Mr. Tyrone Dubose, Author and R&B Historian

Stan's Special People Spotlight was Mr. Tyrone Dubose, Author and R&B Historian. He is from Cincinnati, Ohio and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Memphis boring and Brad walking the walk and talking and talk.
It's the stan Bell Morning Show weekday mornings from six
to ten am on the Heart and Soul of Memphis,
ten to seventy w.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
D I A.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
That's music to my ears.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
Right there, I got Leon, I fearless leader. Come on
in this thing. You know we we only let folks
in with on air. Light on to only two folk,
the market president and the engineer.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Leon, step up to the mic. You you in it.
This is your w I d B on the radio.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Absolutely, there you go. Man, you got a room of
greatness here to your right. That Tyrone the honors mine.
I'm I'm in the room of greatness with the two
of you.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Tyrone du bois my god. Leo, you're bringing in heavy hitters. Man.
I like this man.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
He is part of he's one of the contributors and
he does so much for TV one's Unsung and Man,
I know you've seen it, seen those episodes.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Man, I like to amazing rewind and bring him back
out on the mand. I like all of them.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
I gotta ask you, man, what is your favorite TV
one Unsung episode? All the artists that they've done.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well of the ones in which I've done, the one
that I didn't do that I think of the most
is the one with the debarges. It was one of
the early ones, but it was one of the most
important ones because it was able to tell the raw
story of these people being able to talk about their family,
and it was pretty difficult to watch the one in

(01:27):
which I did that I think of the most. I've
done almost twenty I think over a little twenty or
thirty of my think But the one I think about
the most is Martha wash who had three number one
singles and didn't get credit for it, and it was difficult.
It was difficult to do that particular show because I

(01:47):
had to say a sense of truth that no one
wanted to say, and I was a little afraid to
do it. And I thought that a lot of her
her problem or issue wasn't the fact that she couldn't sing,
was the fact of the way in which she looked
and the way that way's going and I shouldn't want
to say it, and uh, and I did, and she

(02:08):
was okay with it, and that's a person. And she
got credit and she eventually got paid, but the pay
didn't match the pain if that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Hold on for a second. L you
got some you I gotta take a quick break. But man,
we got leon Is in the building. Yeah, uh not
that Leon from David Rouffing back in the play. I
wasn't gonna say. I wasn't gonna say, but the real
deal Leon L W Man. Good morning to you, sir people.
You got some good folks in here. It was hard

(02:38):
to get him out of that green room. He was
the berries in the in the nuts, in the in
the salad. Maybe I said, come on, you got to
show the dude. You gotta stop showing so much hospitality
in that Green's his cameras in the studio and outside
of the voice.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, you know, he's the guy.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
My mother said, this voice was going to make me
a lot of money or get me in a lot
of trouble.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Always said. My bubblicis has asked me not to comment
on the EU either. It's a lot of babes. Yeah.
Are you an artist yourself? No? I am not.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Believe it or not. Many people ask, but no, I'm
not an artist. I was mentored by Casey Kasem of
American Top forty. That's where I began as a kid,
I would listen to him in Cincinnati, and then one
day I moved it. When I moved to Los Angeles,
I had an opportunity to meet him. And I knew
the pop charts really well, but he was the one
who steered me into the R and B charts. He

(03:34):
said that he believed that R and B was fading
to some degree, and no one knew the history of
R and B enough. And and he taught me a lot.
And he taught me about the importance of cadence and
being able to, you know, tell a story about you know,
R and B master and he was and he and
he knew it very well.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
He knew R and B history very well.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I used to always say to him, I said,
but mister kasum Met. He would go me, Casey, I'm
not calling him Casey's I got a legend.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
I got a question, Yeah, go ahead and put it
on the spot. You have this amazing voice.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
So how has AI voiceovers affected the business? Well, it's
affected it in several ways, but the biggest way it's
affected it is recognizing that there's going to be people
unemployed because of it. In fact, I was inducted last
year into the California Music Hall of Fame, and ironically,

(04:28):
his daughter, Carrie Casem inducted me into the Hall of Fame.
When she was inducting me, she did a AI voiceover
of her dad that was speaking to me, and it
sounded just like mister Caseum, it sounded just like him.

(04:48):
It's it's a big effect, in fact, not only just
for voiceovers, but for music.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
I'm understanding that.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Apparently they're they're bridging the gap of being able to
make music based on AI as well and with with people.
So yeah, it's it's music evolves a lot. It's going
to be difficult of being able to get away from
that because as time goes on, we progress, and so
it's not going to be easy being able to to

(05:18):
do it the old way. As we say in this capacity,
somehow or another, you you can't be better. There has
to be something different about you in order to be
able to continue to work.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
Man. Man, there you go, Leah, that's satisfied that question.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Did okay with it? AI? It's serious and it's here.
He ain't coming is here. Man.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
We're gonna talk more about, uh, the case of case
and all that, who also was like a mentor to me,
he didn't even really realize it. But man, we want
to talk more about that, your experiences, more R and
B music history, the great Tyrone Duboy in the building
all the way.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
From since Cincinnati, Ohio, by way of California, by way
of Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
I got to ide the station, and I gotta give
you a chance to win some money too. How about
a thousand dollars? Boy, you got it Heart and soulo Memphis,
and you'm ten seventy w d I A still your good.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Will and good time station, ten seventy w d IA.
Listen on the free iHeart Radio app for all your
music radio and podcast free never Sound is so good. Yeah,
with a Heart and Soul of Memphis.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Ten seventy w d IA Memphis.

Speaker 6 (06:21):
Now your chance will win one thousand dollars. Just enter
this nature ye keyword on our website bank. That's bang entry.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Now and just like that, we're back.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Let's go, we roll mart. Just like that, we're back.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Not too much breathing room for mister Tyron and we
we got him in the studio and we're not gonna
let him go for another maybe fifty minutes.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Whatever you want.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
That word man. All right, now, let me get back
to Casey Ksum right quick. No, of course he's in
the he's in the Celestial City.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
And we're here still in the land of the dying,
on our way to the land.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Of the living.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
When we think about Casey Kasum, you know, I listen
used to listen to him, you know, as a young
adult wanting to become well, I was an inspiring radio guy,
and you know, so.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
He helped me. It was like homework man.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
It was like I was getting show prep before I
had to do show prep. And he would come on
with that at forty that countdown, right, and do the
top what forty songs across America, the country and then
even when he got to not just the pop songs,
but when he got to the R and B music, man,
he had that kind of as you said, Cadence, as

(07:32):
if he knew the artists, he knew all the background.
I'm sure he had a staff, but he embodied whatever
they wrote for him.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
And then he pretty much knew some of that material too.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
What was amazing about mister k some although he would
always say, you know, call me Casey, and I would go,
I'm not calling this man, Casey, He's a legend. I
never did that, but as like you said, as a kid,
I would be sitting at home and in Cincinnati, it
would come on twenty on Saturday and twenty on Sunday
because it was the top forty.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was ws A. I it was the real deal, Yeah,
but it was.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I think what was amazing about him, stand was the
way in which he spoke. He was telling a story
with each and every show, every song, every person, and
it just forced you to listen. And in my world,
once I heard Casey Caseum, I remember saying, oh my god,
this guy is a genius. And what was amazing about

