Clyde McPhatter

For those who loved his lead vocals with Billy Ward and the Dominoes and especially with the original Drifters group that he founded, Clyde McPhatter's solo career is a case of an extraordinary artist forever shy of consistently first-rate material. With the Dominoes, McPhatter sang on some of the decade's best R&B singles ("Have Mercy Baby," "Sixty-Minute Man," "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You"), and then helped lay the foundation for soul music by forming the Drifters and delivering commanding, emotion-rich lead vocals on some beautifully crafted productions ranging from pop fare such as "Bells of St. Mary's" to raunchy R&B ("Money Honey" and "Honey Love") to Christmas standards (a version of "White Christmas" that has been often imitated by succeeding generations of R&B singers). His tenure with the Drifters was cut short when he was drafted by the army in 1954; he began recording some solo sides while on furlough in 1955, and picked up from there upon his discharge in 1956.

Beloved by black audiences, McPhatter was a regular fixture in the R&B Top 10, but he didn't register the same high marks on the crossover front, although having eight Top 40 singles between 1956's beautiful "Treasure of Love" and 1962's cover of "Little Bitty Pretty One" is nothing to sneeze at. Still, as much of his remaining in-print work reveals, McPhatter had plenty of mesmerizing performances left in him after he came home from the army. The depth of his artistry can be measured in the way he made much of some lightweight material, and made everything of the top-drawer songs that came his way. His high, quavering tenor was a most expressive instrument, and his control of vocal dynamics revealed a singer with a deep sensitivity to lyrical nuance, which may explain why he was able to range wide and remain credible in any style. And like Sam Cooke, he knew how to keep the customers satisfied, whether it was an R&B audience who preferred a grittier approach or the pop audience who swooned for his upbeat, happy-go-lucky tunes and plaintive love ballads.

It's no revelation to point to McPhatter's Atlantic sides as his most important work. As is abundantly evident on three releases -- the Collectables twofer combining a pair of Atlantic albums, Love Ballads/ Clyde; Deep Sea Ball: The Best of Clyde McPhatter; and the two-disc retrospective The Forgotten Angel -- it was here, from 1956 to 1959, that McPhatter knew without question who he was as an artist, and brought tremendous authority to everything he touched, whether it was a Latinized treatment of "Heartaches" (later covered by Patsy Cline), some raw, boisterous, early Drifters-style R&B such as "Bip Bam" or the finger-poppin', updated doo-wop pop and pleading vocal of his irresistible #6 pop hit of 1958, "A Lover's Question" (cowritten by Brook Benton). In these selections and others, history resonates in the vocal performances -- a straight line can be drawn from these linking Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Smokey Robinson to the style and sound of Clyde McPhatter.

It's after McPhatter leaves Atlantic in 1959 that the problems begin. His first stop was MGM, where a one-year stint yielded four minor R&B hits. His next move was the right one, going to Mercury, where the gifted A&R director Clyde Otis took charge of McPhatter's recordings, updating his sound with the lush string arrangements Otis had employed so effectively with Brook Benton. The big-band oomph and swinging vocal that drove McPhatter's first ebullient, self-penned single, "Ta Ta," pushed it to #23 pop in 1960. After a dry spell, he returned to the pop Top 10 in early 1962 with an infectious plea to a wandering lover, "Lover Please" (written by then-13-year-old Billy Swann), and later that year his bouncy cover of Thurston Harris' 1957 hit, "Little Bitty Pretty One," ascended to #25 pop. When Otis left the label, McPhatter's recordings were turned over to Nashville veteran Shelby Singleton, and at that point, though the hits ceased, some minor masterpieces ensued, such as the albums Rhythm and Soul and Golden Blues Hits, both recorded in Music City with a lineup of the town's finest session players. In 1964 came a concept album, Songs of the Big City, replete with social content -- as reflected in the minor hit "Deep in the Heart of Harlem," a Latin-flavored rendering of hard times and dreary days among the lower class in uptown New York City ("I push and kick and get my feelings hurt downtown/I'm just a little spoke that helps the wheel go 'round," McPhatter laments evenly in one stirring passage), and beautifully realized, full-bodied arrangements by Alan Lorber. Unfortunately, this period is ill-documented on record now: Only Collectables' The Mercury Sessions and a smidgen of The Forgotten Angel offer any Mercury sides; moreover, The Mercury Sessions is mostly a live album from a date at the Apollo Theatre with three studio cuts supplementing its 11 concert tracks. The live cuts were originally issued as Live at The Apollo, which is now out of print. That said, though limited as a review of these years, The Mercury Sessions does feature a powerful live version of "Deep in the Heart of Harlem," a bopping take on "A Lover's Question," and a simply stunning treatment of one of McPhatter's greatest Atlantic sides, "Without Love (There Is Nothing)," a breathtaking demonstration of interpretive brilliance and soulful expressiveness.

From there McPhatter's story takes one final turn that was as aesthetically fruitful as it was commercially unproductive. After being dropped by Mercury, the artist was signed to the small Amy label, where Alan Lorber was now employed and assigned to produce McPhatter. Their first sessions together yielded a romantic, string-laden ballad, "I'll Belong to You," and, best of all, a deep soul approach to Connie Francis' 1960 chart-topper, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," that ditched the original's upbeat, pop arrangement and took Clyde back to the church. Speaking and singing the verses -- combining the testifying of Joe Tex with the soulful belting of Solomon Burke, backed by a fervent female gospel chorus and a basic band plus brass and strings -- McPhatter delivered a tour de force, drawing on the fundamentals he learned singing in the Baptist church as a youth in Durham, NC, performing like a minister preaching fire and brimstone to the faithless masses. It was a most unlikely song for such an approach, and McPhatter transformed it into something entirely different and considerably darker in meaning than was suggested in the original version. As documented completely on Sundazed's A Shot of Rhythm & Blues, McPhatter's army years found him working at a consistently high level, no matter the circumstances. When the first sessions with Lorber met commercial indifference, McPhatter ventured south, to Muscle Shoals, AL, and Rick Hall's Fame Studios, where he teamed up with the redoubtable swamper session players and came away with some in-the-pocket Southern soul stew, with pumping horns, chirping female choruses, and that insinuating backbeat that never quits. He cut a greasy version of this album's title track; a stomping, party-hearty, Calypso-influenced take on Joe Tex's celebration of a determined day off, "I'm Not Going to Work Today"; an easy-rolling pop confection with "sha-la-sha-la" female choruses and Memphis-style horns, penned by Hall and Billy Sherrill, titled "Sweet and Innocent"; and a Latin-tinged arrangement (right out of the latter-day Drifters textbook) of Roy Orbison's tender-hearted outsider's lament, "Lavender Lace." All for nought -- but the failure of these recordings is not in the music nor in McPhatter's approach; rather, it's that enduring music business mystery centered on zeitgeist, catching the cultural wave and locking in for a good ride. To torture the metaphor, McPhatter clearly wiped out. From there it was a slow, excruciating downhill slide, propelled by alcohol, culminating in death on June 13, 1972, five months before he would have celebrated his fortieth birthday. His indeed was a voice sent by angels, and it sings still. (DAVID MCGEE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide