings in both cases.

Hey, how dare you say that about Barry? He's still live, you know? Yeah. And I think it's just interesting because on paper, the Ronettes. should have had the success that the Supremes had. You know what I mean? Like, right down to the fact, I'm just going to say it, like, Ronnie Specter is mixed. You know, most of the Supremes are, you know, black from afar, as we like to say.

They both have a catalog of great songs. It seems like the Ronnets should have had their success. Let's hear a little bit of Be My Baby. This might be one of the few times where the thing that was discernibly blacker actually went out, is what I want to. How do you mean by that? I'm saying like to me like the Ronnets are you know even though she's mixed it is still like the white guy's interpretation of black music at that time it's I often hear the Ronets called a girl group yes I don't often hear them called like R&B group oh you're like you know like

Ronits are just a girl group no no the Supremes are like the sound of black America you know like and this is one time where like the British heard both and even though Phil Specter's got like Beatles credits. Yeah. Like the British were like, no, we like the Supremes. We like baby love. You are absolutely right on this point,

and it's important to note that we're going to talk about the Funk brothers and give them their dude. They are all black men, male musicians. But the wrecking crew, who's the musician crew, the rather relatively anonymous musician crew

in parallel for Phil. Factor are all white musicians. There is one white female bass player, Carol Kay, but otherwise, it's a white group of musicians. It's a white group of songwriters. I hadn't even thought about that. I hadn't either until you mentioned that.

It actually makes me feel good because the history of studying chart success is usually a story of a black artist doing it and a white artist selling better doing something similar. And this is that one time where it was the reverse. That is so interesting. So we just called it out. Yeah. Save your hate for the comments. That's a really interesting point. I had not thought about it until you brought it up.

Anyway. Really cool. If we were playing fantasy R&B label, which is a great game. do you sign the Ronnettes or do you sign this for person? Now I'm feeling a little bit racist that my answer. You're going to sign the Ronis? No, it's actually It's not a problem. I'm a huge fan of all things Girl Group. I'm sort of obsessed

and we will definitely be doing a proper episode in the future about the Shangri-Laws, about the Runettes, about the crystals, about the Churals. I love all of these bands. So it's very hard to pick a favorite. But Be My Baby, just the song of it, like almost more than the band that made it and the team, that's my song. Like, that's my

jam. That's like that will bring me to tears until the day. I love me my baby. I love Be My Baby My Baby. me so much. I even love any money talking about Ronnie. Yeah. And take me home tonight. Yes. He brought her in just to give her a few, you know, extra bucks because she fell on hard times and she comes in and sings that Eddie Money song, Take Me Home Tonight. Okay. So we're going to talk about one more ingredient in the secret sauce behind the Supremes, which is Motown's in-house songwriting trio of Holland Dozier and Holland. That's Eddie Holland, his brother Brian, and Lamont Dozier. Now, these guys wrote 10 number one hits for the Supremes, including the song we're talking about today. You Keep Me Hanging On.

So Diallo, what can you tell us about the inspiration for this song? Yeah, so the lyrics of You Keep Me Hanging on are kind of funny. They're based on Eddie Holland's personal experiences. And let's be clear, because he wants it to be very clear. He wasn't the one hanging on. He wasn't be strong. He was not the one being strung along. Let's take a listen. He said the following in an interview. A female that was very, very close to me said those lines to me. you know, you don't really love me, just keep me hanging on, you know. I was good at that, though, but that's another point.

He wants to make sure that we know he's a player. First of, you know you're dealing with... He holds all the cards in these relationships. First up, you know, you're dealing with an older black man when he said, I was talking to a female. You know, that's those... That sentence construction, I've never used that. That's unks speak.

That is grandunk. Gradunk. But good for you, Eddie. By the way, I think a lot of male artists have used this construction. I go back to our Brian Michael Cox episode, We ain't getting no younger. We might as well do this. I don't think men talk about,

We ain't getting no younger. Clearly, it was a male songwriter thinking about things that were told to him, by a female. Right, right, right. That is worth pointing out, too, that these are all songs written by men for women to sing. Like, that factor has to go into your... Yeah, that's actually a very good point.

And it's Eddie Holland of the Holland brothers who is literally the coach in the vocal arrangements. That's right. Like a vocal producer? No, absolutely. He was basically he said that his goal was that he wanted to coach them where the nuances were, but he didn't want to tell them how to sing the song. They didn't have to sing it exactly like him as long as they captured like the feel of it. I see.

