Straighten up and fly right,
straighten up and fly right,
cool down, papa, don't you blow your top.
You could count them on two hands.
Nat Cole, Billy Eckstine, the Mills Brothers
and the other Negro pop stars of the 40s
and before the 50s changed
all that. In the last two years of the
decade alone, 34 of the country's
top 10 winners were by black artists.
There were the new talents, the new names like
Brook Benton, Bobby Day, Little Anthony,
Earl Grant, and seasoned professionals,
people like Lloyd Price and Dinah Washington,
who richly deserved mainstream acclaim
long before they received it.
Johnny Mathis, Dinah Washington.
To me, it was delicious.
What marvelous times I had in San Francisco
listening to her at the Black Hawk sang.
And then when somebody was to listening
to her, crush them from the stage
as loudly as you, please don't
hardstyle.
She also served up 21 R&D hats
during the 50s and was widely respected as a
jazz singer.
Hit Parade Recognition finally came in 1959
with her distinctive rendition of What a
Difference a Day Makes.
What a difference
a day makes a
24 hour.
What the sun and the flowers
where there used to be rain.
My yesterday was
blue day
today. I'm a part of Eudy,
my lonely nights are through
day.
And you said you were my
dear
Lord, what a difference
a day makes.
There's a rainbow before
the
skies above can't be stormy
since that moment of
last
year
in heaven when you
find romance
on your menu.
What a difference a
day makes.
And the difference
is, you know,
she had style,
that's about all I can say.
John Lloyd
Price, New Orleans born like Fats Domino,
wrote and had the hit record on the legendary
Lawdy Miss Quoddy in 1952,
Fats played piano on that session,
but Price couldn't break out of the R and B
category until 1959.
And then he scored in spectacular fashion
with three of the year's top tunes
staggeringly.
I'm going to get married and.
Let's talk about
this personality type
personality
and the guy
over and
over
and over
and over.
Wow.
Hi, guys, you've got
what it
takes to
protect myself.
Oh, my God.
Well, I'll be a fool for you.
Now, over and over.
What can I do?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Oh, my God.
Oh, I said
I love you
over and over
and over
and
over and
over.
I'll deal with you
cause you've got
a lot
of traffic
over the line.
All right.
Well, I'll fill you
up now over and
over.
One more.
Right
now, who else should we mention, Martha
Reeves?
When I was really young, we had an album by
al-Shibli that I really
loved. He did
some of the most beautiful songs that I've
heard in my life.
The Blind Alleys Dibbler had two hits in 1955,
he and Unchained Melody.
Oh, my
oh, my
darling,
good boy, you're such
a long
time.
Time
goes by so
slowly and
time can do so much,
all you.
Still more.
Oh, really?
Oh.
I need your law.
God speed your love.
To.
Lonely rivers flow to the sea,
to the sea.
To the open arms of
the.
Lonely Riverside, wait
for me, wait for me.
I will be coming home.
Wait for me.
And this, too was the anatomy of so
little girls growing up in Detroit
dreaming their little girl dreams in
close, a dark room.
Diana Ross.
I used to get in the room in the dark, just
enough light where I could see my reflection in
the mirror and I would sing
and make all the movements, you know.
And I knew that I could out sing those people
on those records because I would just be
singing, you know, and I'd play the records and
sing along with the records.
I know I knew every riff they would make, you
know, especially Etta James, you know, on some
of the there was one song.
It was it was man singer Brook Benton.
I think fools rush in.
Oh, yeah. You know, I just love that rhythm and
that that, you know, like that.
And I'm just knock me out and I'd just be
singing.
Sometimes those little girls in Detroit
even went on to realize their dreams.
And baby, if you don't believe there was
such a phenomenon as the soul reformation
and that it paid off, then bend
an ear to this
audience in the Brewster Projects are doing
specials with Bing Crosby and Bob
Hope and, you know, specials and things
like that. And it's really amazed me
to think about it.
Really amazing to think about
seven gold records in less than two
years, five consecutive
records reaching the number one spot in pop
music.
And I've done songs in German and Italian.
I can't believe that
sell out concerts in Paris, London, Tokyo
and Munich, all that would come later.
Of course, in the 60s after the
Reformation picked up momentum in the 50s
marked the beginning.
Ray Charles.
This music was going
on for years, but nobody paid any attention to
it. And then all of a sudden, I guess it's just
like a woman
can wear certain hairstyles and nobody will
notice it. But maybe if Jacqueline Kennedy does
it, then all of a sudden it's a hit overnight.
And this, too, is the anatomy
of soul.
So to me, it's just like a truth, a true
feeling that you have about your
music or about your life.
I really do say that the words
started with the black race because,
you know, this is a thing that's just like been
with us spiritually.
It's grown in with us through the years.
And how I don't know, you know, I really
don't know the reason, but I know that it's
a feeling, you know, that we hold
that we won't just be ours.
You know, it's something unique that we want to
cherish that's ours and to hold and to keep,
you know, I mean, we don't you know, we don't
we want to say that
everyone else has their kind of soul.
But ours is a unique kind of soul and
no one else could have it.
You know, I'm very proud of my race and
I'm getting prouder every day because
I think things are getting better and
we're working together more and
we're loving each other more.
And that's most important thing.
I've thought
about
it a little since.
Oh, I just lie forever
and ever
since.
It's been a long,
long time coming.
But I know
what's going on.
Oh, yes, it will.
It's.
But I'm afraid to die.
There are.
This guy is better known
a long time coming, but
I know
changed the whole course.
Oh, yes, it will.
Then I go to my
brother.
And I say, brother, help me,
please.
But he was
knocked
back out of
my
car by the time
I got up, I
couldn't ride.
Oh,
not like I'm able
to carry on
this business for
a long time coming.
But I know.
Save your car.
Oh, yes.
The Pop Chronicles continue in a moment.