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Jesse Coffey


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More Blog Posts1463

Jun
14th
2017

The Main Ingredient - Everybody Plays the Fool/Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me?) in STEREO · 9:27pm Jun 14th, 2017

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ADVISORY: You may see advertisements on some playings, as each song is copyrighted..
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The best known tune of this Harlem-based R&B group is "Everybody Plays The Fool", APKS 5795. In Canada, this classic of the times hit #6; in America it hit #3 pop, #2 R&B. It is one of my mom's favourite records. The B-side of the record comes to us from the musical THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT - THE SMELL OF THE CROWD; it is a show tune entitled "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me?)", APKS 5791. Both sides are from their album BITTER SWEET and were recorded at RCA's Studio C in New York. The 45 was released in the UK on September 22, 1972.

The Main Ingredient, not among the new artists of 1972, formed as The Poets in 1964. Originating from Harlem (as stated), it consisted of Tony Silvester, Don McPherson and Luther Simmons, Jr. They had a few singles for Red Bird. Their RCA career began upon a name change to The Insiders. After a few singles, they renamed themselves again to The Main Ingredient, from a glass of Coca-Cola. The producer Bert DeCoteaux led them to R&B successes with "I'm So Proud", "Spinning Around" and "Black Seeds Keep On Growing".

Tragically, Don McPherson died in 1971, and Silvester/Simmons hired Cuba Gooding as lead singer. The resulting first single with him, "Everybody Plays The Fool" proved a million seller (although it oddly enough never charted in the UK) and went Gold in September; the tune was also recorded by Aaron Neville who had a hit with it in 1991. They next recorded an album mostly penned by Stevie Wonder entitled AFRODISIAC, but it was hit-free; next, they had another million seller in their only UK hit, "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely"; on the R&B chart, "Happiness is Just Around the Bend" (#35 pop) and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" (#92 pop) were two more top-10 R&B hits.

Gooding left the Bronx for LA in the mid-1970s (a song about the exile, "California My Way", is on one of the group's albums), bringing his son, Cuba Gooding, Jr., who later had a brother, Omar. Cuba Gooding, and the rest of The Main Ingredient, lived to see Cuba Gooding Jr. win an Oscar for his performance in JERRY MAGUIRE (Columbia TriStar 82533). You all know, and Buger Sirmon showed you in some of his VHS updates, that JERRY MAGUIRE is mainstay of American thrift stores, as it sold one million copies on its first day of release, another million on its second day, and several million more after that.

Unfortunately, Cuba Gooding, Sr. is no longer with us. Just one week before he was to turn 73, he was found dead in his vehicle while parked on a street in Woodland Hills, California. CPR was performed by the LAFD (Los Angeles Fire Department), who was unable to revive him. An autopsy is pending. The uploading of these tracks, courtesy of RCA Records by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing, is dedicated in his memory and honour.

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