Yeah, listen, it's worth pointing out, as we mentioned that Motown had this assembling line mentality. And what they started out, all of these groups started out trying different songwriting groups. And in fact, I believe early Supremes worked with Smokey Robinson, and didn't quite work out. Once they locked in with Holland, Dozier Holland, they just kept, it was a match that just went.

They just, it just fits and it's kind of a chemistry thing. It's kind of a big able to write in the voice of and work with kind of on a day-to-day moment-to-moment basis with somebody else. Because Smokey, obviously he was having hits with the miracles, but when he would try and write for the Supremes,

those were all those singles that weren't going anywhere. There's a quote from Diana Ross from the 60s where she says, quote, The songs today tell a real story, a deep story. And I must admit that the young people today write very good material. She's speaking on behalf of the young people. And our writers at Motown are very talented, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland.

And it's going to be the new sound for tomorrow. I love that because, you know, and by the way, would it say that Motown was on their sign? It was like the sound of Young America. Right. So all things considered, these guys were essential in establishing the Motown sound and elevating the Supremes' profile. Unfortunately, they stopped writing for Motown in the late 60s. According to Lamont Dozier, they wanted to renegotiate their contracts to be more equitable.

And Barry Gordy was less than enthused. Yeah. Barry, no budge Gordy. Yeah. No budge Barry. I think he liked that, actually. He was like, I want you all focus on the music and on the look and do not look at these contracts. Do not look at your role.

Ignore the man behind the curtain over there. That's the accountant department. That's so interesting, though, because they were cut in on the public. I'm just thinking about this. They must have had some sort of salary in addition to the publishing because they're naming the IP. Look, let me just make one thing super clear.

And it's a perfect setup when we get into the steps to talk about musicians. The difference between having publishing and not is everything. Because publishing is the copyright is the IP. And that is money for life.

It means for the rest of your life on a quarterly basis, you get a check forever. And that doesn't happen when you are literally making money hour to hour song to song as the musicians were. So it's interesting hearing

them say that and having them leave when we know they're cut in on the credits, the publicly available records show that they still make money from publishing royalties to this day. So I wonder if they were getting like a salary on top of that or some like master's recordings. I wonder what their beef was exactly because compared to the rest of the musicians we're about to talk about, they did pretty well. Yeah, we're going to talk about these guys, the musicians, known as the Funk Brothers. Exactly. Right after a brief break, let's take a quick break.

And when we come back, we're going to hear these glorious them. You've got to hear them to believe them. And we're going to find out how Morse code also inspired. You keep me hanging on. You sign up for something. Forget about it. And after the trial period ends, you get charged month after month after month. The subscriptions are there, but you ain't using them?

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash one song today. That's rocketmoney.com slash one song. R-O-C-K-E-M-O-N-E-Y. dot com slash one song. Welcome back to One Song. Luxury. With everything we've discussed so far about Motown's business practices,

I'm really curious about how the splits break down on this song. Very simple splits. H-D-H-H-D-H-D-H-D-H-D-H-E-Hon-E-Hon-E-O-O-M-Mont, Herbert Dozier production. And of course, that publishing, though, it should be said, is owned by Joe Bett music. So as I see that name, and we've seen that going up, it's on, that's the publishing company that Barry Gordy owned. Now, remember we talked about on DeBarre's. Some publishing.

Yeah, we talked about this on the DeBarge episode, the multi, the dipping into multiple pots that Motown was doing. They were doing the recording. They were doing the publishing. In some cases, they were doing the management. What I alluded to before the break about, like, us not knowing the specifics of the finances behind the scenes that led them to leave. It could be, they could be doing something. Maybe there was something that they were not happy about going on behind the scenes on

the publishing side. It's unclear. But the splits show that they are the three credited songwriters. The song was recorded on June 30th, July 1st and August 1st, 1966, in Hittsville, Studio A, in Detroit, Michigan. And at this point, they were up to eight tracks, which is great. So we get to hear eight separated tracks when we get into the stems in just a moment. So at the time, when you bought this record or any of these records, you would not have known who these musicians were.

