Gonna shred the rad this weekend, no denyin'. Might as well post this latest ear worm: Larry Williams and Johnny Watson's "A Quitter Never Wins." Kinda of corny lyrically, but I think you'll agree it's catchy as all get out -- killer horns, killer falsetto on the chorus "oh yeahs," driving beat, killer hooks.
This song is a killer, came out in 1967, and represents a brief period when Johnny "Guitar" Watson shifted from playing slower blues-oriented stuff to uptempo soul and before he quickly turned to funk and disco-inflected funk a couple years later. Larry Williams also hit his soul stride at this period, shifting away from his traditional R&B stuff ("Bonie Moronie," "Short Fat Fannie," "Slow Down") and just before his life spiraled downward into heroin and cocaine addiction (with his buddy Little Richard, who turned to god and escaped death, but only after Williams once almost shot him over a drug debt!).
Playing out three times next week, and I'll play this one at all three. Last time I played this tune it got some folks moving and I had more than one question about who it was. My buddy Rick described it as that "oh, yeah!" song. Oh yeah!
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