The Washington, DC-based soul/ R&B group The Winstons are frequently remembered today for contributing a vital component to the tool kit of electronic music, specifically a bit of sampled drumming from their song “Amen, Brother” that’s been used so often it’s long been called the “Amen Break.” The original performance is the main impetus for Soul Jazz Records’ new reissue of The Winstons’ 1969 debut album Color Him Father, but a fresh listen to its full contents reveals an interesting and engaging, if stylistically mixed, bag. It’s out on vinyl February 18 with four bonus cuts and a limited bonus one-sided 12-inch holding an extended version of, what else, “Amen, Brother.”
Turning up over 5,000 times on recordings electronic (The Prodigy, Shut Up and Dance, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin), hip-hop (Eric B and Rakim, Dizzee Rascal, N.W.A., Jay-Z, Stetsasonic), turntablist (Roni Size, DJ Shadow), alternative (Primal Scream, Oasis) and pop (David Bowie, Lady Gaga) apparently qualifies “Amen, Brother” as the most sampled release of all time.
Along with closing out the original Color Him Father on Metromedia Records (but not Soul Jazz’s edition, where it’s followed by two of the aforementioned bonuses), it’s the flip-side of the single release of the LP’s title track, which climbed to #7 on the Billboard pop chart in 1969 and was a Grammy winner for Best R&B Song that year, effectively making this reissue more than just “Amen, Brother”-centric.
The original lineup of The Winstons featured Richard Spencer (lead vocals, tenor sax), Gregory C. Coleman (drums), Phil Tolotta (organ, lead vocals), Quincy Mattison (guitar), Ray Maritano (alto sax), and Sonny Peckrol (bass). Along with their respective instruments, Coleman, Mattison, Maritano, and Peckrol all contribute backing vocals, which situates The Winstons as leaning toward the vocal group side of the soul/ R&B spectrum, with their sound being largely built upon finesse and sophistication rather than grit and sweat.
Those who remember “Color Him Father” and its string section-laden uplift (it’s an ode to the positive impact of stepdads) no doubt understand where The Winstons were coming from, but the album drives home a disposition that’s decidedly mainstream to the point of dabbling with easy listening. There’s a version of “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” which was a huge hit for Sammy Davis Jr. in late 1968, and “Traces” by Classics IV, also a big hit that same year, so there is really no other way to slice it.
Neither of these easy listening-soft pop nods are bad exactly, but if Color Him Father was dominated by this sort of thing, Soul Jazz would’ve likely just reissued the single (which they have; it’s available now) and been done with it. Thankfully, the rest of the album is more closely soul/ R&B aligned, as “Color Him Father,” the record’s only original composition (credited to Spencer) sounds more than a bit like The Impressions. I hear similarities to The Stylistics and The Delfonics, as well.
But “Color Him Father” also establishes a fascinating undercurrent on the album through a give and take between R&B and C&W, as Spencer’s song was a country hit for Linda Martell (notably the first black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry), released on Shelby Singleton’s Plantation label in 1969. The song is followed on The Winstons’ album by “The Chokin’ Kind,” which was a #1 R&B hit for Joe Simon in 1969 but only after the Harlan Howard composition hit the country charts two years prior in a version by Waylon Jennings.
I don’t want to overstate this connection, as this was an era when acts (solo and groups) still regularly built careers performing material written by others (and while song interpreters haven’t disappeared, it is far less frequent). However, The Winstons’ choice of material does establish a desire to cross over to the pop charts, and by individuals who’d previously played behind The Impressions and Otis Redding.
While the smoothness of The Winstons is inarguable throughout Color Him Father, there’s plenty of soul verve in the mix, especially in the downright churchy reading of Allen Toussaint’s “The Greatest Love” (first recorded by Lee Dorsey in 1966). It’s one of the album’s highlights, along with an appealing if unembellished take of Sly & the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.”
Between them is “A Handful of Friends,” a crisp number that’s somewhat reminiscent of Lou Rawls, an obscurity written and originally waxed by Don Carroll way back in 1961, a seemingly odd choice for inclusion on the LP, at least until its discovered that Don Carroll produced The Winstons sessions at LeFevre Sound Studios in Atlanta.
Written by Doyle Marsh and George Reneau, “The Days of Sand and Shovels” was a modest C&W hit for Waylon Jennings in 1969, but it was also a pop success for Bobby Vinton and rose even higher on the Easy Listening chart the same year, and it’s Vinton’s version that’s more pertinent to The Winstons’ own recording of the song, which opens side two of Color Him Father.
Far preferable is “Birds of a Feather,” as it retains the essence of Joe South’s 1968 original and with brightness that anticipates the mainstream pop flair of the ’71 version by The Raiders, but with a little more urgency, making The Winstons’ take the best of the three. Even better is a reading of “Only the Strong Survive,” a big hit for Jerry Butler in ’68 (co-written with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff); like the original, this version hits a sweet spot between pop lushness and soul vigor.
That leaves “Amen, Brother,” the last of the album’s 11 cuts as released in 1969. It’s The Winstons’ arrangement of a tune by Jester Hairston that was notably recorded (amongst many other instances) by The Impressions in ’63, the same year the song was heard in the film Lilies of the Field. The gospel flavor is substantial, while also being the funkiest number on the record, though it doesn’t particularly stick out from the rest of the program, other than through its reality as an instrumental.
And as cool as Coleman’s drum break is, I don’t rate “Amen, Brother” as the record’s best cut. That’s either “The Greatest Love” or “Only the Strong Survive.” The bonus tracks, two songs from a non-album 45 rounding out each album side, are largely likeable, with their inclusion helping to counteract the lessening properties of those easy listening-inclined tracks pretty well.
“Love of the Common People,” penned by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, who co-wrote “Son of a Preacher Man,” and yet another song recorded by Waylon Jennings (titling one of his three 1967 albums in fact), is the strongest, while the oft-recorded early 1950s pop standard “Wheel of Fortune” (a distinct strain of mainstream on this edition of the LP) being the weakest.
“Say Goodbye to Daddy” and “Mama’s Song” round out side two, tracks pretty clearly intended to capitalize on the group’s sole hit. Follow-up success didn’t happen for The Winstons, but they achieved musical immortality anyway, and it’s all found here on Color Him Father.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
