Al Goodman, R.I.P.

The soul singer Al Goodman passed away last week. For decades he was a member of the Moments, a trio renamed Ray, Goodman & Brown after it left Sylvia Robinson's grip. Goodman sang bass and was involved in writing, producing and arranging many of their hits.

The Moments are best known for classic sweet soul ballads like "Love On a Two-Way Street", but I've always had a fondness for their more groove-oriented songs and in particular the tracks they recorded in the style of their 1973 hit "Sexy Mama":


The Moments: "Sexy Mama" (Stang, 1973)

(Hint for vinyl buyers: the version of "Sexy Mama" on The Best of the Moments is much longer and better than the original LP version.)

After the success of that tune, the Moments cut a bunch of songs patterned on it: gently swaying mid-tempo tracks made up of little more than a sinuous bass line and the light tock of a primitive drum machine. Although none of them was a hit, all of the tracks got multiple releases, in some cases years apart. It makes sense-- although they all sound very similar to each other, none sounds much like anything else, so to this day they don't sound dated.


The Moments: "Ride Your Pony Girl" (Stang, 1974)

In Europe, this appeared on the Those Sexy Moments album. In the US, it came out as a single credited to Harry Ray and also appeared on a Stang cash-in LP entitled The O'Jays Meet the Moments.


The Moments: "The Next Time I See You" (Stang, 1974)

This originally appeared on Those Sexy Moments and, 8 years later, on a 7" credited to Harry Ray. I don't have a copy of either release, so I grabbed it from DJ Anonymous's excellent blog.

At about the same time, the song was also performed by label head Sylvia Robinson over the same backing track:


Sylvia: "The Next Time I See You" (Vibration, 1974)

Sylvia's version originally came out on a 7" single and then appeared on her self-titled 1976 LP. That record also features the very similar "Sweet Stuff", which was featured on DJ Anonymous's blog, too.

Finally, this is kind of far afield from the Moments and the "Sexy Mama"-style tunes, but it was co-written by Goodman and has been ruling my ears for the past few months:



First Class: "Filled With Desire" (All Platinum, 1976)

Soul songs don't get much more jubilant.