THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,062) Gene Chandler — “(Gonna Be) Good Times”
“One of [Gene Chandler’s (see # 347)] best! [The Duke gives us a] killer from 1965″ (Wynonie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3-_crgwzQE) that reached #92 (#40 R&B). It was written by the great Curtis Mayfield (see #118, 285) and boy does it sound like it! What an upbeat party song that just makes you feel good! “Good Times” was also on Chandler’s ’67 album The Girl Don’t Care, “[o]ne of Chandler’s best, chock full of midtempo grooves, succulent ballads and jump tunes like ‘Good Times’.” (Andrew Hamilton, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-girl-dont-care-mw0000226045)
As to Chandler, Richie Unterberger writes:
Gene Chandler is remembered by the rock & roll audience almost solely for the classic novelty and doo wop-tinged soul ballad “Duke of Earl”; the unforgettable opening chant of the title leading the way, the song was a number one hit in 1962. He’s esteemed by soul fans as one of the leading exponents of the ’60s Chicago soul scene, along with Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler. Born Eugene Dixon, he was a member of the doo wop group the Dukays and “Duke of Earl” was actually a Dukays recording; Dixon was renamed Gene Chandler and the single bore his credit as a solo singer. Chandler never approached the massive pop success of that chart-topper (although he occasionally entered the Top 20), but he was a big star with the R&B audience with straightforward mid-tempo and ballad soul numbers in the mid-’60s, many of which were written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Carl Davis. Chandler’s success became more fitful after Mayfield stopped penning material for him, although he enjoyed some late-’60s hits and had a monster pop and soul smash in 1970 with “Groovy Situation.”
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gene-chandler-mn0000162820#biography
Mohair Slim interviews Chandler about his collaborations with Mayfield:
To break out of The Duke Of Earl image … you started working with Curtis Mayfield. How was it working with the great man Curtis?
(Chandler): Well it was very nice because Curtis came up with tunes that I thought were my types of songs and those were a lot of love songs. Curtis wrote some beautiful love songs starting off with ‘The Rainbow Song’ and I heard those on the road. We went out on tours and shows together and he would sit down with the guitar and play me some songs and from doing that I began to fall in love with the songs he was writing from ‘Man’s Temptation’, ‘Just Be True’, ‘Nothing Can Stop Me’, and so on. I did a lot of his songs. As a matter of fact, Curtis was my salvation after ‘The Duke Of Earl’. I mean, it was his songs that kept me going all the way up until 1970 when I again recorded another million-seller which was ‘a groovy situation’.
Did he instruct you on how you should sing it because it occurs to me that he wrote for so many artists, but, there’s a definite style to the vocal of a Curtis Mayfield song. Do you just fall into the style that Curtis wants or does he actually give you some instruction?
(Chandler): No, he never gave me any instructions I can’t speak for anyone else. He loved the way I portrayed his songs and so I never had a problem. It was just a good marriage. I could hear what he was trying to say and I did it. I did it with a lot of feeling, the words was there, the melody was there and I just did it. There were times that he did play guitar. There were a couple of time where The Impressions some background, but, basically, I did the song on my own, the way I felt it should have been done. As a matter of fact, I did more Curtis Mayfield songs than anyone outside of the Impressions.
https://www.mohairslim.com/gene-chandler.html
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