Forget the Blues Brothers or any other covers. There was nothing quite like the original in 1966. I caught up with Sam and Dave in 1969, at the age of 17 when I bought their "best of" collection...
This disc had some great tracks, including: Soul Man, When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, I Thank You and, of course, Hold On, I'm Comin'.
Sam and Dave were known variously as "Double Dynamite", "The Sultans of Sweat", and the "Dynamic Duo" because of their stage performance, not unlike that of James Brown for instance.
Legend has it the inspiration for the song came when songwriter Isaac Hayes called to his partner Dave Porter - indisposed in the bathroom - who replied "Hold on man, I'm comin'". They wrote the song in 10 minutes. It became a monster R&B hit for Sam and Dave.
Head on over to Nicky and Mike's and check out the linky dinky thingy and see who else is holdin' on.
39 comments:
This was a much, much, much, much better idea than I was able to come up with for today. [Hangs head in shame].
I dunno. We both thought of music and that's a good thing!
But you thought of good music.
Yes, that's true, isn't it.
I went with music too, gentlemen, but couldn't think of a "Hold On" song. But yes, Dufus, thought of good music. Dang him. :P
It's what I do.
I have a very similar dance style as those guys. Except less soulful. And less coordinated. And more flailing-like. But other than that...
Way to hold on, Dufus!
Thanks, Elaine.
I'm still doing the math. You were 17 in '69? No way.
I haven't thought about Sam and Dave in a very long time. I, too would have have been 17 in 1969. That was quite the year. I was a junior so I never went anywhere of interest. My brother left for Viet Nam that year so I think I was somewhat distracted.
That is the first thing I thought of when I looked at the prompt, and it was my contingency plan. Love the song, plus I do like the Blues Brothers, too.
Perfect song for today's prompt!
Oh yeah I was. I'm 60. But they tell me it's the new 40.
I actually went to school with Dan Aykroyd!
I thought so too. These guys epitomized what Stax Records was all about.
OMG! Great (old) minds do think alike! Who would have thought both of us would go here? I loved these guys. I didn't know the origin of the song. Thanks for the info.
These guys were fabulous. I don't quite remember how I discovered them in my mid-teens but I did and thought they were great. I wasn't really into the Motown sound. But these guys, though, had an edge to their music and I loved it.
Hey Dufus! These guys are legends, and I'd totally forgotten about them; I'll go thrash myself with birches. But thanks, man. Roth
You Brits do strange things sometimes. Thrash yourself with birches? Is that like doing the mashed potato?
I don't think I'm old enough to read your blog, Mr Dufus.
Now that truly made my day! You're definitely in charge of tunes when we finally have our Monster Blogger Party.
Well, I guess that explains a lot!
You don't need to be old, Ziva. You just have to like music. It's timeless.
Oh, I'm there, Boom Boom.
Yeah. I taught him everything he knows.
Cranking the sound up NOW!
Is this whole contest bowel-related - because I can do this...I talk about my butt a lot.
Yes, you showed your age. A lot of it. ;)
I'd never heard of these two, NoName. But I'm going to look them thanks to you
Up. Look them up. I'm tired......
AWRIGHT!!!
Naw, that's just me. You see if people say this song's crap I can say, "Well, little did you know..."
JUST FROM YOUR COMMENT! Oh, and I had a bowl movement yesterday.
Great tune!
Thank heavens you didn't go with Richard Marx "Hold On to the NIght."
Blech!
heh heh heh
Never was a big Richard Marx fan. He was too 80s for me.
I love LOVE love that song!!
I'm glad. Some folks your age don't even know it exists.
My first exposure to this song was through late night television. As I recall, Conan O'Brien's band used to play it a lot on his "Late Night" show on NBC. I never knew the name of the song or the artists, so thank you for putting this song in context. Amazing song, and amazing performers.
Oh these guys were pretty amazing. "Soul Man" was another massive hit by them.
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