But let's slow down and back up for a second. We know the Funk Brothers, there are about 13 musicians that are technically considered part of this core group of musicians who played all of the instruments on all of the recordings at Motown in the 60s and then into the 70s it starts to change a little bit. But for the sake of our period now, there's about 13 guys on all these records. Smokey Robinson, the Miracles, the Supremes, all of them, Marvettes. They're all using the same group of drummers, bass players, and keyboard players and everything. So the thing is that we don't know from record to record who was on it because the credits don't reflect it. Now, why is that? In many ways, it was a bit of a power move because if the names aren't on there, these guys can't say, well, my name is now associated with these hits and other people want to work with me and, you know, pay me more. It changes the leverage, the negotiational leverage. And these guys, you have to remember all of the musicians we're about to talk about.

they're coming from a tradition. Most of them are jazz guys. They're gigging guys. They're performing live. So for them, any kind of recording opportunity, it's exciting. Yeah. You know, even before all these people became hits. So for them, the money in musicians hasn't changed much since then.

If you're a musician, you're just kind of happy to be in the room doing what you love. Right. And Barry Gordy a little bit takes advantage of that. We're going to get into that in a second. But I was able to track down the names of the performers on this record, thanks in no small part to an engineer called Bob Olson, who very helpfully, commented on this. I'm so glad we get to bring this into the show. There's a very geeky message board for producers and engineers called, it's called GearSpace now, but it used to be called Gear Sluts.

It's called GearSpace. It's currently called GearSpace. But he, Bob Olson posted, somebody was asking, like, who played on these records, like recently. Because for 50 years, the names, nobody knew exactly who is on what record. So thanks to Bob Olson, who commented, we do know the names, we'll be getting it to them in a second. And just to explain who Bob Olson was, he was the master. He was the mastering engineer, the in-house mastering engineer in the late 60s. So he was literally cutting the records after the recording was done and the mixing was done. He would make sure he would take that final stereo mix and make sure it got cut to wax in the right way. They didn't send that out of house. Apparently they had some bad experiences. It's a very precise technical job. Yeah.

But that's what Bob Olson did. And we thank him for helping provide this episode with the names of these incredible musicians. D'allel, you mentioned that great documentary standing in the shadows of Motown from 2002. The band director, Joe Hunter, has a great quote from that movie. You know, he basically is saying when people hear a Motown song, they recognize Motown. They know the name of the label. Think how unusual that is for people to know record label. But in his words, but they never know us.

When the dust cleared and it was all over and we realized we were being left out of the dream, as the years go by, we wonder if anyone will ever know who we are or what we did. So that's a great documentary that helped to shed some light. and today we're going to shed some more light on some of these incredible musicians. Awesome. Well, hey, without any further ado, let's get into the stems. Luxury.

Hit us with some of those wonderful drums, maybe. Motown famously had three it-house drummers in the Funk Brothers, and on this particular recording, it's Richard Pistol Adams on drums. The other guys were Benny Benjamin and Uriel Jones. But this guy, Richard Pistol Allen, he was the go-to drummer for the Holland Dozier-Hollin team. So in a similar way that the songwriting teams

worked with certain vocal groups. They also maybe had their preferred drummers even, which is interesting to think about. So this is maybe the shortest drum stem you'll ever hear on the show one song because there are only two things happening. One of them is this pickup that begins the song. And that beat goes through the entire song.

It never changes. That's the Motown beat. Snare on every downbeat. One, two, three, four. High hat, eighth notes. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I hear the kick in there, too. There's no kind of syncopated kicks.

Yep. That's literally the entirety of this song. But you know, there's, there is some magic in that. Yeah. Because I do feel like, you know, it's, it's the microphones they were using. It's the amount of space and that echo that you hear. Yeah, like sounds like Motown. That's why it's really hard to recapture that now on today's equipment.

I love you saying that because what we've just done, we've encapsulated. How do you make it sound? What's the Motown sound? It's a number of things from instrument. instrument and brutality. But in the drums, he's literally playing the minimum you can do with reverb with that particular snare drum, with probably the snare head and the microphones. But they're capturing the sound with the bare minimum required to be like, oh, I know that's Motown. You know, it's Motown instantly with almost no actual audio information happening.

But that reverb, I swear to God, I feel like I hear like the shoes he was wearing. Like he's got on dress shoes. He's got a cigarette lit. You know what I mean? Like you can smell the cigarettes. You can that record it in that snare net. Absolutely, man. And the only other thing that happens in the song is there's a second Phil. After that second Morse code break, when all the instruments drop out for a second, and it's just that da-da-da-da-da.

He comes back in with another pickup. Here it is. And then we'll have heard all things drums. Yeah. That's it. That's all you need, though. Sometimes you just shouldn't overthink it. Don't overthink it.

