Singles Going Steady: "What's Happening?!?!" by The Byrds

"What's Happening?" by The Byrds

In my experience, I've found that relatively few people know that David Crosby was a member of The Byrds.  I can't blame them because, for all intents and purposes, he doesn't appear prominently on any of the band's biggest hits.  He augmented and enhanced their sound, but didn't lead the way like Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn did. But this 1966 song, which was a B-side to the major hit "Mr. Spaceman," is the first song that indicated David Crosby's promise as the wildly hypnotic talent he'd become known for as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young).

Much of the song's success is owed to the superb guitar stylings of Crosby and Roger McGuinn.  David Crosby is a king at playing "what the hell did you just say to me?" chord changes. You know the chord changes I'm talking about? The ones that just make you gulp. They're like the musical equivalent of jamming a shovel into the ground or slamming a door. They're aggressive, but they're also damn beautiful.  For all the credit Crosby receives for his angelic vocals and genius songwriting, he certainly deserves more recognition for his guitar playing.  He isn't a guy that can solo for hours—at least I don't think he can—but it's his ability to both discover striking chord voicings and make even the oddest dissonances work that make him a force to be reckoned with on the instrument.  

Then, of course, there's Roger McGuinn, whose trademark jangly guitar sound has influenced so many other guitarists that his style could be the subject of entire books. While his playing had always hinted at the otherworldly, on "What's Happening?!?!" his solos are straight-up psychedelic.  

The composition itself isn't amazing.  In fact, if you said it's underdeveloped, I wouldn't disagree.  And it's awkward lyrically, too.  The first line definitely gets you interested—"I don't know who you think you are." Good stuff.  But when he sings "I don't know what's going on here," it sounds like he truly doesn't know where the song is going.  So this isn't an example of Crosby's best work.  But it does show a songwriter with amazing potential and, given that it was released in 1966, "What's Happening?!?!" sounds almost revolutionary.  I guess that's up to one's own interpretation.  But one thing is clear and that is that David Crosby became a superstar in his own right just a few years later.  You'd can't help but think that greatness was cooking in his amazing creative mind for his whole life.  For a talent like David Crosby, it's almost inconceivable to think that he just woke up one day and had it all figured out.  This guy was probably giving himself chills all the time with the ideas he was coming up with, and for all perks he received from being a member of a famous band—the women, the bragging rights and the musical stimulation—he had to have felt enormously frustrated that he wasn't being offered the opportunity to fulfill his own creative desires.

So for David Crosby, having "What's Happening?!?!" included on a Byrds album may have been the best moment in his young life so far.  And since he wasn't known as a lead vocalist before, Byrds fans probably heard this song and Crosby's gorgeous singing and thought something like "What's Happening?" too. 

"What's Happening?!?!" by The Byrds

Singles Going Steady: "Jump To It" by Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin had so many classic hits in the 1960s that one may not even bother to investigate her career in the decades that followed.  But that would be a mistake, as Lady Soul continued to release quality material that lit up the charts in the 1980s. Jump To It  was released in 1982—the same year Michael Jackson released Thriller, Prince released 1999 and former label mate Marvin Gaye released Midnight Love.  It's not an essential album, but it did hit number one and so did the nearly seven minute title track, which was written by Luther Vandross.

"Jump To It" by Aretha Franklin

Singles Going Steady: "I'm Not Ready For Love" by Promise

The Gerldets, later known as Promise

In 1969, four junior high girls from Washington D.C. seemed to be getting their big break.  They were singers in a band dubbed the Gerldets.  Two of the Gerldets had been performing together since they were eight years old.  Back then, one of their mothers was handling management duties and it's safe to say that her tutelage wasn't exactly bringing the pre-teens the fame and fortune they were craving.

But now, four years later, they were a quartet and the future was looking bright for the girls, who up until that time had only played small gigs, dances and private parties. This was because one of them had a serious industry "in."  Her name was Janice Jones, and her father's cousin was Eddie Kendricks, an extremely talented young fellow who sang in one of the best and most popular groups of its time.  

Here are The Temptations.  Eddie Kendricks sings backing vocals on "My Girl," a legendary number one hit of incalculable importance to popular music.

Eddie Kendricks graced the world with his haunting lead vocals with this song—a hit, which Rolling Stone ranked 389th on its list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

It must have been something for these girls to be just one degree of separation from a genuine star. Chances are, they were probably fans of his and the thought of him giving them a break probably made them as giddy as, well...schoolgirls.  

And Kendricks did help them.  How?  He arranged an audition for the pre-teens with the most powerful person in all of soul music, Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. It was Gordy who had established careers for pretty much everyone in the soul genre, including the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes...

...and the Jackson 5. 

I imagine a couple thoughts had to cross these girls' minds.  Sure, they could be "the next Jackson 5." But, maybe Gordy would do for them what he did for The Supremes and set up a nationally syndicated Jackson 5/Gerldets television special!  At the very least maybe he'd let the girls provide handclaps and backing vocals to the Jacksons' new hit recordings. There was only one way to find out.  The girls met with Barry Gordy and gave an audition.

It's unclear whether Gordy thought the Gerldets were talented.  What is known is that he rejected them and one of the reasons he did was because he didn't want to manage another underage group.  Still, you can't help but think that if the Gerldets truly had that "it" factor, Gordy and Motown would have gobbled them right up.

But despite Gordy's rejection, the Gerldets carried on.  They changed their name to Promise and released a couple singles.  They never achieved any success, which must have crushed them because they flirted with fame A LOT.  Here are three absolutely legendary performers they opened for:

In 1975, the four members of Promise were no longer girls.  They were 18.  College was on the horizon and each woman enrolled at a school somewhere across America.  I can't tell you that much more than that.  But, I can let you hear what they sounded like.   Here is one of Promise's flop singles: "I'm Not Ready for Love," which appears on a compilation called Homeschooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul, which includes 17 songs by obscure kid groups. 

"I'm Not Ready For Love" by Promise