Philly soul’s signature sound was its sweetness but there was a bitter pill inside the sugar-coated harmonies of Ghetto Child by The Detroit Spinners.
At the time I just saw some happy-looking dudes in bright colours twirling away on Top of the Pops with big smiles on their faces. The lyrics passed me by completely.
It’s a shame (to coin another of their song titles) because beneath those smooth harmonies and lush orchestrations lies a heartbreaking autobiographical tale by Thom Bell of growing up with racial discrimination.
I can only imagine how much this song meant to people of colour in 1973 and it makes me a little ashamed that I missed the point – but glad to rediscover it and to finally appreciate its message about the teenager who leaves home to escape a hometown “filled with narrow minds and hate.”
The line about how the small child “would run and hide, feeling so ashamed just for being born” breaks my heart.
The Spinners – who were given the Detroit/Motown appendage in the UK to avoid confusion with a British folk group of the same name – had started out way back in the mid-Fifties as a high-school doo-wop group (The Domingoes).
They went through several line-up changes, and an unsuccessful spell with their hometown label Motown, before they moved to Atlantic Records – and Philadelphia – on the recommendation of Aretha Franklin.
With new singer Philip Wynne forming a trio of lead vocalists with Bobby Smith and Henry Fambrough, they quickly found success under the tutleage of the great producer and songwriter Thom Bell – the architect (with Gamble & Huff) of the Philly Soul sound – who surrounded their vocal harmonies with sighing strings and sultry horns, against a gentle funk rhythm.
Recorded at Philadelhia’s Sigma Sound Studios with the MFSB house band, Ghetto Child is one of their few hits to feature all three lead vocalists, Wynne and Fambrough singing the verses and Smith the bridge.
The other two are the splendidly named Pervis Jackson and Billy Henderson, with additional vocals by Bell’s co-writer Linda Creed and vocal trio The Sigma Sweethearts, aka Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson and Yvette Benton.