'UNSUNG',FOR REAL

The DN Report: April 14, 2024 - Donny Hathaway, Phyllis Hyman, Doris Troy....

In 2007 when I lived in L.A., I first heard about the proposed US television series Unsung. One of my neighbours, Jeff Meier was involved with the company that was producing it for TV One: I recall our conversation about which artists would be among those we thought should be included in the first batch for the show which was designed to provide insight and information on the careers of artists deemed 'unsung'.  

I remember that we both thought Phyllis Hyman and Donny Hathaway were definites and by the time the first episodes were being put together, I was ensconced in Philadelphia in April 2008 for an 'unforgettably-forgettable' ten months (the real story behind my use of that description of the 'City Of Brotherly Love' is for another time).

I was thrilled to be interviewed for three of the first four shows, offering commentary on Donny (as the only journalist to have interviewed him in the UK on his one visit to London, September 1973 when he was on a brief vacation); Phyllis, with whom I conducted her first interview for Blues & Soul when we were Manhattan neighbours in 1977 and subsequently got to know in the ensuing years; and The DeBarge family, more from an overview of members of the family's career, although I had done stories on El, Chico and Bunny for B&S at different times in the '80s and '90s.

Acknowledging that in the upper reaches of 'Unsung' artists, Phyllis, Donny and others that have featured in the series (with over 150 episodes on TVOne, sadly none of which has been available to viewers outside the US) are certainly in the realm of those who deserve further recognition within the music industry and in the media, there's a large cadre of recording artists and performers who have distinguished themselves in the world of soul/R&B, gospel, jazz and related genres that remain truly 'unsung.'

I was very fortunate to be involved with The Rhythm & Blues Foundation as its Secretary for a number of years and had the true joy of working on our Pioneer Awards (mostly an annual event) in which we got to give honour and recognition (along with a financial award) to many of the hitmakers of the ‘50s and ‘60s in particular.

More than a few tears flowed when the likes of Baby Washington, Maxine Brown, Don Covay, Dee Dee Warwick, Betty Everett, Gloria Lynne, Ernie K-Doe and Garnet Mimms were among the hundred or so artists, producers, musicians and songwriters who were recipients of the prestigious Pioneer Awards. Many, if not most, had never received any kind of recognition from the music biz for decades of hard work and little tangible reward.

One memory forever etched in my consciousness was when I was with one of the 1996 honourees when she got the news that she was being recognized. My longtime friend, ‘Mama Soul,’ my godmother in the music biz, Doris Troy wept openly when I handed her the phone with the call from the R&B Foundation….

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I could write pages and pages about Doris, who rose to prominence in 1963 with her timeless anthem “Just One Look” - and in fact, when I included a full chapter on Doris and her career in my 1999 book, “The Soulful Divas,” I got a few ‘comments’ on why I chose to place her in a tome with ‘legends’ often known by just their first name - think Aretha, Nina, Dionne, Gladys, Diana, Chaka, Natalie and so on. My response was always the same: it’s my book and my choice to include whoesoever I want!

Doris may not have reached the lofty heights of superstar fame and yet, she was revered for her ‘60s recordings on Atlantic, cut a Northern soul classic (“I’ll Do Anything,” co-written with Philly hitmakers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff), worked with The Beatles at Apple Records and - by virtue of “Mama, I Want To Sing” (the musical co-written by her younger sister Vy Higgensen, the famed radio personality in her own right and husband Ken Wydro) based on Doris’ career, got to travel the world playing the role of own mother!

For rock and pop fans, Doris was the voice on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” and The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Early on, she was one of the primary background vocalists on sessions with sisters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick for the likes of The Drifters, Solomon Burke and Chuck Jackson among others.

I spent literally hours and hours in her company over decades - in London, L.A. and New York - and we were real life friends! Doris’ down-to-earth humour and sass were well known and she was undoubtedly a woman of faith. We played the card game UNO together (I usually lost), joked around and I listened to her ‘mother wit’ words of wisdom (‘baby-baby, make sure you get your money!’) knowing she had had her own share of bad dealings within the music biz that were more often than not the lot of Black performers of the ‘60s in particular.

I still recall that at the services for Doris (who made her transition at the age of 67 in 2004), Valerie Simpson shared that it was Doris who taught her and then-budding songwriting partner Nick Ashford the fundamentals of music publishing back in the day since Doris herself had begun her own career as a songwriter: “Just One Look,” a song she co-wrote that was originally cut as a demo in the basement studio at 1650 Broadway in 1963 became her theme tune and a pop music classic with later use in commercials and films was a source of great pride for Doris.

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The nature of life - and mine in particular - has had many amazing circuitous events, and no coincidences. When I went into a New York recording studio in 1979 with my good friend John Simmons (then starting his tenure as musical director for Stephanie Mills and then as MD for Whitney Houston during her very first few years as a mega-hitmaker) to produce a few tracks on Doris, I could never have imagined that decades later, those recordings would be assembled on a CD for all to hear!

Listening to the Omnivore album, “Another Look” (released in March 2024), the disco heat of our composition, “You Got Me Baby” along with all-the-bells-and-whistles reading of “It’s All In The Game” (complete with live string and horn sections) plus sessions I produced in 1980 with Doris and the New York funk/soul group Mystic Merlin, I can only shake my head in wonder.

Doris Troy may never be featured on TV One’s “Unsung” but for me, she belongs - along with so many other for-real salt-of-the-earth foundational artists - in the pantheon of true ‘Unsung’ pioneers in the world of soul…and beyond.

Grateful.

© 2024, David Nathan/Blue Butterfly Entertainment Ltd (UK), all rights reserved