SUTC:People Make The World Go Round
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I've had a few DJ gigs in my life, but my grooviest was at a place called The "O" Bar on Chicago's North Side. Mercifully, there was no dancing, because I'll be the first to admit, that isn't my forte. The "O" Bar was a lounge, featuring fluffy sofas, martinis, and comfort food. My only job as a DJ was to groove..not wall paper and not booty rockin' beats, but something in between. This was a perfect fit for me.
One of my fave turtablisms was to spin a mash up of three different versions of the Thom Bell, Linda Creed tune, People Make The World Go Round. I'd take the long intro from the Chicago Band, The Pharaohs, then extend the intro with the Milt Jackson version, and then finally drop in the vocal from the original 1972 version by The Stylistics. It's about as creative as I get behind the wheels, but it always sounded good to me and People Make The World Go Round has become one of my all time fave tunes..in almost any version.
Thom Bell and Linda Creed are both in the songwriters Hall of Fame, supplying tunes and production for numerous artists, mostly from the Philly area, including The Stylistics, The Spinners, Teddy Pendergrass, The Delfonics, and Phyllis Hyman.
Together they wrote:
"Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"You Are Everything" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"Betcha by Golly, Wow" - originally recorded by The Stylistics, later covered by Prince
"People Make the World Go Round" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"I'm Stone in Love With You" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"Break Up to Make Up" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"Rockin' Roll Baby" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"You Make Me Feel Brand New" - originally recorded by The Stylistics
"Ghetto Child" - originally recorded by The Spinners
"I'm Coming Home" - originally recorded by The Spinners
"Living a Little, Laughing a Little" - originally recorded by The Spinners
"The Rubberband Man" - originally recorded by The Spinners
I have 11 versions of People Make The World Go Round, which has become a go to tune for artists across many genres. The melody and the groove will stick with you. Linda Creed died in 1986, aged 37, from breast cancer, but she (along with Thom Bell) helped create the Philly sound and a bunch of classic tunes.
People Make The World Go Round
Lyrics: Thom Bell, Linda Creed
Music: Thom Bell, Linda Creed
Trash men didn't get my trash today
Oh, why, because they want more pay
Buses on strike, wanna raise in fare
So they can help pollute the air
Chorus
But that's what makes the world go round
The up and downs a carousel
Changing people's heads around
Go underground, young man
People make the world go round
Wall Street losin' on every share
They're blamin' it on longer hair
Big men smokin' in their easy chair
On a fat cigar without a care
[chorus]
[chorus]
People make the world go round
People make the world go round
People make the world go round
People make the world go round
Click to the MOG Playlist Here
The Pharaohs- Chicago afro-jazz style
Milt Jackson- CTI jazz style
The Stylistics- sweet soul style
The Jerry Garcia Band- Rawk (as it can be) style
Hortense Ellis - reggae style
Michael Jackson- soul style
Young Holt Unlimited -soul jazz style
Shirley Scott- lounge style
Comments (15)
great stuff, i have a lot of these on vinyl but Shirley Scott is new to me thanks, always something new to hear even it is old.
I love those CTI album covers..
Wow - one fun post - I enjoyed that muchly!
Thanks!
With close to 50 covers it's kinda interesting that the tune only went to #25 pop and #6 R&B for the Stylistics..it was on the radio but clearly more influential than it's chart position indicates.
indeed!
Great post. I'm all over this like a writer of CNN Money!
hah! I appeal to the artistic types.
lottsa sweet stuff up there sir! Michael's take is a nice vocal showcase, Jerry smoothes it out, and I like hoe the Pharohs back into it. A great song / a wonderful showcase!
Thanks Mr. Free. It seems like reggae folks also took quite a shine to it..5 or 6 version that I know of there.
Listening to your mashup and the orginal Stylistics version, back and forth. Love the draggy sound you pulled out of it, unusual. will keep listening.
And the lyrics, so political. A great contrast to the sweet voices. Cool to hear your story of being a DJ in Chicago and making this.
Hi Kate..welcome to MOG..hope to see you around.
Yeah, I loved little Michael's version.
I am impressed with the songwriters.....I have Spinners' Greatest Hits (I know that's almost sacrilige to some MOGgers, but hey!), and the songs listed above that the Spinners covered are on it.....great songs, but I never bothered to look at the original writers of all the songs.
Thom and Linda worked directly with the Spinners as writers and producers on many of those tunes..Not that it matters, but Ms. Creed was a white woman..She was diagnosed with cancer at 26..bummer.
Holy crap, 26.....that IS a bummer!
DAG! Nice diggin sir!