Major Lance - The Essential Major Lance '2014

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Delilah
02. Everytime
03. Please Dont Say No More
04. The Monkey Time
05. Mama Didnt Know
06. Keep on Loving You
07. Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
08. Hey Little Girl
09. Crying in the Rain
10. Little Young Lover
11. Youll Want Me Back
12. Gonna Get Married
13. Im the One
14. Gotta Right to Cry
15. Think Nothing About It
16. Thats What Mama Say
17. Little Miss Love
18. Play a Song for Me
19. It Aint No Use
20. Gotta Get Away
21. Aint It a Shame
22. Sweet Music
23. Girls
24. I Just Cant Help It
25. Rhythm
26. The Matador
27. Im So Lost
28. Sometimes I Wonder
29. Come See
30. Get My Hat
31. Too Hot to Hold
32. Everybody Loves a Good Time
33. Dark and Lonely
34. Investigate
35. Its the Beat
36. Aint No Soul (In These Old Shoes)
37. Without a Doubt
38. Dont Fight It
39. Wait Till I Get You in My Arms
40. You Dont Want Me No More


 Read MoreBorn in Winterville, Mississippi, Major Lance moved to Chicago as a
child, where he was initially raised on the west side of the city, before he
moved near the north. While studying at Wells High School -- where Curtis
Mayfield and Jerry Butler also attended -- Lance began boxing, but his attention
soon turned to music and he formed the Floats with Otis Leavill. Although the
Floats never released any records, his dancing earned him a spot on a local
American Bandstand-styled program hosted by disc jockey Jim Lounsbury. The DJ
helped Lance secure a one-shot single for Mercury Records in 1959, and the
singer recorded I Got a Girl, which was written and produced by Mayfield. The
single disappeared and Lance spent the next three years working odd jobs.

In 1962, Lance was signed to the revived OKeh Records, based on his connections
with Otis Leavill and, especially, Curtis Mayfield, who signed with the
Impressions to ABC Records and had hits with his own group. Later that year,
Lance recorded his first single, Delilah, for the label. Like most of the Majors
material, the song was written by Mayfield who, along with OKeh president Carl
Davis and arranger Johnny Pate, developed a distinctive, Latin-tinged sound for
the record, filled with sliding trombones and a light-stepping rhythms in order
to distinguish Chicago soul from its counterparts in the South, New York,
Detroit, and California. Though Delilah wasnt a hit, Lances second single, The
Monkey Time, was a monster. Released in the summer of 1963, The Monkey Time
reached number two on the R&B charts and number eight pop, establishing not only
Lance as a singer but the revitalized OKeh Records as a pop music force. Hey
Little Girl was a Top 15 pop and R&B hit later that year, followed by the Top
Ten Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um early in 1964.

The Monkey Time and Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um proved to be the height of Lances
popularity. Over the next year-and-a-half, he continued to turn out a series of
Mayfield-written and Davis-produced singles, nearly all of which reached the R&B
Top 40, but only a handful -- The Matador (which Mayfield didnt write), Rhythm,
Come See-- were pop hits. Following the summer 1965 release of the Top 20 R&B
hit Aint It a Shame, Pate departed for ABC Records and Mayfield began
concentrating on his group, but Lance and Davis continued to mine the same
Chicago sound, using guitarist Gerald Sim as a songwriter and co-producer. After
releasing a few singles, including the R&B hit Too Hot to Hold and the Van
McCoy-written Everybody Loves a Good Time, Davis left OKeh Records due to
arguments with his superiors at Epic Records and Lance was sent to work with
Billy Sherrill in Nashville. Out of these sessions, Its the Beat became Lances
only Top 40 hit. Since the teaming with Sherrill wasnt working out, Lance worked
with a number of producers during 1966 and 1967, with only Without a Doubt
scraping the R&B charts in 1968. He left OKeh shortly after that single, moving
to Daka Records the following year, where he had the Top 40 R&B hit Follow the
Leader. Within a year, he moved to Mayfields Curtom label, which resulted in his
last two Top 40 R&B hits -- the number 13 Stay Away from Me (I Love You Too
Much) and Must Be Love Coming Down.

Lance left Curtom later in 1971 and he moved through a variety of labels,
including Volt and Columbia, over the next several years without much success.
In 1972, he relocated to England, where Northern soul -- a phenomenon of dance
clubs playing rare, underappreciated, and just plain obscure American soul and
R&B records -- was in full force. For the next two years, Lance was a staple on
the Northern soul circuit, eventually returning to Atlanta in 1974. He signed
with Playboy and released a disco version of Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um that became
a minor hit, which was followed by a pair of minor hits in 1975. Shortly
afterward, his career entered a downward spiral, and in 1978, he hit rock bottom
when he was convicted of selling cocaine. Lance spent the next four years in
prison. Upon his release, he began playing the beach music circuit on the
Carolina coast, but a 1987 heart attack prevented him from launching a
full-scale comeback. In 1994, Lance gave a final, triumphant performance at the
Chicago Blues Festival, which turned out to be his last. He died of heart
failure on September 3, 1994 at the age of 55, leaving behind a recorded legacy
that stands among the best Midwestern soul of the 60s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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