Covered: Johnny Bristol: 1966-1974

It's back to the Covered series about great songwriters, and it's back also to shining a light on another little known songwriter for the Motown sound. This time, it's Johnny Bristol.

Bristol's music career began as part of a soul duo called Johnny and Jackey in the late 1950s, kind of an early version of Sam and Dave. They didn't have much success. But one of their singles, from 1961, was the song "Someday We'll Be Together," co-written by Bristol. It was later redone by the Supremes in 1969 and was a Number One hit in the U.S. by them.

The record company Bristol was working for was taken over by Motown Records, so he found himself working for the Motown hit machine. His soul duo had died out by that time. Instead, the leaders of Motown decided he was more valuable as a songwriter instead of a performer. Virtually all of the songs on this album are from his time at Motown. He especially developed a good relationship with Jr. Walker and the All Stars, writing many songs for them.

But his connection with Motown ended around the same time it did with so many others, in the early 1970s, when it almost seemed as if the company was willfully trying to lose most of their talent, as it (foolishly) shifted from Detroit to Los Angeles and from music to movies and TV shows. He left the company in 1973, in part due to frustration that he was never given a chance to be a performer as well as a songwriter.

Unlike many who left, he found a lot of success working for another record company. He very quickly turned into a star, thanks to his performance of one of his songs, "Hang In There Baby." It reached the Top Ten in the U.S., and Number Three in Britain. He had a series of smaller hits through the rest of the 1970s. However, I've only included his one big solo hit here, because this has a focus on his songwriting, not his performances. Besides, in my opinion, most of his solo singles were generic and not that memorable.

He also continued to write hits for others. His biggest success outside of Motown was "Love Me for a Reason," which hit Number One in Britain for the Osmonds in 1974. But he was more successful as a producer, producing albums by Tom Jones, Boz Scaggs, Jerry Butler, and many others.

Unfortunately, also following a pattern with other Motown songwriters, his successes petered out by the end of the 1970s, due to changing musical trends. He died in 2004 at the age of 65.

Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Johnny Bristol - Wikipedia

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 I Can't Believe You Love Me (Tammi Terrell)
02 These Things Will Keep Me Loving You (Velvelettes)
03 Pucker Up Buttercup (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
04 If I Could Build My Whole World Around You (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
05 What Does It Take [To Win Your Love] (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
06 My Whole World Ended [The Moment You Left Me] (David Ruffin)
07 Someday We'll Be Together (Supremes)
08 Twenty-Five Miles (Edwin Starr)
09 Gotta Hold on to This Feeling (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
10 What Is a Man (Four Tops)
11 Take Me Girl, I’m Ready (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
12 I Don't Want to Do Wrong (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
13 Way Back Home (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
14 Daddy Could Swear, I Declare (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
15 Hang On in There Baby (Johnny Bristol)
16 Love Me for a Reason (Osmonds)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17379501/COVRDJOHNNYBRSTL1966-1974BstOf_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ih89BWNi

I found a few decent photos of Bristol from the 1970s, thanks to him having a big hit single then. The photo on the cover is from 1975. I improved it using the Krea AI program.