And there's also some percussion, which is probably Jack Brokenshaw and Jack Ashford. It's just a tambourine, but it's a damboree. but it's a big part of the Motown sound. Tamarines are such a big part of the Motown sound. I'll play what he's doing in. It's just two different parts. In the verse, he's just doing this real basic thing, which is this. A lot of bleed because he's in the room playing with a band.

And he's just doing that. Two, three, four, one, two, two, and four. But that tambourine makes it shiny, right? It makes it shiny, get it some high end. And interestingly, when you think about how the snare, which is normally the backbeat, the two and four, but now it's on every beat. It's on every beat.

It's that percussion. It's that tambourine that emphasizes the two and four. The back beat. So then in the verses, he does something a little bit more gallopy. He does a little 16th note. I'll play it for you isolated

and then I'll bring in some other things. I think that's him. I think he's on his leg. I'm not sure, but I think he's doing something on. Well, it has the part that's percussive. So you could be doing it with his figure. You're right. Now that I hear that, you're right.

That does sound like a tambourine skin. It's a little bit like the... Whatever that is calf skin or whatever that is on the tambourine. Maybe that's why there's two names in the percussion, maybe because I don't think you can do bu, blah, blah, blah, blah, and two and four. We don't know. We don't know for sure, but there are two names. There might have been anything possible in Detroit at the time.

That's Detroit innovation for you. And together with that simple Motown beat, it sounds like this. That's so funny. In my mind, I was like he's doing that on his leg. But of course you're right. He's doing it on the tambourine. That makes far more sense. All right.

So what's next? Where do we want to go next? You know what? I going back and listening to this song did not realize how active the bass is in this song. So let's talk about the bass. Let's talk about James Jamerson. James Jamerson. One of the all-time greats, definitely in the top three of all time of all bass players. And a bass player is favored as well.

I think if you ask most bass players, they will name him as well in their top of all tops. Well, he's got almost as many hits. He played on almost as many hits as Paul McCartney. Some of his hits include this song. He did Stop in the Name of Love. He did What's Going On. he did some Jackson 5, some Stevie Wonder, some four tops. But you're absolutely right. The bass is doing so much.

We're going to talk a little bit more about Mr. Jamerson after we listen to him. Let's start with the isolated stems that begin the song. And by the way, notice that the song starts with the chorus. That's a very Motown thing to do. Listen how active it is. And one thing I want to point out is that he's doing all that with one finger. I was going to ask me about that. In my head, it was one finger.

Like it feels like he's like just, he's truly playing the bass. I mean, I can't do that. I would need at least the two to get those 16th notes, those little kind of syncopated moments. He's doing all of that with one. He called it the claw. And apparently according to his son who talks about him in the, in the documentary, the standing in the shadows of Motown, yeah, all of his work is, I don't know if it's

all of the songs all of the time, but I believe he, for the most part, is hearing all those incredible melodic runs, the 16th notes, there's all happening with just a single pointer finger using a, uh, using a, That's insane. On a P-base, on a Fender P-Base. He originally started actually on Upright Base, and then he toured for a little while before he became kind of in-house full-time

and picked up the P-Base. Those notes are so assured. Yes. Like, there's no thinking it. There's no learning it while he's doing it. Like, they're so assured. Of course, he comes from the stand-up base. Of course, he was used to touring.

Like, this is workman quality confidence. Yes, I love that. The workmanship as well, what he's doing there that was so inspiring to a lot of bass players is he's not just playing the root note. He's jumping around and he's finding melodies and they're not always happening the same way every single time.

And every chorus is not exactly the same. And while Pistol Allen is holding it down with the most simple locked-in beat you can possibly imagine on it. Word for Ringo. He's able to kind of bounce around a little bit and give it some bounce. That's a good word for it.

He's sort of adding the funk. The syncopation is coming exclusively from the baseline, at least in this section, at least in the rhythmic underpinning of this song. Absolutely. Yeah, so unfortunately he died in 1983. He was only 47.

One of his greatest inspirations, Paul McCartney talks about him a lot, but I just found this quote. I hadn't realized until researching for this episode that Paul McCartney loved James Jamerson's baselines, but he didn't necessarily know that it was him doing it. This quote where he says, James Jamerson just became my hero. I didn't actually know his name until quite recently.

That made me so sad when I heard that. It's like that is the result of not putting the credits on the albums. Is like Paul McCartney could have given his flowers in the era that he was alive and they were both. You could have come over and a tour to Europe with him. They could have done stuff together. They could have been a double bass record. Base on bass. Base in your face is what they could have called it.