(08:32):
mister Kayseum is that we would go out, we would
go different places, and I remember that people would walk
over to him and they would take pictures with him
and they would go, You're such a legend. And I
remember one day he turned to me and he said,
they think I'm a legend. Like the legends are the
people who don't know that they're legends. This guy was

(08:52):
a legend, and I desperately wanted to be like mister Kayseum.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
And you know, and you know almost got a leon on.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
You know, back in the day Man, this jockeys were
held high standard. Man, you are a celebrity, this jockeys.
And I think he has some DJ experience, you know,
from back in the day, and whatever led him to
do the syndicated countdown, you know, is because of his
roots or experience in broadcasting on the air. But you know,
you never know, man, you know or so will say,

(09:20):
you never know what people are thinking, who's listening, and
then you know they pull a young no doubt, a
young Casey Casem at the time, and to do that
at Top forty and a lot of even today when
I'm on the radio here at wd I and others
and others in our sister station, I recall moments when
Casey Casem will say so and so out of Detroit,
so and so out of Houston, so on and so top.
You know this little known fact about this artist, and

(09:42):
you know all of the stuff that he did.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Man, these were the things that I would remember so
much about the countdown. That was what kept me going.
He would say, coming up, you know the number one
song in America by an artist or a group or something.
And you wanted to stay stay on that drum roll,
wanted to know exact actly what was going on.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
He had it down.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And it was it was almost it was almost surreal
that this one guy could take a top forty a
billboard magazine and then somehow another make it to what
he did and you know, telling you the position and
the countdown and all of these things. And I met
him by happenstance in in Beverly Hills. I went to

(10:24):
this event and he was there along with a lot
of other LA legends, and I knew he was going
to be there that day and I was like, oh
my god, this is my one chance. And so I
remember going to the bathroom to check to see how
I make sure I looked presentable, and I walked over
to him and he said, I said, mister casem and
immediately it was call me Casey, and I went, I'm

(10:47):
not calling this man, case.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
I know you're out of respect, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
But as time went on, he taught me a lot.
And he was the one who told me, toron, how
much do you know about R and B? And the
truth is is that I didn't know a lot about
R and B then because I was listening to the
pop charts all the time. So he said, I think
you need to learn the R and B charts, because
I feel as though there's no one who knows that

(11:14):
aspect of music history enough. And one day I went
to his home and when I got there, he gave
me a card and it had five hundred dollars on
this card from Barnes and Noble, and he said, there
are books that are waiting for you, and you need
to pick these up this day. These are the books
in which I use for R and B history.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Tell the Di listens.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
We're talking with an award winning R and B history
and television and radio personality and inductee inductee into the
California Music Hall of Fame. He's best known as the
creator and host of A Moment in Music History, a
nationally recognized feature spotlighting the stories, milestones, and cultural impact
of R and B artists, I mean from the seventies

(12:01):
and the eighties. And he's, as we mentioned earlier, contributor
to TV one's Unsung and the recipient of musical awards
and multiple awards, and man, it goes on and on.
We're just so excited to have you, and I know
you mentioned you're excited to be here with w Dias.
You know, the first black formatic station in the nation.
Mister Tyrone Dubie, what a stellar career.

Speaker 7 (12:22):
Man.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I am so grateful, Stan, and I just wanted to
say to your listeners out there, the hospitality, the way
in which I've been treated here in Memphis has been
nothing short of just class. Everybody has been nothing short
of kind. I can't thank everyone here enough of all
the things in which they've done to make me better,

(12:44):
and more importantly, the fact that I'm able to tell
this music history on a daily basis here at WDA
every day. And we're starting with the moment in music
history of Stacks, and I thought that was a great
way to start. So for the month of all I
have spotlighted some of the artists of Stacks. In fact,
all the artists are a lot of the artists, I

(13:05):
should say of Stacks record and I learned a lot
in just that aspect as well.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Man. Well, you know what, we're gonna talk more about it.
We're gonna take another break.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Let the people know that you're here, and you're gonna
be here for a little while, you know, and I
will say on.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Behalf of this great city. Man, You're more than welcome. Man.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
We were glad to have your open arms, man, And
we're trying to get back Tyrone to what we used
to say back to day about Memphis a city the
city of good abode. Yeah, you're from the city of angels, right,
but we try to want.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Up you and you're doing you're doing, and they're doing
a great job. I can't thank them enough, and it
means a lot.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
One of my listeners called me earlier and said, told me, man.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
This is one of the days we didn't hear anything
about breaking news, anything bad jumping off, no news outlets.
You know, nothing about crime, homicide or car jack as
it was just it was it was great to hear
for a change, there was no breaking news. So I
say that to say this, we're trying Tyrone, to get

(14:08):
back to what we used to say, Memphis, the city
of good of both.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I think sometimes we get so caught up in the circle.
We we don't get out of the circle because people
want to keep the bad news aspect of life in
the circle. But Memphis has a lot of history here,
a lot of great history, a lot of great music history,
and I'm of the belief that we need to be
able to show more of that to not just the

(14:34):
people of Memphis, but the people all over the country.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
Say no more. All right, Joe, welcome back everybody.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
It's the Stanbille Morning Show, our special feature that we
do every Friday. That didn't look right, new camera there,
you get a good close up. Okay, we got we
got a visual storyteller in here. And you know, so
we got everything, got all things audio, all things video. Man,
We appreciate that we're talking to our esteem guest, Tyrone,
Tyrone du Boir and man. And you've already heard his

(15:00):
voice and you've heard the knowledge coming out of that
brain he has.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
He's all things R and B and more.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
And we've heard about his trip down memory lane to
one of his mentors from about his mentor, Casey Caseum,
and he's delighted to be a WGI and delighted to
be in our city, Tronto.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Want to turn your mike up.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Let's talk about a little bit about this book, man,
The Four Seasons of R and B Music by Tyrone Duoi,
America's premiere R and B historian. Yeah, what can't give
us a little inkling of what's on the inside.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
So, Stan, what happened is is that COVID had began,
and I remember speaking to a publicist and I said,
I need to find some kind of way to make
put myself in some sense of a different level, not
a better one. And she said, torone, you're already legitimized,
but a book would solidify you as a person of meaning.

