Here’s a tune that takes me straight back to the summer of 1973: one of two top ten hits – You Can Do Magic and Walking Miracle – for Limmie & The Family Cookin’.

It seems they were, as their name suggests, a family outfit – two sisters and a brother – led by someone called Limmie. But, much to my surprise, I find that Limmie, who is (also to my surprise),a man, was not the singer of their hits.

A child prodigy from Alabama who had been recording from the age of 11, Limmie Snell made his debut under the woeful stage name Limmie B Good. In 1965, under the even worse stage name Lemme B. Good, he recorded the original version of Good Lovin’, which became a chart topping single for The Young Rascals the following year.

In the early Seventies he recruited his two sisters, Jimmy and Martha, to form the group Limmie & The Family Cookin’. Despite having his name at the top of the bill, it was Jimmy who sang lead vocals on both their hit singles.

A success in the UK but not at home in America, Limmie moved here and split from his sisters to form Limmie Funk. They broke up when two of the other members found more success in Palm Beach Express and The Continentals.
He then formed Limmie Funk Limited, but the birth of punk and the evolution of soul into disco did not help his cause, and once again his band members went on to bigger and better things.

Nick Straker enjoyed a solo career, Tony Mansfield became a songwriter and producer for Captain Sensible, and brothers Paul and Robert Simon passed through numerous New Wave bands including Neo, Radio Stars, Cowboys International, Ultravox and Magazine.

As for Limmie, he carried on writing and recording until he died of kidney failure in 1986, aged only 41.