Jack Bruce from Cream echoed that sentiment. He was actually friends with him in the 70s in L.A. He said nobody knew who he was back then. I started to hear James in the 60s and started to, he was inspired, developed my bass playing around that. And so they commiserated. He said, you put your heart and your soul and your health into making something great. And when you're not wanted anymore, you're just tossed aside. That's a little bit what happened to Jamers. And he did make the move out to L.A. when Moten moved out there, but it just never quite was the same again. He just never worked in the same capacity as he had before.

That was very sad. I want to move on to the guitar because there's some really interesting stuff happening here, too. So the guitars, and again, we have Bob Olson to thank for knowing who the guitars are. They're arranged by Joe Messina, and he also, who also played on this, along with Robert White and Eddie Chank Willis, who is known for Chankin on the two and four. So he's sort of echoing that like tambourine thing when you were talking about it. So let's listen to that iconic Morse code thing,

the motif, if you will, that begins the song and signals immediately what this song is to all listeners. Notice it's in stereo, by the way. Flipping from one speaker to the next. I want to talk about that guitar because it is such an important part of the song and it feels like it's just coming at you constantly. Yeah, it's relentless.

Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about how they ended up with that style of play, that sound in the song? Yeah, no, so just exactly what you're saying, it's, you know, the technical term for that is like it's a rhythmic ostinato that sort of pedals. In other words, it doesn't change while the chords underneath it do.

So that gives it this insistency, this kind of like urgency. And it's also... Makes you almost jittery. It's very tense. No, it's right. You're absolutely right. It's building tension because it doesn't change, but everything else underneath it does.

Yeah. So that's what creates this interesting effect. What did you call it an ostinado? It's an ostinado. It's funny because I'm in the middle of writing this book. And one of the sections is about riffs versus ostinados versus motifs versus melodies even. Like the line is a little bit thin. It kind of depends on what instrument you're on and what's happening outside of it.

But I'm going to go with Astonato for this, which just means a repeating pattern that tends to be countered with something that changes underneath it. Can we talk a little bit about who invented this ostinato? Yeah. Because I read where Robert White invented this. In fact, I saw a great quote on this. White says, I invented that part.

It made me famous. Somebody told me to do something that sounded like a telegraph or Morris Code type thing. Like the news used to come on in the back days. Like he used to go, by the way, fun little family fact. You're just doing that makes me. of like Walter Cronkite and Black and might or something, right?

Exactly. The riddle siblings, look, I'm the sixth of six. And there's quite a bit of distance between me and some of my older siblings. And I've heard that when they were all little kids, like in the 70s and 80s, they would actually, if somebody came through the door and was like, hey, you know, Tommy's on his way over. If the next person came in and said, hey, Tommy's on the way over, all the kids would go, because it was their way of saying late news. It was their way of saying late news. It was like a way of like clowning the person.

It's like, that-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It's like, hey, I don't think Nixon's doing a good job. So that is a thing that is the thing that people heard in the culture back in. That's very funny. It was in the culture. It was in the air. Holland, Dojur Holland, you know, seem to think, tell the story that they got it from the news. So we may never really know who got there first. But we do know that just a couple months earlier, there was another song that used it. And that's Edwin Starr's song, Stop Her On S-O-S-S. This song comes out in the summer of 1966. but in April 1966,

there was this. You know, arguably the same. The fact that it's called SOS, too, I mean, clearly emphasizing the Morse code usage in the beginning

on a piano. By the way, in case you're wondering, if you heard shimmy shimmy ya, you're wrong. That's not the song they sample. All right.

But we all thought that too. But we all thought it to be fair. To be fair. And listen, once that becomes at a certain point between those two songs,

it's an idea that a lot of people use in other music. You've probably heard it in some songs, including, you know, very famously

in 1960s, Glenn Campbell's, Wichita Lineman. Melting Pot by Blue Mink from 1969. Jackson 5, same year. I want you back. Oh, yeah, totally. And my favorite maybe is Starman, David Bowie, 1972.

And last but not least, the tail end of a song you'll be hearing more about on a future episode, 1979's London Calling by The Clash. There's an organ on this song. In fact, there might be more than just an organ. Explain to us what's going on with the keys. Two keyboard players.

It's Earl Van Dyke, nickname Big Funk. Or chunk of funk. You take your pick. You can't lose. Both are great. And Johnny Griffith, both of them were Motown musicians. One funny story about Johnny Griffith. We talked about Motown and Barry Gordy.