(15:52):
There's something that people could refer to. And so at
first I was going to go and do the research
based on what others said were the top ten, but
then I decided, no, pick my own. So I picked
my own based on the top ten of these R
and B singers and acts from the nineteen sixties through
the nineteen nineties. And it was huge for me because

(16:14):
it gave me an opportunity to find out how many
singles they had, how many went into top ten, how
many reached number one. You know, how many people were
blocked from reaching number one, and their.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
History on the charts.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
And what happens is that so many people don't forget
those things, and what happened by doing it that way,
it gives people an opportunity to remind themselves of where
they were during a time in their life.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
And that's how I started the book.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Over the word you mentioned history, who and you came
up with a nice book.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Man, no doubt. I gotta read.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
I got man, I got to get my hands on
a copy of this and just hold on to it
and just you know, cut up wooded so to speak,
and read it. Man, let me do what I'd like
to call a little game. I want to play on
the radio association, name association, how about Artists Association? You know,
kind of a bait and switch kind of thing, call

(17:07):
and response. So what I want to do is, I'm
going to put you on the spot on some of
this stuff. But I know you got it. If you don't,
we'll talk about it. You know, I know in writing
this book you did a lot of research. You got
some stuff in there about in the sixties. You got
some sixties stuff in there, because you know, WDI we
played sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, you know, two thousand, we
played the little stuff too. But let's go back to

(17:29):
all of these eras the sixties. For instance, what was
a big record in the sixties that you perhaps may
have written about in your book, A big record, big artist.
The first thing come to my mind we play, would
you was Eddie Holman Hey, that lonely girl. Was that
like late sixties of the early seventies, It was the

(17:49):
mid sixties.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
And what was unique about the song is that it
was indeed a one hit wonder Now, he had tried
for years of trying to crack the top ten, and remember,
cracking the top ten in sixties for any artist was hard,
particularly because Motown was dominating not just the R and
B charts, they were dominating the pop charts. For example,
the Supremes knocked off the Beatles four different times of

(18:13):
number being number one on the pop charts.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Who I keep let me stop right there?

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Speaking of pop charts, do you know what about the contours?

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Do you love ye? Remember? Do you love big pop record?

Speaker 8 (18:29):
Right?

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Big pop record as well?

Speaker 2 (18:31):
And what's interesting is that and people need to understand
when we talk about the R and B charts, that
means generally African American people are buying your records. If
you cross over from the R and B charts to
the pop charts, then that means that both white and
black people have decided that your records are are are
making motion. It doesn't mean anything less, but it just

(18:54):
means that it simply means that you're you're getting into
mainstream America, which was so importanticularly in the sixties, where
it was the beginning of R and B music. In
the fifties, for example, although that in the nineteen fifties,
that's Domino was the number one artist in the nineteen
fifties by a long shot.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
He was one of the biggest.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
He was bigger than Little Richard and some of the
other artists in the nineteen fifties. But the second biggest
artist on the R and B charts was none other
than Memphiss Elvis Presley. He was number two on the
R and B charts in the in the decade of
the fifth fifties and in the decade of the fifties.
So and it was the emergence of R and B

(19:37):
music where at one time we weren't sure where we
were headed with the music. Remember in the forties it
was called race music. And then in the forties, i
should say, in the nineteen fifties, we were sort of
emerging ourselves into integrating, I'm sorry, integrating ourselves into the
culture of music.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
All right, let's talk about sixties again.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
And one of my favorites and no doubt one of
yours too, I'm sure you got it write about the sixties,
But what about instrumentals. You know, I'm gonna tell you
what comes to mind for me for the sixties, Uh,
Grazing in the Grass Hugh Masekela.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Not only was Grazing in the Grass a great instrumental,
there were many instrumentals soul Finger, There was so many
different artists that reached number one on the R and
B charts, And in fact, soul Finger was a gold
selling single. And this was a group that primarily was
a backup group for you know, Isaac Hayes when in

(20:35):
the beginning of stacks. So what I've realized read right,
you know this reading and others. So what I've realized, however,
is that this group did an instrumental and it reached
number one.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, soul Finger, sol Finger, and and the Grazing of
the Grass as well. And of course who was first,
do you know, was it Friends of Distinction doing Grazes
of Grass or was.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
It Hugh Masekela. It was Hugh Masekela.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
It was first with it, Yes, Treammel and they turned
in and they turned into it. Yes, put put vocals
on that.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Correct, never received a Grammy on that one, but probably nominated.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Nominated, but did not receive a Grammy.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Absolutely, let's let's let's go to some of the honorable mentions. Man,
you know, you can't talk about the sixties if you
don't say Jerry Butler, Wilson, Pickett, Jacket, Wilson.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
And I did the honorable mentions. Because they weren't a
part of the top ten didn't mean that they didn't
deserve to be there. But remember, these sixties were integrating
themselves into mainstream music. That not only included some of
these artists, it included some of the artists, and that
from that went not only to the seventies, but to
the eighties as well.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Oh it is ready words. You know you know what
that's sitting on the doctor Bay. I know you know
the history about it in the song. You know, possibly
I received a Grammy and uh and later he was
possibly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But he left here early this earthly round. But he
left us some pretty good music in the sixties.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Here's what's amazing about the song, otis Redding sitting on
the dock of the Bay. It became the number one
song in America on the pop charts the same week
that Martin Luther King was assassinated right here, right here,
the same week that he was assassinated, it was the

(22:22):
number one song in America on the pop charts.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Man Sitting on a Doctor Bay got a single, got
a Grammy for that cigarette, I got a Grammy.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Aw Man, Sam Cook, I mean sixties.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
And believe it or not, Sam Cooke was just a
snails whisker away from being in the top ten, not
just in my book, but just on the R and
B charts. And remember the only R and B charts
authority is Billboard magazine. While there was Record World, in
cash Box and several others, Billboard was the standard of
what music was all about.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah, gold standard.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
I remember you're talking about doctor mar Luther King Junior
is assassinated.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Man.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Another one of those songs that kind of reflected that
keep on pushing the impressions Man Chicago Man. And you
know even Curtis Mayfield's People Get Get Ready. All that
was in the Civil rights era, right it was.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Indeed, and it was so important too, because people identify
with music. They don't identify with just the incidents itself
or the or the history. They identify based upon music.
When I heard this, I was here. When I learned
this song, I did this. That's what part of the

(23:35):
civil rights movement was all about. And the impressions with
Curtis Mayfield were a big part of that.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Kind of like the civil rights movement, unficial anthem. Ready,
you talk about the Sixes, you got the Miracles, you know,
Smoking Robinson Miracles.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Man, what's up with the name change?

Speaker 4 (23:53):
You always wonder about the you know, the Miracles had
the song It's just I'm just a the machine. And
then later on, ironically they changed the name to Smoking
Robinson and the Miracles. I guess in the sixties, right,
sixty six six Simpson like that?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (24:08):
And then I guess after that, what's in a name? Man?
You know, put him out there.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Part of the issue with that stand is that if
we're not just thinking of Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross wanted
to be Diana Ross and the Supremes. Philippy Winn wanted
to be Philippy Winn and the Spinners. David Ruffin wanted
to be David Ruffin and the Temptations. Bob Bubble says
has asked me not to comment on things of that.

