{"id":46901,"date":"2024-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-complete-atlantic-singles-the-thom-bell-productions-1972-1979\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:29","slug":"the-complete-atlantic-singles-the-thom-bell-productions-1972-1979","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-complete-atlantic-singles-the-thom-bell-productions-1972-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Atlantic Singles: The Thom Bell Productions 1972-1979"},"content":{"rendered":"

In chapter 3 of my novel Home Was a Dream<\/i><\/a>, aspiring music writer Bernie Green entertains his sister with a lengthy discourse on Philly soul\u2014so of course The Spinners get a mention.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I described that distinctive subgenre last time I reviewed<\/a> The Spinners: \u201cPhilly soul took the heart and vitality of Motown and dialed everything up a notch, often matching lush string arrangements with strong funk underpinnings, crafting a dramatic sonic landscape for singers to inhabit. (Fred Wesley, trombonist of the James Brown band and Parliament-Funkadelic, memorably described Philly soul\u2019s combination of deep grooves and grand orchestration as \u2018putting the bow tie on funk<\/a>.\u2019)\u201d<\/p>\n

Like any \u201960s or \u201970s group with more than a handful of hits, The Spinners have had the highlights of their catalog sliced, diced and repackaged in a number of different ways. As suggested by its subtitle, The Complete Atlantic Singles<\/i> zeroes in on the years they spent collaborating closely with producer \/ arranger \/ songwriter Thom Bell. This excludes the group\u2019s early Motown singles, as well as the handful of hits they scored after parting ways with Bell, in favor of a comprehensive two-disc, 43-track overview of their fruitful partnership.<\/p>\n

One of the ways The Spinners set themselves apart within the Philly soul universe also occupied by The Stylistics, The O\u2019Jays and others was by alternating the era\u2019s typical harmony-heavy vocal arrangements with throw-arounds where two or three or four members might take a solo turn within a single song, highlighting the power and versatility of their lineup. <\/p>\n

Still, the defining characteristic of The Spinners under Bell\u2019s tutelage was groove. You might not hear it so much on the group\u2019s very first single for Atlantic, the somewhat by-the-book ballad \u201cHow Could I Let You Get Away,\u201d but once you flipped that single over and heard the immortal opening guitar licks of \u201cI\u2019ll Be Around,\u201d everything changed. The song is a master class in Philly soul, melding melancholy-yet-determined lyrics about standing by for a girl who isn\u2019t quite ready to commit with a deep, rich, finger-snapping groove lit up by a dynamic string arrangement and Bobbie Smith\u2019s intense lead vocal.<\/p>\n

Moving directly from \u201cI\u2019ll Be Around\u201d to its ebullient follow-up \u201cCould It Be I\u2019m Falling In Love\u201d constitutes one of the great one-two-punches in the history of soul music; if your body isn\u2019t moving by the time these two songs finish, seek medical attention. The rest of disc one of this collection is dotted with moments that should be familiar to anyone who was alive and near a functioning radio in the \u201970s: the opening bass notes and conversation between strings and lead vocals on \u201cOne Of A Kind (Love Affair)\u201d; the clavinet funking up the dramatic sweep of \u201cThen Came You\u201d (their hit collaboration with Dionne Warwick); or the mighty, mighty groove of \u201cA Mighty Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the things that an expansive collection like this allows you to appreciate more fully is how versatile The Spinners were, ranging through the big-band swing of \u201cDon\u2019t Let The Green Grass Fool You,\u201d the socially-conscious funk of \u201cGhetto Child,\u201d the gospel-influenced sway of \u201cI\u2019m Coming Home,\u201d and lush, swoony ballads of devotion like \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d or \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Lose You.\u201d Even when songs weren\u2019t as memorable, The Spinners were always smooth as silk\u2014and then with the help of Bell and his stable of songwriters, they\u2019d happen onto a classic r&b number like \u201cThey Just Can\u2019t Stop It (Games People Play)\u201d that grooves like nobody\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

The second disc of this collection is almost inevitably not as memorable as the first, though it has its moments. Among them are: \u201cLove Or Leave,\u201d a snappy r&b number with distinctive synth effects; \u201cThe Rubberband Man,\u201d with its goofy flair and deep funk rhythm section; the steady, celebratory \u201cMe And My Music\u201d; and the pulsing rhythms of \u201cIf You Wanna Do A Dance (All Night)\u201d and \u201cAre You Ready For Love.\u201d The latter pair point the way toward the swan song for the Bell-Spinners team, the disco-influenced \u201cI Love The Music\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Let The Man Get You.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the whole, disc two finds Bell and The Spinners chasing after the next hit without delivering anything as dynamic or instantly memorable as \u201cI\u2019ll Be Around\u201d or \u201cThen Came You.\u201d It\u2019s a pleasant ride the whole way; just not quite on the same level as disc one.<\/p>\n

The Spinners\u2019 lineup was steady through most of this period, featuring founding members Billy Henderson, Henry Fambrough and Pervis Jackson, early addition Bobbie Smith, and newest member Philipp\u00e9 Wynne. In 1977 Wynne left and was replaced by John Edwards. Two years later Bell, who had proved the perfect creative complement for The Spinners for seven hit-filled years, also moved on.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Complete Atlantic Singles<\/i> delivers a comprehensive overview of The Spinners\u2019 golden age, and what it sometimes lacks in concision it makes up for in quality. Within its expansive folds this two-disc collection includes at least a dozen songs that are stone cold classics, and at least a dozen more that any true aficionado of Philly soul needs in their music library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10738],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46901","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-spinners","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51861,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46901\/revisions\/51861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46901"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46901"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}