‘James Brown kept cutting our stage time’ – how the Stylistics made You Make Me Feel Brand New
Airrion Love, singer
Three of us were in a Philadelphia group called the Monarchs and the other guys were in the Percussions. When we left school, some went on to university and others were drafted into the military. The Monarchs were left with three members and the Percussions with two, so our English teacher and manager, Miss Beverly Hamilton, suggested we combine. Our guitar player, Robert Douglas, came up with the band name, which suggested something stylish.
As a five-member group, we modelled ourselves on the Temptations. After we released our first single, You’re a Big Girl Now, Avco Records hooked us up with the songwriter and producer Thom Bell. His production and material made the “Philadelphia sound” – and the sound of the Stylistics.
Whenever you heard a Linda Creed song for the first time, you got the chills
Thom could be a little arrogant. “Just do like I say,” he’d tell us. But we were just 17 and 18, so we respected him because of what he’d written for the Delfonics. Thom and the lyricist Linda Creed wrote such great material: there were five Top 10 songs on our first album. We never turned any of their songs down. Whenever you heard one for the first time, you got the chills.
When Linda first sang the melody to You Make Me Feel Brand New, I thought: “Wow, that’s a nice-sounding song.” I used to ask her: “What have you gone through to come up with these words?” They were simple lyrics but everyone could relate to them. You Make Me Feel Brand New was a joint lead vocal, with Russell Thompkins Jr. It was the first time I’d sung lead on a record. I went into the studio, did two takes and wanted to change it, but Thom was like: “No, no, leave it alone.”
Everything happened so fast for us. We did a tour opening for James Brown, and in the US south we saw the remnants of segregation – they’d painted over the separate signs on bathrooms for black and white people, but you could see them beneath. I think James liked us. When we first opened for him, we got 20 minutes. Then when he heard the crowd response to us, he cut it down to 15. By the end of the tour, he’d cut us to five. He knew we were good.
Herb Murrell, singer
In the Monarchs and the Percussions, we covered songs by the Temptations and Sam & Dave, whatever was hot at the time. But combining the two groups took things to another level. Our guitarist, Robert Douglas, and our road manager, Marty Bryant, wrote You’re a Big Girl Now. When a local label put it out, it became a hit in what we call the tri-state area: Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore. Then Avco signed us and took us national.
Thom gave us so many hits: Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart); Betcha By Golly, Wow; You Are Everything. The list goes on. He was producer/arranger and also a teacher: you had to pay attention to learn. Once we became successful, people like Elton John, the Jackson 5 and Dionne Warwick would come in to town to hear what he was doing.
Related: ‘Elvis was as pilled up as me!’ Dan Penn on writing hits for Aretha, Otis, Dolly and more
Thom and Linda were a songwriting partnership made in heaven. Linda was in her late 20s, not that much older than us. But she could take a simple phrase like “I love you” and turn it into a story. I don’t know whether it’s true that she wrote You Make Me Feel Brand New just after getting engaged, but she sang it to us with Thom playing piano and suggested the two separate lead vocals. By the time a song reached us, Thom had everything in his mind and would play the piano, creating the recordings with the musicians called MFSB – Mother Father Sister Brother. While he was recording the rhythm section, he’d already know what the horns or violin were going to do. The moment we walked in the studio, it was down to business.
The strange thing with You Make Me Feel Brand New is that, although it got amazing responses from audiences whenever we performed it, our label thought it was too long to be a single. We kept knocking at their door and eventually someone must have said: “These guys are right.” So they shortened it for radio. When we sing it now, 50 years later, fans respond to it like it was just yesterday.
• The Stylistics tour the UK until 30 November.
