Five Great Covers

Still In Love – Shuya Okino

For The Love Of You – Regina Belle

You Send Me – Phil Perry

Take Five – Harvey Mason

You Were Meant For Me – Layla Hathaway.

About The Originals.

Still In Love. A 1982 track from the Rose Royce album Stronger Than Ever, written by band members Kenny Copeland and Michael Nash. Always a favourite of mine with a fantastic piano riff and much played on my radio shows. They went on to have huge success with Car Wash (written and produced by the brilliant Norman Whitfield) but failed to have chart success with Still In Love. From Tokyo writer, producer and DJ Shuya Okino shared my love of the track and his cover was inspired.

For The Love Of You. An Isley Brothers track. Cleverly interpreted on Regina’s George Duke produced album Lazy Afternoon from 2004. Featuring the Perri Sisters sales of this track will help/helped Ronald Isley pay off his multi million-dollar tax bill. (Tax evasion conviction in 2006 landed Ronald with back tax bill of 3.l million dollars and a three-year jail sentence.)

Lazy Afternoon – Regina Belle

You Send Me. Sam Cooke original and American chart topper in 1957. He is some act to follow but Phil Perry has the vocal talents to make a real good job of the challenge and introduce the song to a completely new audience.

Sam Cooke

Take Five. A rare jazz track to become a pop chart hit in 1961 for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Written by the group’s brilliant alto sax player Paul Desmond the track only became a hit after failing to cause many musical buying waves on its first release in 1959. Desmond revisited Take Five on a recording he called Take Ten on the album Skylark. His hard drinking (massive amounts of whisky) and heavy smoking took its toll and he died aged just 52. In his will, royalties for Take Five were left to the American Red Cross who at one time was receiving 100 thousand dollars a year. His will may well have been made in his birth name Paul Emil Breitenfeld. He changed the surname to Desmond because he said Breitenfeld sounded too Irish. Drummer Harvey Mason is one of the many artists to do their own version of Take Five. His take on the album Ratamacue is top drawer.

Robbie and Harvey Mason

Paul Desmond

You Were Meant For Me. From Layla Hathaway’s Stax album titled Where It All Begins this was originally recorded by her Dad Donny in 1978. It is so good that she even sounds like the great man and her phrasing on the song at times could make you think its Donny Hathaway. Spine tingling good.

Layla Hathaway

This tune has a Dr Who connection. Writer William “Pete” Peterkin gave Donny You Were Meant For Me, continued his career as a singer and actor, and continued to song write. American Soap The young And The Restless often features one of his tracks Always In My Heart co written by music publisher Barbara L Jordan.

Another Peterkin/Jordan composition found its way into the Doctors TARDIS. For fans, it is the song playing in Dr Who The Movie as doctor number 7 dies and Paul McGann (Doctor Number 8) is the replacement. It is a gentle jazzy number called In A Dream performed by Pat Hodge.

From Donny Hathaway to Dr Who – beat that!