Speaker 7 (24:35):
I can say.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
But many of these people wanted to be the forefront
and believed that they were, and in fact to be
perfectly honest. But with most R and B groups, and
basically with any group, very few groups stayed intact longer
than maybe four or five years, because what happens is
that you've got to get four or five people to
think exactly the same all the time, and somehow or

(25:00):
people want to branch off. They believe that they could,
somehow or another do better than the groups themselves. It
doesn't mean that they do. It just simply means that
they believe that they can do better.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
I'm gonna throw you for a loop.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Now you talk about the sixties, we got to talk
about Bobby Blue Bland.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
My goodness.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
You know a lot of folks don't realize, man, But
of course he was on the R and B charts,
had a lot of music out there.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
And how many probably went to number one? I maybe
one or two several. I think he had a few
that did go to the number.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
We love him in the South, and we love him
in Memphis. We played his music on WGIA.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
One of the main amazing things about the South is
that it had more radio stations than anywhere else in
the country. So the songs that were playing over and over,
and you know, then in radio, it was based upon
radio airplay, and the South had it covered. So Bobby
Blue Bland, although he was big in the South, the

(25:56):
music resonated with people all over the country. And that's
the reason why in the top ten.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
All right, let's move on a name association, word association,
title association.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Maiden switch. Aretha Franklin, Aretha Franklin. Here's what's amazing about
this artist. This artist was the number one female artist
in the nineteen sixties. This artist was the number one
female artist in the nineteen seventies. But what many people
don't know is that Aretha Franklin was the number one

(26:28):
artist in the nine female artist in the nineteen eighties.
All three decades she was a number one, but not
by much. Thirty seven points behind was none other than
Stephanie Mills. Wow, And many people didn't know that. Many
people would have thought it was Tina Turner, or they
would have thought it was some of the others. It

(26:48):
was Stephanie Millsanie, Yeah, it was Stephanie Mills.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
So Stephanie is a queen in her home.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Right, I would say that, And yeah, she was just
here a couple sundays ago. Yeah, And so people understand
that Billboard is based upon a point system, meaning that
it's not necessarily the fact that you've reached number one
several times, it's how long your song has stayed on
the charts, and she averaged fourteen weeks or more on

(27:18):
the charts with many of her singles. Man, all right,
let me throw another one at you. Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye. So,
Marvin gay was so big. He had six different duets
in the nineteen sixties, and his song I Heard It
through the Grapevine was based upon Barry Gordy saying to him,

(27:39):
we need to do that song after Gladys Knight did it.
Then he turned around and did it, and the song
went to number one. At first, yes, a little more
of tempo, right, and then then Marvin Gaye did the song.
The song went to number one and was the highest
number one song in history on the Billboard Pop Chart

(27:59):
because it stated number one for several weeks, for seven
weeks until Rod Stewart Tonight's The Night broke the record.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
Man, ladies and gentlemen, we're in the studio with the
R and B historian, you laying it down, doc and
making it perfectly clear about R and B music. Man,
I you know, I couldn't close the sixties decade without
asking you about one of the greatest R and B
groups in my opinion, the Temptations.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
The Temptations are the number one R and B group
in the history of R and B period. There's nobody
that work was better than the Temptations, and there's no
there will never be any duplication of a group of
that nature. They put it down so well, and they

(28:50):
consistently were reaching the top ten in the sixties, in
the seventies and a couple of times in the eighties
as well.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
That is all right, WDI listens all your friends and
neighbors to turn up w d I A on this
Friday morning. R and B music is what we're talking about,
the four seasons of R and B music with America's
premier R and B historian, Tyrone Dubois.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
I'll be right back. Hey, nothing nothing like none other.
W D I A. You know the ACROADYM. We did
it again? Is that what that means? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (29:23):
You know rufus Thomas had said, uh, we've done it,
integrated again. The dog Ruf was just tended like he
should get it. W I stads, so we don't integrated again.
That's the dog. You talk about R and B music
and ligends man, I tell you he was, so those

(29:44):
of you just tune in. I hope that's not the case,
but it happens. We're talking with author an R and
B extraordinary historian Tyrone Dubois.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Now check this out.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Not only does he know his rhythm and blue, you
knows pop two and other genres. We've been talking this
morning about music, which is, we say affectionately, the universal language.
I remember you Tyrone saying, sum to the fact, it's
not just necessarily just the music, but it's where you
were when that particular song of that music came out.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
And that's very important, Dan, because whenever you play a
song here on the radio, people immediately go back to
when they first heard the song or something that was
very important in their life. And I've learned that particularly
even when I, you know, do the moment in music history.
Every once in a while, I say, this song reached
number one November something, nineteen seventy two, and people say
either that's my birthday, or that's when someone was born,

(30:40):
or that's when something happened in a part of their lives,
and the dates were so important with that. And I
learned that from Casey Kasem as well, and that helped
me a great deal of being able to figure out
way to not be better, because a lot of times
people believe that they have to be better about what
they do. What makes us better is trying to figure
out what makes us different, and different always gets us

(31:03):
what we want. It doesn't matter what we do in life.
You're doing the great job you do here the staff
here at wd IA, whether the person's a janitor or
there or there a restaurant worker, there was something different
about you that got you that job. Not better. Better
comes with expectations, and I had to learn that. So
everybody should be celebrated about the work in which they

(31:24):
do and recognize that there's something different about you than
everyone else.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
Something different about you and everyone else. So, yeah, you're
not better, You're different.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Nique yea. Yeah, absolutely, you're something different.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Now I'm a segue into the seventies in just a
little bit, and I also want to talk about some
of the top stories of that decade. But before we
do that, I you know I I had to hit
myself over the head.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
How can I leave the.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Sixes without mentioning this to you, the Godfather? Yes, soul
Brother number one.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Here is a interesting typic.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
I did the unsung for James Brown, and I remember
that when James Brown originally started, he started and he
was crossing over to the pop charts with I Feel
Good and All and Papa's Got a brand new bag.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Sam. He kept crossing over.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
After the assassination of Martin Luther King, he wanted to
do this song I'm Black and I'm Proud Now. I
don't to be fair, I don't know who said it,
but someone apparently said to him and warned him, I
don't think this is great for you to do now.
So he did the song, and the song did reach

(32:31):
the top ten of the pop charts. What's unique, however,
is that James Brown never touched the top ten of
the pop charts again until Sylvester Stallone asked him to
do Living in America, and he reached the top ten again.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
What is it light drop slot?

