Song:Ooh Child
Album:Crooklyn: Music From The Motion Picture
Ooh Child was the biggest hit by the Burke family R & B group called The Five Stairsteps. They were known as The First Family Of Soul. Clarence Burke Sr. was a Chicago police detective and bassist. He and wife Betty first put their five children together as The Five Stairsteps in 1958. Clarence Burke Jr. was the main lead singer and choreographer. There was also sister Alohe Burke and brothers James Burke, Dennis Burke & Kenneth Burke. James sang lead on Ooh Child. After The Five Stairsteps won a local talent contest, Fred Cash of The Impressions introduced them to Curtis Mayfield and they signed with his Windy City label distributed by Cameo Parkway Records in 1966. They had some R & B hits but Cameo Parkway folded in 1967 and CP executive Neil Bogart took the group with him to his new position as president of Buddah Records. Three year old Cubie Burke was added to the group. They moved to Mayfield's new Curtom label in 1968 and often toured with The Impressions. They finally had their big hit in 1970 with the Stan Vincent written and produced Ooh Child. Vincent had been a producer at Cameo Parkway. It reached #8 on the pop singles chart. It's still a great song and is one of several soul classics on the soundtrack of the Spike Lee film Crooklyn. Alohe got married and left in 1973 and Cubie left. Kenneth Burke started playing bass on sessions and became friends with Billy Preston. Preston introduced the group to George Harrison and they were signed to his Dark Horse label and they had an R & B hit with From Us To You in 1976. The group split up and Keni Burke remained on Dark Horse. He has played bass on dozens of sessions and was also in Bill Withers' band. The Five Stairsteps reformed in 1980 as The Invisible Man's Band and had a disco hit with All Night Thang on RCA. Keni released some solo albums on RCA too. Ooh Child is now a soul standard and has been covered and sampled many times. Gospel artist Donnie McClurkin had a hit with the song a couple of years ago. Here's The Five Stairsteps performing Ooh Child in the 70s.
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