ALBUM: The Delfonics, ’40 Classic Soul Sides’
By 1968, just a few years after crossing over into the mainstream, soul music had officially gone gritty. “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” by the recently departed Otis Redding gave Stax Records its biggest record, while Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone” put the gospel-oriented Muscle Shoals sound on the map.
Father of funk James Brown racked up three R&B #1 hits, including the anthemic “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud.” The first flowerings of psychedelic soul, including Sly & the Family Stone’s “Dance to the Music,” the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine,” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” were creeping into pop radio. Even the eternally polished Supremes released the tougher, socially conscious “Love Child.”
Just as soul was growing rawer and heavier, however, a little-known Philadelphia group called the Delfonics dropped a record as sweet as bubblegum and as light as helium. “La-La (Means I Love You)” is as gooey as its title promises, gently coasting on waves of strings and lead singer William Hart’s effervescent falsetto.
Despite sounding so different from everything else of R&B radio — or perhaps because of it — “La-La” soared into the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as #2 on the R&B charts. The record would not only set the template for the Delfonics’ career, but also the nascent sound of sweet Philly soul. The bulk of the Delfonics’ first four albums, as well as three non-LP tracks, are featured on the 2-CD anthology 40 Classic Soul Sides, released this year by Real Gone Music. (A digital-only version of the compilation, titled The Essential Delfonics, came out in 2015.)
The classic Delfonics line-up — brothers William and Wilbert Hart and childhood friend Randy Cain — first worked with producer/arranger Thom Bell on the 1966 single “He Don’t Really Love You.” While the record didn’t go anywhere, the Delfonics’ manager Stan Watson soon formed his own label, Philly Groove, and brought Bell in to produce, arrange, and co-write songs with William Hart.
The group’s first LP, 1968’s La-La Means I Love You, not fleshes out the sound that Bell and the Delfonics had introduced with the title track, but includes covers that allude to their two primary sources: Little Anthony & the Imperials (“Hurt So Bad”) and Burt Bacharach (“The Look of Love,” “Alfie”). The Delfonics’ vocal arrangements, especially William Hart’s falsetto, owed a debt to the Imperials’ sophisticated doo-wop, while Bell’s elaborate arrangements drew from Bacharach’s textured, elegant productions.
La-La Means I Love You introduces many of the elements that would characterize the Philly soul sound in the ’70s: a smooth, slightly nasal falsetto lead; velvety orchestral backing; and a concentration on lush romantic ballads. At times, this style risks brushing up against easy listening territory — as on “The Shadow of Your Smile,” the theme from the 1965 film The Sandpiper — but the album as a whole is varied enough to avoid fading into background noise.
“Can’t Get Over Losing You” and “You’re Gone” translate the group’s heart-on-sleeve romanticism to a faster tempo and a Motown-ish R&B arrangement, while moderate hits “I’m Sorry” and “Break Your Promise” essentially rewrite “La-La,” but add an element of tragedy that undercuts the spun-sugar arrangements.
The Delfonics’ second album, 1969’s Sound of Sexy Soul, builds even further on the group’s already ambitious arrangements. Opening track and lead single “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)” stands out with verses underlined by stabbing violins and a chorus that explodes into decadent lushness, but the comparatively lower-key closing track “Everytime I See My Baby” is no less magnificent. “Somebody Loves You” refines the sugary sound of the group’s previous album into something more sophisticated, while “Hot Dog (I Love You So)” adds a little brightness and pep to the Delfonics’ repertoire.
The selection of covers is also well chosen, including another tribute to Little Anthony & the Imperials with “Goin’ Out of My Head,” and a chance for the group flex its groovier side (and give Hart’s falsetto a rest) on Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar.” The Delfonics even manage to make the eternally reinterpreted “Let It Be Me” feel as fresh and natural as if it were their own composition.
The Delfonics’ 1970 self-titled album is often considered their best, featuring some of Bell’s most ambitious productions to date and no covers. (Only Barry Mann’s “When You Get Right Down to It” was composed outside of the Hart-Bell team.) The sound of The Delfonics is also more varied than on previous LPs, from the symphonic (mostly) instrumental “Delfonics Theme (How Could You),” to the street-wise jaunt “Funny Feeling,” to the driving “Down is Up, Up is Down.”
As impressive as the monumental piles of harp glissandos and sitar licks are on tracks like “Trying to Make a Fool of Me,” however, they come off as bare-bones demos next to the Delfonics’ greatest achievement: the astonishing “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time).” Bell and the Delfonics pull out all the stops for this record, which spins the group’s usual lush romanticism through a kaleidoscopic arrangement.
“After [“Didn’t I”],” Bell explains in the compilation’s liner notes, “something happened. I said, ‘I don’t think I can do a better job than that. I would much rather move on.’” Bell left Philly Groove and the Delfonics to join forces with fellow soul legends Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff at Philadelphia International Records, where he would transfer the style he developed with the Delfonics to his work with acts like the Stylistics and the Spinners. Without Bell at the helm, and with original member Randy Cain replaced by Major Harris, the Delfonics’ fourth album, 1972’s Tell Me This is a Dream, suffered commercially.
Tell Me This is a Dream is also considered a creative decline as well, yet the selection of tracks on 40 Classic Soul Sides paints a different, more compelling picture. William Hart is joined on songwriting duties by his brother Wilbert, and arrangers Caldwell McMillan, Jr. and Norman Harris follow a slightly more restrained edition of Bell’s established template.
The bubblegum sweetness of the Delfonics’ early records has devolved into a murkier, more mysterious sound, epitomized by lead single “Hey! Girl,” “Round & Round,” and the haunting title song. Likewise, tracks like “Walk Right Up to the Sun,” “I’m a Man,” and “Baby I Miss You” could stand up to anything released on the Delfonics’ previous albums, even if the arrangements are slightly more muted than Bell’s extravagant opuses.
40 Classic Soul Sides features the entirety of La La Means I Love You and The Delfonics, while omitting three tracks each from Sound of Sexy Soul and Tell Me This is a Dream. (Pour one out for the loss of the delightfully weird take on “Scarborough Fair.”) In addition, the set includes three non-LP tracks: 1969 single “You’ve Got Yours and I’ll Get Mine” and B-sides “My New Love” and “You Can’t Be Loving Him.”
Despite the lack of representation of all their other albums from 1974’s Alive & Kicking on, 40 Classic Soul Sides includes more than enough to satisfy all but the most completist of Delfonics fans. Title aside, not every track here is a classic on its own. Taken as a whole, however, 40 Classic Soul Sides is a terrific representation of the birth — and arguably the peak — of Philly soul.
Get your copy of the Delfonics’ 40 Classic Soul Sides now from Real Gone Music’s online shop.