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Sylvester Stallone rocket asked him to From what I understand,
the part. I don't know the whole part made Julie,
but I do know that he said he wanted a
whole new generation to know who James Brown was and
asked James to do the song living in America.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
And he did me.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
So from saying loud, I'm black and I'm proud to
living in America.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Now, keep in mind, I'm speaking of the pop charts
in that regard. Otherwise, he continued to continue to do
very well on the R and B charts. In fact,
James Brown was the number one artist in the nineteen
sixties and the nineteen seventies.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
You wrote in your book The Four Seasons of R
and B Music. Not only has James Brown revolutionized music
as well as a race of people, James Brown revolutionized, revolutionized,
let me say it right, revolutionized a nation.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yes he did. He certainly did. I mean.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
And the fact of the matter is is that we
needed James Brown. We didn't know that then, but somehow
or another, everything that this man touched at one point
turned to gold. And he never quipped. He'd never quit
in the sixties or the seventies or the eighties. He
continued to move and that was one of the most

(34:12):
important aspects of not just black history, but music history.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
All right, give me your.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
We have a listener that comes calls from time to
time and says, here's my top five. I'm gonna give
you my Jackson's Jackson's top five. Yeah, we gotta call
it him Jackson. But I'm gonna put your kind of
like on the spot. I need to know if you
can your top five one hit wonders. And I'm gonna
give you a minute to think about it. You know,
because of the seventies. Let's do it like that to

(34:42):
be fair of the seventies. Your top five one hit wonders.
If you got him, let's go. Clock is starting now.
I'm going to say top five one hit wonders. There
are so many. I give me one. I'm gonna give you.
I'll give you two of my favorites. Float on, Float

(35:03):
on the floaters, the floaters. I ain't heard anything else
from them. I know they probably have something else. But
they did what the nest and one hit won this.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
So this group from Detroit made a song based upon
their introductions whenever they were doing music, and they decided
to turn that into a song.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Oh man, So the song goes.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
All the way up the charts, reached number one on
the R and B charts, but then it goes to
number two in nineteen seventy seven and would have reached
number one, but got caught between one of the biggest
battles in the history of the pop charts, between the
Emotions with best of My Love and the first time

(35:44):
newcomer name Andy Gibb.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
I just want to be here every year and again
broke through the Chest was his year.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
And between the two of them they battled number one.
First it was Andy Gibb for a couple of weeks,
then it was the Emotions for three weeks, then it
was Andy Gibb for a week, and and the Emotions
again for a week. And then in the middle of
them was float On at number two, and they jumped
over him twice.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
And that's the reason why they didn't reach number one on.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
The Man was a monster hit Man nineteen seventy seven.
Float On all right. My other thoughts about one hit
Wonders has a huge corporation.

Speaker 9 (36:19):
Never did anything other than rock the boat. Well, they
did do rock the boat. They did rock the boat,
and they did rock and soul. They did both of them,
and it went to I think about number fourteen or fifteen.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
It was their follow up on the on the R
and B charts. Yes, but Rock the Boat was pretty
much the one hit won. That was their one hit
wonder Ironically, they switched with rock Your Baby. They're on
the pop charts, yes, George McCrae, and then Rocked the

(36:51):
Boat went right over them.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
So the Rocks the Rocks was big stuff. Rock the Boat,
Don't Dip the Boat over or rock Rocking, Rock all three.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah, there was a year of the Rocks.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Rock All Three went to number one.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
I call it the year of the Rocks man.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Talking about one hit won, as folks, what about ring
My Bell Memphis own Anita Ward?

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Anita Ward, what a smart move on her for her?
She replaced Donna Summer on the as the number one
artist on the pop charts for not just one but
two weeks, which was amazing, particularly in that time in
nineteen seventy nine, because seventy nine was probably the biggest
year of disco, and you know you got the Beg's

(37:40):
who had six consecutive number one singles and that was broken.
But I can't tell you who's going to the I
A okay, yeah, in the moment in history history. But
the Begi's we were the crown of the of the
pop charts and disco and Donna Summer and then Donna

(38:00):
all of that, and then of course what she did
a song with barbar streisand as well, and so the
nineteen seventy nine aspect was the last of disco, but
they just burned the charts up.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
If you didn't get it in about seventy nine over yeah, yeah, yeah,
they were laughing about disco at some point in time,
you know, breaking the records and saying, oh so much
for that. So if you didn't get it in the
seventy five, seventy six, seventy seven through that particular latter
part of the decade, you could cancel Christmas. The Five
Stair Steps, O Child, Have they done anything else?

Speaker 3 (38:36):
The Five Stair Steps hit.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Actually, they did do a couple of other songs, but
the biggest part of them that they the five Stairsteps
were based upon. Their name was based upon their age
group and how they looked on the steps.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
That's where that came from.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
And as time went on, they didn't have a couple
of other singles then, but they were just their biggest
song is the one in which we remember the most.
They did a song called this Is from Us to
You in in the mid seventies.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
I'm not familiar with that, but this wow, all five sisteps. Yes,
ooh child, so this is from us? Oh that came afterwards. Yeah,
that came fit. But it did it chart, I mean
did it placed? It placed, but it placed in a
in a good way.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
But you know, again, if you were just doing slow
music in the in the disco area, it.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Didn't do a whole lot.

Speaker 7 (39:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
There are a few exceptions. Commodores were good. There were
there were a few other R and B songs and
people then. But of course, but you know, Johnny Taylor
set the standard after, you know, in Disco Lady in
nineteen seventy five, and it just and it just took
off from there.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
All right, it's gonna take it off. I gotta take
a break, man, it's getting rich.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
All right. Now, what we're gonna do is WD I listen.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
I'm gonna open up the phone lines if you have
any questions or comments of thoughts about what you're hearing
on the radio. From author and R and B historian
Tyrone Dubois. You can call nine O one five three
five nine three for two eight hundred five zero three
nine three four two oh eight three three five three
five nine three four two be right back. Anybody wants
some money, let me drop off one thousand dollars for

(40:10):
you right now.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Hopefully you can get it.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
Let's go your champs to win one thousand dollars. Just
enter this nature y keyword on our website. Check that's
check entry.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Now you heard the lady c h E c K.
You said, tyrone, no finance, no romance. See h e
c K right, you get no finance without romance. So
you gotta get that money.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
One thousand dollars up for grabs right now.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Enter that word.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
Check to my wd ia dot com in dot com
and look right in the lands with that one. We
got cameras all over the building. Tyrone, Are you special?

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, it's kind of kind of cool, but it's worth
it to be here with your wonderful uh, your wonderful
fans here and then the people here at Memphis. It
means more to me than you can ever. I definitely
want to thank them for the pleasure of their time.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
So all right, not on one five three five, nine
three four two eight hundred and five zero three nine
three four two or eight three three five, three five
nine three four two before I get out of the seventies, man,
I couldnot. They take away my sec license, they take
away anything I know about radio. If I don't mention
some great artists of the seventies, I'm just gonna go
down the line real quickly.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Very white, very white, and believe it or not, he
really really burned the charts up, not just with his
R and B singles, but with his albums. He had
like three or four platinum albums, which was was unique
in itself.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very white to man, Marvin Gaye. Did
we talk about Marvin? I don't think we did.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Marvid gay is by far just one of the gems
of R and B music. This man revolutionized music and
in fact, the song that he did not to give
it up, he put twenty five people in a room
to make that sound of a party.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
He put them all in there one just jam and
they just jam. No but no standing on. What was
it on the wall? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Of course, my favorite, the iconic classic What's going On?