You know, we won't get into the full quality control of it all. But there were spies that Motown hired to make sure the musicians didn't go work for other artists. Wow. And Johnny Griffith tells a funny story about how he was hired to be a spy. $100 a week extra, they threw him. But he wouldn't rat out his musician, so he just kept the money. And at a certain point, they're like, you're not telling us anything, are you? And he's like, yeah.

We're not getting any money for our spy. He was a terrible spy, but he was a great keyboard player. And let's listen to both of them. I don't know which one of them is on the Hammond B3. And one is on each. But we definitely have a Hammond B3 organ very iconically playing these chords. And it's doubled by this piano, which apparently was in. 1877 Steinway Grand Piano.

No way. The house piano. And it was just at Hitzville. So let's start with the organ, which interestingly at the top of the song is mirroring the stereo panning that's happening with the guitar. I feel like I'm in a Dodgers game. That Hammond B3,

it really does have that. To our ears now, it's a little bit of a cheesy sound. It's an inexpensive organ. The existence of Hammond B3 has church to thank. Yeah. Because you could fit a non-giant, you know, an upright, inexpensive, affordable. It's your Pentecostal Church.

So now we associate those two things. So that organ part is in the chorus. And then in the verse, it changes slightly to match the chords. And I'll play that for you. And then I'll add the piano on top of it so you can hear them together because they're just doubling the same parts. You hear some bleat with that piano. Because the piano is in the middle of the room. So you hear the believe.

Can we hear the piano get some space? Let's get this one has some space. I just want to hear the piano. You got it. And it's just interesting to hear how the organ, I think, was direct miced. so like there's just a key it's just directly recorded whereas that piano's in the middle of the room so you pick up everything I bring the organ back so they're just mirroring the same parts thickening up the sound and giving it some variety that who's satisfying five chord bringing us back to the one it's so good there's something so pure about that piano

and it actually goes to your point about minor chords and minor notes because I think that's one reason why people like Motel. It just sounds optimistic. Yeah. It's got some hope it. Because it's not going so blues. Yeah. It feels like optimistic music. I think it's a really when you're driving your Cadillac. That's what it feels like. That's a hugely important point. And I think in the vocals, that

really comes clear. So we'll listen to when we get to the vocals, that's going to become really clear in a second. Speaking of vocals, why delay? We've got the wonderful Mary Wilson, the wonderful Florence Ballard. And yes, Miss Diana Ross on this track. So what do you want to play for us

first? Let's start with Chorus One, which begins the song. And interestingly, it's only Diana Ross. You'll hear her vocal is doubled, but the other two are not in this lead vocal. In fact, they don't show up for a good solid minute in this song. Set me free, why don't you, baby?

Get out of my life. Why don't you baby? Because you don't really love me. I never noticed the baby. I always thought it's babe. Baby. I never noticed the at the end of the baby, baby. Baby.

What wonderful vocals. I mean, like, listen, there are plenty of people who are like, does Diana Ross have the greatest voice? I don't know that you need. I always say, like, Debbie Harry's not belting. Yeah, she's not belting. Yeah, she's not belting. She's, you know, in some of those songs.

But I think that sometimes it's about selling the attitude. And I'm also going to say some of my favorite songs, you feel like, you feel like the singers in your ear like this. This is what sexy was in 1966. Absolutely. And to your point earlier, too, across the song, you're not hearing a lot of the blue notes, right? That minor third that Ben maybe the like,

the blue notes are usually considered the minor third, especially when it's in an otherwise major moment, maybe that flatted seventh. You're not really hearing that across this song. These are mostly melodies that are kind of more coming from what you might call a European tradition than the church tradition. And I think that's by design. By the way, the song is driving.

You know what I mean? Like not saying that you, it actually sounds good when you're driving, but I'm saying it's driving. Like it's got that tense Morse code, you know, fight me, that might be my favorite part of the whole song, the Morse code. But like for the time it starts, it actually feels like some of my favorite songs have this quality. It feels like you're starting the song at the end of a longer song. Yeah.

This feels like the end of a movie. This feels like the end of something. And in a way, it might be the end of this relationship. Yeah. Because she says, you know, you just keep me hanging on. Like, it feels like the end. And so you're just like waiting for something to change. And like she gives you a little bit of rest.

bite when she gets to what I guess you'd have to call the verse of the song, which we're going to hear next. But like, do you know what I mean? Like about a song feeling like it's from the very beginning to the end of the song. I think the fact that we're starting with the chorus. By the way, the vocals come in right after that Morse code thing.

