Song:Be Thankful For What You Got
Album:Smooth Grooves: Cruisin' Classics
This song was one of the biggest hits of the summer of 1974. A lot of folks thought it was by Curtis Mayfield but it was the only big hit for William DeVaughn. And it's actually a vanity record. Very unusual. He was born in 1948 in Washington, DC. He was working as a drafting technician for the US government but he grew up singing in church and always wanted to record his own songs. So he paid $900 for a recording session at Omega Studios in Philadelphia. I guess he figured he would make a recording for family and friends. But the musicians at that session were guitarist Norman Harris, drummer Earl Young, bassist Ron Baker and vibraphonist Vince Montana AKA the legendary Philly Soul rhythm section MFSB. Omega VP Frank Fioravanti liked it so much, he shopped it to record labels and sold it to Roxbury Records, a new label owned by veteran music producer Wes Farrell. Be Thankful For What You Got sold a million copies, topped the R & B singles chart and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's a soul classic frequently sampled by hip hop guys. DeVaughn is a devout Jehovah's Witness and preferred preaching to singing and delivers sermons on stage. So though he had a lesser R & B hit with Figures Can't Calculate in 1980, he lost interest in the music business though he released a new CD in 2008. Unlike Al Green, he hasn't been able to find the balance between singing and preaching. There are two versions of Be Thankful For What You Got. The single most of you have heard is 3:26. The longer album version is over seven minutes long and doesn't really add much to the song. You can get the short version on plenty of various artists comps including this one from Rhino that has songs that sound great while driving. Here's a video of Be Thankful For What You Gor by William DeVaughn.
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