Song:Love Jones
Album:70s Soul: Gold
Here's a classic 70s soul one hit wonder that is still a big favourite today. Brighter Side Of Darkness only made one album and that's why their success was short lived. Pre-teen singers have been popular going back to Frankie Lymon in the 50s. Of course in the early 70s, The Jackson Five were one of the biggest successes in pop music and Michael Jackson's youth and his vocals were the main reason for that. So other producers started looking around for similar talent. In the case of Brighter Side Of Darkness, that producer was Eugene Record of the legendary soul group The Chi-Lites. The lead singer of Brighter Side Of Darkness was 12 year old Darryl Lamont. Other members were Chicago high school students Ralph Eskridge, Randolph Murph and Larry Washington. Record got them a deal with 20th Century Records and produced the album Love Jones. The single Love Jones reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the R & B Singles chart in 1973. The song features Lamont's youthful singing and a lengthy spoken word segment very similar to what The Chi-Lites might do. Eskridge and Murph wrote the song with Clarence Johnson of The Chi-Lites. Follow up singles didn't do well and then Brighter Side Of Darkness split up in 1974. They only recorded one album. You can get Love Jones on this 2CD various artists comp from Hip-O. Here's Brighter Side Of Darkness performing Love Jones on Soul Train 1973.
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