But then we're right into the chorus, which does have more of a conclusive, because the verse is leading to the chorus, right? Yeah. That's what verses do. And then the pre and you're building. And then the chorus is usually the highest notes of the song. We're starting right there. We're starting at the pinnacle. Like we're starting at the quote-to-quote release. of what the verse might be tension from.

Totally. So that might be contributing to part of the feeling you're describing. Let's hear a verse. Verse one, again, just Diana Ross. Why do you play in all with my heart? Why don't you get out? But this time in the chorus,

we start to get Mary and Flo. They're not doing much, but it's important. So here we go. Flo and Mary on backing vocals. And interesting that it's unison. There's not a lot of harmony in this song. I'll bring Diana back for that Keep Me Hanging on, and you'll hear that they're all.

three singers singing the same note. It's just unison. It's not a three-part harmony. You just keep me. You just keep me. Wow. Where does that come in on the song? Like a minute in? It's like a minute in. You don't even hear the backing vocals. The backing vocals, right? Ostensibly, it's three Supremes, but the backing vocalist. That had to make Florence and Mary feel a certain way. It made them feel a certain way. And this is maybe the beginning of the end. Now, Florence ends up being fired from the band just a year later. Wow. It's already being pushed out. There's some like literal kind of elbows going on, you know,

On stage here. For those who don't know the story, Barry had started dating Diana. He figured that Diana was the true star of the group and he started to marginalize the other Supreme. And it's a sad story. I won't go into it too much, but I will say that there's a great book by Peter Benjamin called The Law Supreme that details Florence's life, flows life. I will say that I learned from this book that she was apparently paid just a six-figure

settlement, which sounds good on paper, but then you think about it. It's a one-time payment in 1967. No royalties ever again, the rest of her life. And not unimportantly, her lawyer. ripped her off and according to this book took something like 98% of the settlement money. So by 1975 she's on welfare

and she dies the next year at age 32. Yeah she was unfortunately suffering from a crippling alcohol situation. Absolutely yeah. Really sad story but I think if there's any silver lining it's that she lives on through this music.

Through her instrument and her art and those things live forever. This song lives forever. This song lives forever. It's been covered a few times. I think the first time I heard it was actually one of the covers. Why don't you walk us through one of the important covers of this song? I mean, this song has been covered so many times. And so many of these covers are incredible.

Yeah. To the point where, like, a lot of times covers are like you hear the original and you hear the cover and like it doesn't hold a candle to the original. This is one of these. Very interesting covers. Some great covers that I would say are equally good songs in different ways. Like, I don't think any one of them takes away from the other. One of the first covers was why a band called Vanilla Fudge from Long Island.

That is so good to my ears, especially kind of in the context of hearing the original. There's something about knowing the original and the transformation to me is super cool. The idea of slowing it down. And there's a funny backstory, by the way, I'll tell you. So Shadow Morton is the producer of this song. Shadow Morton also worked with Shang Rlaz. He's credited for bringing them together, in fact. So it's a funny connection there.

But by 1967, he's into the psych thing. He's into the psych rock thing. And he's working with these guys. Lead vocalist Mark Stein was listening to the Supreme's record on 44. but he slowed it down to 33 to hear it slower so he could make out the lyrics because he knew they wanted to cover it. So when Shadow Morton heard Mark Stein

learning the lyrics at this slower speed, he's like, wait a second, when you cover it, you should also slow it down like that. And he was right, at a slower speed, it really gives it this gravitas, right? The heaviness of it, and then, of course, the rock orchestration and the male vocalist.

It's like a completely different song that arguably is even, the darkness implied by the Supremes version He's right there. He's like, let's live in this darkness. No, I love, I love Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane. Yeah, a great example. Because they took a sort of a peppy Velvet Underground song and they slowed it way down.

And they made it very dark. I had never heard the Vanilla Fudge song until today. So there you go. I want to talk real quick about the cover that I really love. This is by Kim Wilde. It came out in 1986. This is actually the first version of, you keep me hanging on that I'm sure I ever heard. And to this day,

Probably me too. Now you mention it. To this day, I always think that there's a part of the Supreme song that's actually not in the Supremes version. Oh, really? Just because it's something that Kim Wilde does in her version. Let's hear a clip. Sequencers. Since.

