It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “I Want To (Do Everything for You)” by Joe Tex
October 13, 2015
“I Want To (Do Everything for You)” by Joe Tex
#1 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart, October 9-29, 1965
When Joe Tex knocked James Brown off the top of the R&B charts, where “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” had reigned for eight weeks straight, it wasn’t the first time the two soul legends had collided. In fact, the onetime labelmates (for the Cincinnati-based King Records) had a rivalry that already spanned a decade. But while the origins of this feud are shrouded in myth, a few incidents are verifiable. Brown reworked Tex’s song “Baby, You’re Right,” crediting himself as co-composer. Tex claimed Brown stole his dance moves and stage persona from him. Brown put his moves on Tex’s ex-wife. Tex fired back with the 1963 single “You Keep Her,” which includes the line “you can tell her I said hello, James.” But while Brown would ultimately triumph as one of the biggest superstars of 20th century American music, Tex was no slouch either, eventually earning a string of hits and a reputation as one of the early stars of Southern soul.
Although Brown and Tex started out at around the same time, it was Brown’s group, the Famous Flames, that first tasted stardom, with 1956’s “Please, Please, Please.” Nevertheless, Tex plugged on through years of obscurity and dozens of flop singles, finally breaking out with 1965’s “Hold What You’ve Got.” Released while the Billboard R&B chart was on hiatus, Tex’s song managed to climb all the way to #5 on the pop charts — far higher than any of Brown’s hits to that point. When Tex earned his first official R&B number-one a few months later, toppling his rival from his throne, it must have seemed like things were finally turning around for Tex.
Like it’s predecessor, “I Want To (Do Everything for You)” is a mid-tempo shuffle, based on rolling piano chords and preaching the values of fidelity and respecting your man or woman. (Literally, in the case of “Hold What You’ve Got”: Tex cuts off his singing to sermonize on the importance of not taking one’s partner for granted.) Tex has a smoother voice than Brown, as well as a milder, more romantic temperament, but there’s enough grit and self-assurance in his pronouncements on relationships that he doesn’t sound like a spineless lover boy either. Tex may have never become as famous as his rival, but it’s believable that Brown could have found something about Tex that marked him as a threat.
Tex was one of the first soul men to record at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, even before Atlantic Records labelmates like Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. In doing so, he became one of the first Southern soul artists to have a hit recorded in the South, and helped put a pillar of the genre on the musical map. The arrangement of “I Want To (Do Everything for You)” is filled with soon-to-be tropes of Southern soul, such as horn lines alternating between placid undercurrents in the verses and dramatic stabs in the chorus, and the call-and-response between Tex and his backing singers, trading cries of “love ya” / “love ya” / “love ya” / “love ya.” Unlike many of his Southern soul compatriots, however, Tex doesn’t try to wring out every nuance or accentuate every emotional beat. Instead, he delivers his vocals in a way that’s amiable and laidback without ever seeming lightweight.
“I Want To (Do Everything for You)” wasn’t the pop smash “Hold What You’ve Got” had been, peaking at only #23 on the Hot 100, but both it and Tex’s follow-up “A Sweet Woman Like You” managed to become R&B number-ones. He maintained a steady presence on the R&B charts for over a decade, occasionally bubbling back up to the mainstream with goofy hits like the improvisational, mostly spoken “Skinny Legs and All” (1967); the manic funk of “I Gotcha” (1972); and the novelty disco cash-in “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” (1977). But despite Wikipedia’s claim that he notched more R&B hits than James Brown, Tex never quite earned the popular success and critical veneration of his great rival. But while every art form needs its innovators, Tex is a reminder that talent and personality can often be enough to earn someone a place among the greats.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
