Song:You Make Me Feel Brand New
Album:The Best Of The Stylistics
The Stylistics were one of the smoothest Philly Soul groups. You Make Me Feel Brand New was their biggest hit in 1974. Of course the man behind The Stylistics was legendary producer Thom Bell who also produced The Delfonics and The Spinners. The Stylistics was a merger of two late 60s Philadelphia soul groups. Lead singer Russell Thompkins Jr., James Smith and Airron Love were from The Monarchs and James Dunn and Herbie Murrell were from The Percussions. In 1970, they had a regional hit with You're A Big Girl Now and this led to a contract with Avco Records. Avco was owned by Avco Embassy Pictures owner Joseph E. Levine and operated by Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore AKA the songwriting team of Hugo & Luigi. They'd been around since the 50s. Avco asked Thom Bell to produce The Stylistics after his success with The Delfonics. He agreed because he really liked Thompkins falsetto voice and Hugo & Luigi promised to leave him alone. Bell wrote most of The Stylistics songs with lyricist Linda Creed. The two met when both were working for Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff. They wrote a lot of great songs. The Stylistics were very successful on the R & B charts and reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 with Betcha By Golly Wow. You Make Me Feel Brand New reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. The Stylistics were on a roll. This ended when they left Thom Bell and Hugo & Luigi bought out Levine and changed the label name to H & L Records. The Stylistics worked with producer Van McCoy but were missing the Thom Bell magic. And disco was taking over and they didn't adapt very well. Meanwhile, H & L went bankrupt. The Stylistics also recorded for Mercury and Philadelphia International but they faded in the early 80s. This comp is a good intro to their music. Russell Thompkins Jr. tours the oldies circuit with a version of The Stylistics today and Love and Murrell also lead a version of the group. Here's The Stylistics performing You Make Me Feel Brand New on Soul Train 1974.
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