Sounds like the future. In the 80s, it's like, we are working on tomorrow today. Is this 1986? It feels like 1986. It feels more like 1988 to me. Super Italo Disco. Okay, so that's how the song begins. There's a part towards the end that I was just convinced.

Diana Ross must have sang once I found out it was a cover. But she doesn't sing it. Here's the part right here. Hang it on. That's the best part of the song. That part is not in the Diana. There's no part of the Diana Ross version. They should have put that in the Supreme's version.

Did she eat me hanging on? That anger. H.D.H. You done messed up. You should have put that in the original. I feel like I was just channeling you when I said it that way. But do you hear me? I agree. That's the best part of the song. That part is like epic in the Kim Wild version.

How come in 1966 they didn't do a, what they knew to do in 1986. That doesn't seem right to me. I really appreciate that version of the song. That's so good. All right. So Diallo, what do you think the legacy of you keep me hanging on is?

I just think this song is indicative of the kind of hit that only Motown in the 60s was capable of creating. They had some of the best writers. They had some of the best musicianships. And they had the star quality of its three Supremes. I just think that this was the perfect way for us to tackle what was special in that Motown sauce that allowed it to be sort of the first, you know, record label, it's nice that it was Black-owned, but the first record label to really have that global impact. Right. And there's something about the assembly nine thing that as we've been deconstructing

it, you realize there's a reason for it. Yeah. Because it's so effective because you do get this incredible, when you separate the songwriting from the performance from the instrument, you know, the creation of the track, the recording of the track, you're able to get kind of the best of all these worlds because the Supremes are amazing on their own. The musicians, the funk brothers are incredible on their own. We try to give them their flowers today. But also the song with all the covers we've just been listening to, it stands on its own too. A testament to the songwriting skills of H.D.H that like we can have these incredibly different versions, but they're all great. I think we've said it on many shows. I think in this case, we've got one plus one plus one

equals four. Okay, luxury. It's time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or a hidden gym with you, the one song nation, and with each other. my man, would you like to go first? Well, I just love this song so much that I've got to play one more version of it. And that's the Ken Booth Studio One version, importantly retitled because that's what they did down there so they didn't have to pay publishing royalties. So it's actually called Set Me Free.

Ken Booth playing, basically you keep me hanging on. Interesting to make all these connections. There are so many discoveries that we make on the show in real time. We make some while we're doing the research, but we also just like in the room, we're like, oh my God. And I love having those moments with you. That playful back and forth. playful back and forth of discovery. What about you, Dialla? What's your one more song this week?

For me this week, it's for whatever reason, a song that popped up on my radar that I did not know that well, but I'm really in love with it now. This is Zilla Mays. This is from the 60s and it's called All I Want is You. I love that. Like that is so good. What a cool discovery. I was struck as we were listening to it just because we're doing a Motown episode. I was struck by the juxtaposition of super 60 sounding drums and instruments, but then you have this really dry vocal. It's not that big reverby sound we've been hearing just now. It's super dry, which makes it kind of sound modern. It sounded so good. Well, that was by Zilla Mays. And she's notable because she was actually a popular radio DJ in Atlanta at the time. Oh, really? And I saw somewhere where she was the first African-American

female radio announcer in Georgia, only the third in the United States, and she put out a couple a song. She started singing the churches, you can imagine. And that was one of her songs on the 2C label, T-O-U-U-S-E-A. Definitely worth checking that. Another radio announcer that becomes a singer, not unlike our good friend, Slystone. Go back to listen to that. And Ludo-Riss. It pays to work in Atlanta Radio. As always, if you have an idea for one more song, you can find us on

Instagram and TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo. That's D-I-A-L-O. And on TikTok at Diallo. And you can find me. me on Instagram at L-U-X-X-U-R-Y and on TikTok at Luxury X-X. And now OneSong officially has its own Instagram account. Yes, and TikTok. Go follow at One Song podcast for exclusive content, all the music debates that you love, and so much more.

You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube right now. Just search for One Song podcast. We'd love it if you like and subscribe. And if you've made it this far, we think that means you like this podcast. So please don't forget to give us five stars, leave a review, and share it with someone you think would like the show. It really helps keep us going. Luxury help us in this thing.

I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist Luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, D'Alla Riddle. And this is one song. We'll see you next time. This episode was produced by Melissa Duanyas and Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo. Engineering from Marcus Homme and Eric Hicks. Additional production support from Razak Boykin.

The show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Eddings, Eric Weil, and Leslie Guam.