Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: Jennifer Holliday, "Hard Times For Lovers"

A lot of people--old and young--may not know much about Texas native Jennifer Holliday outside of her Tony-winning performance as Effie White and her Grammy-winning performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls in 1981.  I bet that a lot more folks who are somewhat familiar with their 80s pop may not instantly recognize her voice toward the end of Foreigner's classic 1985 hit, "I Want to Know What Love Is".  For whatever reason, she was just one example of how certain women--and that can be equated with women of certain skin complexions AND sizes--with big voices weren't being pushed hard enough by or given the right material for their voices from their record companies in the 1980s.  (Think Shirley Murdock: it took Elektra almost a year to have their "eureka" moment and release "As We Lay" after her first two singles from her eponymous debut album did little in jump starting her solo career.)  However, I could write a separate dissertation of a post about music business politics; my throwback posts are about the actual music, so on with it...

Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: The O'Jays, "What Am I Waiting For"

The often overlooked beauty of hip-hop music is that it can musically provide a formal introduction to the past.  Although The O'Jays are easily in my favorite top 5 singing groups of all time, I have never owned their 1975 Survival album that features this particular gem.  I first heard it via a Jay-Z song, "You Must Love Me", from In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.  Subsequently, I purchased one of those Smooth Grooves compilation albums mainly because I was so enamored once I heard the original.  It was also notably sampled in 50 Cent's "Ski Mask Way" from The Massacre--and although the sampling was a bit more creative in Fiddy's version, Jay's lyrics were more introspective and had the advantage of Kelly Price singing the hook.  However, this post is not about them...let's talk throwbacks, shall we?