Speaker 3 (42:10):
What's going On?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Was not a song that Barry Gordy even wanted to
come out, but the last second he said he would
and it was an iconic single, actually iconic not just
for R and B music, but for African Americans. Tyrone Davis,
Tyrone Davis, amazingly is one of the few people that
people didn't realize that he was actually on the bubble

(42:33):
of so many artists. And this is part of the
Southern singing that people that aren't aware that he was
actually a great singer.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
No doubt, we played a lot of his music on WGI.
He turned back the hands of time. Show wasn't me?
You didn't see my hat? Besides, somebody admit some other
turning point all of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Man, I think turning point reached some one. I think
a turning point did reach number one.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
A right. One of my favorites, earth Wind and Fire.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Here's what's amazing. Believe it or not, the seventies were
so big. Earth Wind and Fire was not part of
the top ten of the nineteen seventies. Wow was not
part of the top ten on what charge on the
R and B chart about sty No, there are singles
were I'm saying about overall this groom in the decade

(43:28):
of the nineteen seventies.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
They were not part of the top ten. What seventies
were so big?

Speaker 2 (43:33):
In fact, there were there were artists that you that
were missed.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Who good stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Finally, this man right here, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder was
not a part of the top ten in the decade
of the seventies.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Carols that like mar Povid is somebody you are not
the five. All I need to do is all I
need to just run off stage. But this is good
stuff right here.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah, No, but he was not was not. He was
not a part of the top ten. The seventies were
so big. In fact, this was the reason why I
did some honorable mentions and move some people around. But honestly,
one of the people that, believe it or not, that
was a part of the top ten on Billboard's Top
R and B acts that shocked me was Joe Simon.

(44:32):
He was part of the top ten. Man, It's interesting,
I was shocked. I know a lot of WDI listens.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
Man, I love to hear that they love Joe Simon. Man,
you got some of his people live in this area.
Can we go to the phone line if you don't mind. Absolutely,
I forgot to tell you the top at the top
of the show that it's the Tyrone Dubois.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
No, no, it is the city of Memphis and me
as there.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
Yeah, let's go delicately the phone line up. Let's get
lets get some calls in there. Good morning, thanks waiting,
you're on the radio.

Speaker 10 (45:06):
Go right ahead, Good morning, standing, Good morning, Tyrone Dubrah.
I want to I want to thank you for coming
out with Unsung. I am the biggest fan of Unsung,
and you know, just a couple of months I was
wondering if you were going to start back door artists
on Unsung because I'm sung. We have a whole new generation,

(45:31):
and you introduced all the music back out to this
new generation. I would go to work and I would
hear them and that's singing that because of Unsung. So
we thank you for that. And one more, one more person,
I want to hold the line. If we want to
see you do an artist on unsung and a brewder's

(45:51):
life story. How do we let you know who who
we want to see?

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Well is her name? Nancy?

Speaker 2 (45:59):
I am let me begin by thanking you so much
for your call. Part of the problem. I'll begin with
the Unsung was a part of a revolution because people
saw the glory, but they didn't know the story, and
they needed to know a lot of times people always
see the glory part. People don't want to hear the

(46:22):
story about how people have everything. People want to know
the stories about people who men and women and groups
who endured pain and turned their struggles into a gift.
And for a lot of these artists, it was painful
for them to see some of these acts on.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Television.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Nancy, However, I can tell you there's a lot of
artists that we weren't able to do because they didn't
want their stories out there, and we have to respect
that and a lot of this. In fact, one of
the artists in which I did, we had to go back.
I won't say their name or the group, but we
had to go back and do it again because they
didn't want a part of a story in which they

(47:07):
felt as though they wanted to erase. They didn't want
it on the air, and in order for us to
do that story, we had to go back and do it.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
NaNs, how about that? Was that good for you? That
was good?

Speaker 10 (47:19):
But I can't say this much. You made me crown
at this the barge s.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
I believe Nancy that the the barge one I think
to this day was the number one. I think it
was the number one show that they did for Unsung.
I think it was number one.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Yeah, Grand Rappers Michigan. Yeah, by way of Detroit. Nancy,
thank you so much. Let's take another call of w
d I A you on the radio, your turn tag
you it?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Hello?

Speaker 8 (47:45):
Hello?

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Yeah, go right here?

Speaker 8 (47:48):
Okay? How about Many Rippertons?

Speaker 3 (47:52):
What about it?

Speaker 4 (47:53):
Have they done a nutsung or does you want to
hear a little bit of a tyrone story about her
little known facts?

Speaker 3 (48:00):
What you know what?

Speaker 10 (48:02):
I hit two two, going at once, talking like it's.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Like a boy shover. Don't worry about that.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
You are you?

Speaker 4 (48:10):
You come through loud and clearly you probably got your
delay on. You're listening on the apps. What about Many?

Speaker 3 (48:14):
You want to know?

Speaker 8 (48:16):
Just anything about Many ripper and and the one hit wonder?
Ron what's that running Dyson?

Speaker 6 (48:23):
If you let me make to you all right?

Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yeah, he's listening, Thank you, mal Vena words. First of all,
Ronnie Dyson, like so many other.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Groups and artists and acts, we can't get them all in,
but all of them should be recognized as far as
I'm concerned because I think all music is so important.
Another group that we didn't do that I wish we
did was the Stylistics.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
I really wanted to do that one. But it's contingent
upon been alongside all the groups had.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Part of it is you have to get enough people
to want to do it. And you know, so everyone
that you've seen on Unsung are those who were willing
and cooperated, that wanted to do it. Everybody doesn't want
their story out there. Everybody doesn't and that's hard for
some people. That's hard for him to relive it. Yeah,
let's go back to the phont lines. A good explanation

(49:26):
on that one. Wdi A. Let's go over here, line
six w d GOO Morning in the radio, Your turn, Yeah,
got a question comment, I guess, go right.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Here, Yeah, go ahead, you're there, Hey.

Speaker 7 (49:38):
Saying stacked music. Man's over the last fifteen years, I've
been in ah listening to hip hop back in the
eighties and the early nineties, they borrowed a lot from stacks.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (49:51):
It's whereas Motown. I was up and I was up
in Detruck bout a month ago, and I was asking
the locals y'all here stacked music. A lot of people
say they didn't hear of it. One way said yeah, yeah.
With with the X, I said yeah. But uh, visiting
up that motown, I see that they disbanded in seventy
three and went out west, you know. So uh the

(50:14):
music that I heard, I guess coming out that little
house up there Detroit was mainly during the sixties in
the early seventies. And I was just I was I
was relaying to all the people, Man, look that that
that that's in that motown had a lot of hits,
and like I said, that the hip hop community borrowed
a lot from it. I just want to mention Iley Brothers.

(50:35):
When they brought the three younger guys on there, they
invented funk. And I believe funk is like a deviation
from R and B. You know, but you also have
joint playing parliament and funk and delli that really they
they music covered a couple of generations, and they started
off in du wop and then went on to this
where they had everybody straighten their hair out in du wap.

