Sock It to Me Baby/It's Your Thing

Last updated

"Sock It to Me Baby/It's Your Thing"
It's Your Thing.jpeg
7" Vinyl Single Cover
Single by Lotti Golden
A-side "Sock It to Me Baby/It's Your Thing"
B-side "Annabelle With Bells (Homemade Girl)
Released1969
Recorded1969 https://www.discogs.com/Lotti-Golden-Sock-It-To-Me-BabyIts-Your-Thing-Annabelle-With-Bells-Home-Made-Girl/release/1223106
Genre Rock, Soul, Funk, Pop
LengthA-Side 3:27, B-Side 4:10
Label Atlantic Records
Songwriter(s) Crewe/Brown (A-side), O. Isley*, R. Isley*, R. Isley*(A-side), Lotti Golden,(B-side)
Producer(s) Bob Crewe

For Record Store Day, April 16, 2016, [1] the 7" single that followed Golden's 1969 (Atlantic Records) debut, Motor-Cycle was reissued on High Moon Records with the participation of Warner Bros. Records and Rhino Records. The reissue, like the 1969 version, is a mash-up- funk cover of the Isley Brothers', It's Your Thing and "Sock it To Me Baby" written by the album's producer Bob Crewe. "Annabelle With Bells (Home Made Girl)," on the B-side, is a soulful, girl-group inspired song written by Golden. The reissue contains a picture sleeve with new cover art, a previously unreleased photo of Golden, and remastered audio. "Annabelle With Bells (Home Made Girl)," did not appear on the 1969 LP due to time constraints in a pre-digital world, and is exclusively available on the single.

Contents

Motor-Cycle is a fusion of urban street poetry, girl group moxie, and teen angst [2] informed by Golden's immersion in the late Sixties counterculture in New York City's East Village and the Lower East Side. [3] [4]

Golden was part of a new wave of female singers who began to shake up the status quo in the late Sixties. Breaking from the confines of pop they defined themselves by their confessional lyrics, taking on new controversial subject matter. [5] In July, 1969, Newsweek ran a feature story, describing this new school of talented female troubadours, who both sing and write, including Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Melanie, Golden and to Elyse Weinberg, heralding the era of the female singer-songwriter. [6] [7]

Formats and track listings

A.1 Sock It To Me Baby: Writer: Bob Crewe, L. Russell Brown A.2 "It's Your Thing": Writer: Ronald Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley B. Annabelle With Bells (Home Made Girl): Writer: Lotti Golden

Reissue

Related Research Articles

Joni Mitchell Canadian musician

Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Drawing from folk, pop, rock, classical, and jazz, Mitchell's songs often reflect on social and philosophical ideals as well as her feelings about romance, womanhood, disillusionment, and joy. She has received many accolades, including nine Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".

The Isley Brothers American musical group

The Isley Brothers are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that started as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has been cited as having enjoyed one of the "longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".

Singer-songwriter musician who writes, composes, and sings their own material

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and perform their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted through different eras of popular music. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano. In the early 21st century, digital production tools such as GarageBand began to be used by singer-songwriters to compose their music.

Bertrand Russell Berns, also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. Berns' song writing credits include "Twist and Shout", "Piece of My Heart", "Here Comes the Night", "Hang on Sloopy", and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", and his productions include "Baby, Please Don't Go", "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Under the Boardwalk".

Joni James American singer

Joni James is an American singer of traditional pop music.

T-Neck Records American record label

T-Neck Records was a record label founded by members of the R&B/soul group The Isley Brothers in 1964, which became notable for distributing the first nationally-released recordings of Jimi Hendrix, their guitarist, and which later became a successful label after the Isleys began releasing their own works after years of recording for other labels, scoring hits such as "It's Your Thing" (1969) and "That Lady" (1973).

Marva Whitney was an American funk singer commonly referred to by her honorary title, Soul Sister #1. Whitney was considered by many funk enthusiasts to be one of the "rawest" and "brassiest" music divas.

Its Your Thing 1969 single by The Isley Brothers

"It's Your Thing" is a funk single by The Isley Brothers. Released in 1969, the anthem was an artistic response to Motown chief Berry Gordy's demanding hold on his artists after the Isleys left the label in late 1968.

"Chelsea Morning" is a song written and composed by Joni Mitchell and recorded for the singer's second album, Clouds, which she released in 1969. Prior to coming out on the Mitchell album, the song had been issued as a track on the debut album by Fairport Convention in 1968, as a single by Gloria Loring, and as a single by Judy Collins earlier in 1969. Jennifer Warnes recorded it for her debut album, I Can See Everything, also in 1968, and, in 1969, this version was released as a single. The earliest commercial appearance of the song, however, was likely its interpretation by Dave Van Ronk on his 1967 album Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters.

Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon were an American vocal soul group, prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Syl Johnson

Sylvester "Syl" Johnson is an American blues and soul singer and record producer.

<i>Get into Something</i> album by The Isley Brothers

Get Into Something is the eighth album released by The Isley Brothers on their T-Neck imprint on March 8, 1970. Although the album itself did not chart, it includes six songs that appeared in the top 30 of the Billboard R&B chart between late 1969 and early 1971 : the title track, "Bless Your Heart", the horn and drum-driven "Keep on Doin'", which has won multiple awards including the Mid-Atlantic Soul Music award., "Freedom", "Girls Will Be Girls" and "If He Can You Can".

<i>Its Our Thing</i> 1969 studio album by The Isley Brothers

It's Our Thing is the sixth album released by The Isley Brothers on their own T-Neck Records imprint on April 26, 1969. Fully emancipated from three and a half years in Motown Records and encouraged by their international success in England, the Isleys composed this album in the style of Sly & the Family Stone/James Brown funk that was dominating the music industry at the time but with their own flair as explained in their smash "It's Your Thing". Other hits off the album though it didn't chart included "I Know Who You Been Socking It To" and "Give the Women What They Want". This album was also the Isleys' first Top 40 record reaching #22 on the pop albums chart. Curiously, despite its importance in the career of the seminal group, this album was not released in CD format until 2008. The album was remastered and expanded for inclusion in the 2015 released CD box set "The RCA Victor & T-Neck Album Masters, 1959-1983". Although not featured on the album's cover, It's Our Thing marks the first Isley Brothers album to feature Ernie Isley on bass guitar.

<i>Live at Yankee Stadium</i> 1969 live album by The Isley Brothers

Live at Yankee Stadium is a 1969 live album by The Isley Brothers, released on their own T-Neck label. While the Isleys appear in this live album, it is actually a live showcase by the group to conjoin artists that signed to their T-Neck label and Buddah Records-associated acts including Judy White, the girl group Sweet Cherries, the gospel group the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the family soul group the Five Stairsteps. All the guest artists except for the Edwin Hawkins Singers sang songs that were written and produced for them by the Isleys. The Isleys performed their then-current hits "It's Your Thing", "I Turned You On" and the 1959 classic, "Shout", bringing in audience members alongside them as they ended the performance.

"I Turned You On" is a 1969 funk song by The Isley Brothers, released on their T-Neck imprint. The single was almost as big a hit as their predecessor, "It's Your Thing", reaching number six on the R&B chart and number twenty-three on the pop chart. The song's then-controversial usage of the popular sock it to me catchphrase helped its popularity among fans.

"Sock It To Me" may refer to:

<i>What About Me</i> (Anne Murray album) 1968 studio album by Anne Murray

What About Me is the debut studio album by Anne Murray issued in 1968 on Arc Records. Upon its release, the album was only issued in Canada.

Lotti Golden

Lotti Golden is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, poet and artist. Golden is best known for her 1969 debut album Motor-Cycle, on Atlantic Records.

<i>Motor-Cycle</i> (album) 1969 studio album by Lotti Golden

Motor-Cycle is the debut album by singer-songwriter Lotti Golden, released by Atlantic Records in 1969. Though not a commercial success upon its release, the album was nonetheless acclaimed by most critics.

<i>Shirley Scott & the Soul Saxes</i> 1969 studio album by Shirley Scott

Shirley Scott & the Soul Saxes is an album by organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1969 and released on the Atlantic label.

References

  1. "SpecialRelease". Record Store Day. April 16, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2016.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  2. Barry, Thomas (September 9, 1969). "The Salty Socking Soul of Lotti Golden". Look , pp. 76,76,78
  3. Saal, Hubert (July 14, 1969). " The Girl's-Letting Go". Newsweek, pp. 68,71.
  4. "Joni Mitchell Library – THE GIRLS—LETTING GO: Newsweek, July 14, 1969". Jonimitchell.com. July 14, 1969. Retrieved October 2, 2016.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. Barton, Laura (January 26, 2017). "From Joni Mitchell to Laura Marling: how female troubadours changed music". The Guardian . Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  6. JoniMitchell.com Newsweek, July 14, 1969
  7. JoniMitchell.com Library: THE GIRLS—LETTING GO: Newsweek, July 14, 1969. Original Article pdf