(50:58):
Then they went on into uh, the R and B
and the funk. So I just I just like the man.
I like to command all that. Man, it's a big
inspiration to me. Mister w You're not You're not related
to Tenant du Wi Blona from Good Times, are you?

Speaker 1 (51:14):
No?

Speaker 2 (51:14):
But uh we met several times and you used to
always say we were related, but we were not related.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
You know, we weren't.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Okay, that's a big question, man, Thank you, man, you
you man like that.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Let me just if I could just say something one
thing he said about Funk. Believe it or not, Most
people think that Funk was Parliament Funk a Deelic and
all these people were the father or you know, a
big part of Funk. But Funk really didn't start until
the Barcas. Actually the Barkas were the one from Sax Records.
In my opinion, that were really the people. They called

(51:52):
it something else in that time. But I believe that
the Barcades from Sax Records actually was a powerhouse in
the department.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Yeah, James, allis Xander And then you mentioned just text
me see on his way you want to meet you.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
That's my guy. I know him very well. Yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, I know, yeah, I love that guy. Yeah, man,
that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Man.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
You talk about the Acts of the seventies, Temptations, the
Old Jays.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
What's amazing is the consistency of these groups reaching the
top ten of the R and B charts, particularly the Temptations. Remember,
people have to know the difference between relevance and reinvention,
and the reinvention of you requires that you have to
either change with the times or the times change you.

(52:41):
And so the Temptations were able to do that, as
well as the Barcads and so many of these other groups.
That's what you needed to do, particularly and the Odjas
as well, remember they used to be My Girl actually
reached the crossed over to the pop charts and reached
the top ten as well. And part of that was
because of a sense of reinva avention and not relevance.

(53:02):
And that's that's what made R and B music part
of the mainstay of American music.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
And it was right in the middle of the disco era,
to which.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
My Girl, which dand is so hard people don't really
understand the depth of being able to continually crack the
you know, the R and B charts as well as
then remember one of the best groups in the era,
the number one group in the nineteen seventies was the
Jackson five. Twenty five of their twenty eight singles reached

(53:33):
the top ten, and one of those that didn't reach
the top ten reached number one fifteen years later with
the group Troop with All I Do Is Think of You.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Pull a backup.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
So Troupe recovered Jackson five, All I Do is Think
of You, right, yes, and they went with number one
with that song.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
With that song, with the song that the Jacksons of.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Only one of three of their songs didn't reach the
top ten, that one didn't, but it crossed over there
and it's funny, Ben just a quick Jackson five thing.
Tito Jackson before he passed away, he and I were
friends and he called me one day and he heard
something on the radio and he said, I think it
was Casey Kasem's old show or something where they had

(54:18):
this thing about which family group had more top you know,
had more singles?

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Was it that, you know? And you looked at it
based on what group had the most singles or what
top or just the most singles hit the charts. Because
I was going to ask you about I'm gonna take
a while.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
I guess no, what between and this is between all
the groups in the in the nineteen seventies, if we
looked at it just by family in itself, a family
group is what this is all about.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Family.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
If I looked at it as just the family group itself,
it would have been Donnie and Marie by long shot.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
But I mean the Osmond brothers.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
But I took out Donnie and Marie because they were
a separate entity at that point. So then it came
down to the Jackson Five and the Carpenters, and between
the two, both of them reached the charts. And I
was telling Tito this, I said, he said, I think.
He said, I think we've beaten them out, and I

(55:25):
said no, I said, the Carpenters beat you out by one.
And then he said no. He says, you're missing the song.
I want you back. He says, you didn't put that
in there, And I said, I didn't put that in
there because I couldn't because the song was released in
nineteen sixty nine. But you reached number one in nineteen seventy.

(55:46):
So that's the reason why that's history. You're absolutely right. Yeah, man,
he still loves me. You're right, he said, love me.
You know, you listened to the show from the Celestial City,
you know, right, that's right, absolutely, And some of the
people in my phone.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Ironically, when someone asked me, Tarne, who's some of the
famous people in your phone?

Speaker 3 (56:05):
That's good question.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
One of those famous people, of course, that I've left
in there was Casey Casem Tito Jackson, and believe it
or not, the woman who played Mary Anne don Wells.
She is one of my she was one of my
dearest friends. Yeah, she and I were great friends. Wow,
don well Yeah, she and I were great friends. One

(56:27):
of the some of the people that are in my
phone now who are not amongst these celestionis that's interesting. Yeah,
it would be Frank Stallone, so Bester Stallone's brother. He
and I are great friends. We've been in fact, both
went into the Hall of Fame together. Cheryl Underwood. She
and she really helped me to get to where I
am today by being on her show for years. Kim

(56:50):
Whitley and my brother Ernest Thomas, who if I didn't
mention him, he will text me and cause problems.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Yeah, from what's happening now?

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Yeah? Yeah, for Johnity brother by the way, Uh yeah,
so man, this is rich. Obviously we've extended Stan Belle's
Special People spotlight well into the tent like our acts
about a quarter past. Uh man, my line is lightened
up like a halo. Man, it's all love. Yeah, yeah,
and uh let's go. Let's take a one on WM
on you in the radio. Tyrone Dubois a special guest.

Speaker 11 (57:23):
Yes, Stan, I want to thank you for this show.
This is a great show and I will listen to
him all day long. But I have a couple of questions.
Do you plan on doing anything on say like s
so It's Band, Lucian's g Q, Frankie Beverly gat Band,
any of those. Okay, I haven't seen on songs on

(57:45):
Bowse And I have one more other thing to say.
My favorites were Johnny Taylor and lou Ralph. I could
not believe the stuff that Johnny Taylor had been doing
in his life, and Lou rals I was really surprised
to how he was.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
One of the things particularly about Johnny Taylor, he is
one of the few African American or R and B
singers that ran the entire genre of music R and B,
do wop, gospel, he went jazz, he blues, He's done
it all.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
He was.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
And by the way, Johnny Taylor was the first artist
in American music history to have a platinum single with
Disco Lady Wow seventy five seventy six.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
Yes, thank you man for that call. I appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (58:30):
And we're we're gonna get into some messo wes and
loose hands and all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Just you know, listen, just real quickly.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Let them know that when my show comes on at
the end, all they need to do is push the
microphone button on the iHeartRadio app and let them know
on MYWDA dot com you know someone in which they
want to listen to, and I'll make sure I shout
their name out on the radio.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
All right, there you go. We've been talking with R
and B historian extraordin that. Can I throw that pot
on this? Yeah, man, as long as I don't have
to spell it. TV one Unsung contributor Tyrone Dubois got
a new book out too before sequel.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Actually, this book's been on it's been out a couple
of years.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
But it went to number one for eight weeks, which
was great, and I made it a point to make
sure that it was cheap. I didn't want anybody trying
to you know, my management said no, you can make
more mo. I was like, no, no, this is this
is black history. I don't want to make money off
of our history. I need people to understand our history.
And that's the reason why I made it so cheap.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Permission from the program the record. Go take a few
more phone calls and then and then we'll.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Wrap it up. Wi I come on you on the radio. Yeah,
talk to us.

Speaker 8 (59:37):
Hey, I'm going to ask this bois called the Eldrich.
Uh does he remember them? And they had one hit
that I can remember that I really loved and if
they did anything else after this, the song called it

(59:58):
was called Downing Baby by the Elder Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
I remember that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Ironically, the Elgins, so many people moved away from the
Elgins and they went into separate groups believe or that
included Joe Jackson of the Jackson first part of the Jacksons.
He was a part of there as well, and a
couple of other people that were with the Elgins moved
on to different groups as well.

Speaker 8 (01:00:20):
Okay, well that was one that was Oh I think
I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen or sixteen or seventy when
they came out and one of the first time I
heard the songs I had met this stubble, and I
will remember that from this day on. And I still
know that song, Darling David, thank.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
You, yes much, all right, thank you man, appreciate that honor.
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
I've got to email her right here, mister d Watt Tyrone,
hi stain when you proposed the question to your guests
about the nineteen nineties to early two thousands, Marvin Gaye
an artist that sounds like him?

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Do you remember who they might be?

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
And many also thought he was the son of Marvin
Kay if I can remember correctly, he did not make
but maybe a few songs, but he sounds like him.
I pray that he can answer the question. Have a
great weekend. That's Patrice Harris.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
I can't try quite remember the only person that I
could remember, but I think Miles Jay sounded more like
Teddy Pendergrass, but that was in the eighties.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I don't know exactly what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
But you know what, if you ask me this question
on WDA, my WDA, I will get you an answer,
young lady, I will definitely get you an answer, all.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
Right, This w D listener, right, So good morning, Stan,
Thank you so much for this valuable information of the
music of my time. Great info as Dennis Jones, another
WDI listener. Right, so, whatever happened with David Oliver min
the song me is he's.

Speaker 11 (01:01:43):
Just drum Did you guess some man.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Way David Oliver one hit one? Well he had I
want to write you a love song?

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Yeah, he had.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
But the other problem is is people need to understand
that times changed with people and you you know, you
get there, you need to be able to hit it
right off the bat. But you have to also understand
people don't really make their money off of the music.
They make their money off the concerts. A lot of
times people think, oh, I'm bringing in all this money
because I'm I'm doing this a lot of our.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
All the time. Yeah, and a lot of the name is
all over the place. Doesn't work that way. David All
was a great singer as well. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
Man, that's a good question. And you know, and the
way you explain it, you know, because a lot of
folk don't know what you're right. It's with the concerts
where they kind of pretty much get a piece of change, yes,
but not off the album.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
If you think about it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
For example, people people don't really buy music very much anymore.
You know, they're making their money. Usually the artists are
off of concerts. If you take a record that you bought,
for example, back in the day for thirty or ninety
nine cents or a couple of dollars or so, there
are a whole lot of people eating out of that
to where there's you know, not a lot of room
bleff for the for the artists. There's ar and there's

(01:02:55):
you know, the publicity and all the other things that
go into it, and by the time it's over, there's
not a whole lot of money left for the artist.

Speaker 4 (01:03:03):
Listener writes, good morning, standing to your guest. As a
former DJ, I listened to lots of music from different
artists and genres. However, there was no greater soul singer
than Jay Blackfoot from Memphis given named John Colbert, where
he lived and recorded mostly from stacks.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
I would love to ask you.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
To do a future talking to you Tyrone and Gary
and those were unsung on the Soul Children and maybe
later on Love.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
The Soul Ja Blackfoot.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
In fact, Bunny, you should mention that I am actually
on the wd I A for the bon with music
history I'm doing a part on the Soul Children.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
I am doing G Miles. Thank you for that one man.
That's awesome. H l J. Reynolds, you know anything. If
y'all done an unsung on LJ. Reynolds, we know facts,
we win and all that kind of stuff. We did.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I believe we did do something on the dramatics we did.
I think he's the last of the dramatics that's left.
I believe I do see him on tour. In fact,
I think I was with him on the Soul Trained
tour last year. But these artists, as they get older
are harder to come by. Let me give you an example.

(01:04:18):
Two groups, the group heat Wave and Brick, although they
are touring, do not have any original members.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
What neither do Timberton gone, Yeah, so let's just see it. Wow. Yeah,
So a lot of these groups don't have them.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
So what you get are people who were formerly a
part of the group to some degree and then they
just kept the group going. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
All right, speaking of going and going, man, I gotta
wrap up the show reluctantly. Maybe uh, you can stick
around and do a little something in at eleven o'clock hour,
if you know, we let you kind of regroup, go
to the green room.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
I can go to the green room and get those
grapes in protein and all that stuff. I can do
it at eleven o'clock hour. What says happiness better than right?
We got some planners, the planters for me, Maxwell Apartment, Coffee.

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
Maxwell Apartment. I saw that. I did see that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
It's no longer Maxwell House, Maxwell Apartment, Maxwell Apartment.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Fear not, young people, if in the event you still
want the Maxwell House flavor, they still have that as well.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Wow, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:05:32):
All right, listens, man, it's been a you know what,
Tyrone has been a joy man. I mean, we could
go on and on with this. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
May I just say to the city of Memphis, thank
you so much for the pleasure of your time and
the hospitality and the love. And I am so grateful
and thankful to Tracy Butteah who said yes to me,
Barry Martin as well as who good friend of mine.
But more importantly to you, the listeners. I'm honored if
you just give us a give me an opportunity to

(01:06:04):
listen to me a few times a day on WDA,
and I will be doing the moment music history. If
there's a favorite artist in what you want, make sure
you push the button on the microphone of the iHeartRadio
app and I would be honored to do your particular
artist or group and I'll make sure I mention you

(01:06:25):
by name.

Speaker 4 (01:06:25):
That is so, we've been talking with R and B
historian Tyrone Dubois man if you know him from the
hit TV one series Unsung. He's live in the studio
with me. He's been sharing stories about the artists we
play on WDIA. Also, as he mentioned, he's got a
brand new feature coming to our radio station. His title,
A Moment in Music History is one minute Vignettes and

(01:06:46):
Tyrone is hosting them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
It's going to highlight their.

Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
Lives and careers of minute belove artists and spotlight artists
who are hot on the charts back in the day.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Can't wait. It kicks off Monday this Monday. Looking forward
to it. Once again, Thank you so very much.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
Be sure to spread it thing on social media. You know,
we encourage you to spread the word on social media. Man,
all these channels we will to drive this excitement. And
of course, so we're going to do the same thing,
keep you, keep you engaged all through the month of October.
And leading up to our seventy seventh anniversary. Here, Wdia,
I listen. Yeah, Tyrone, I'm on social media as well.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
You can reach me at Tyrone du Bosse on all
social media platforms and I will follow you back.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
He's on and popping.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
It is the Stan Belle Morning Show weekdays from six
to ten am on the Heart and Soul of Memphis.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Ten to seventy wd I a