Listen: 5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years Of Love) / The Presidents
5-10-15-20

Given I’d previously owned only Dennis Coffey and Bill Withers records on Sussex, I assumed the best when this came along. Turns out it’s a one listen song, simple.

Seemed like no time passed before the record was literally all over the air. You almost couldn’t escape it. Logically both the Top 40′s and the RnB locals were playing it, but so too were the college stations. Everyone loved it, hands down. For me, just knowing a Sussex single was spinning on some 16″ industrial Gates radio station turntable made it sound that much better.

Within a few years though, producer Van McCoy got tarnished with the disco curse, simply for having too big of a hit, ‘The Hustle’. But truth be told, the fellow wrote some perfect songs: ‘Baby I’m Yours’ for Barbara Lewis, ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’ by Betty Everett, ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’, the Northern Soul holy grail recorded by Sandi Sheldon and ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ for Jackie Wilson.

Listen: Baby I’m Yours / Barbara Lewis BabaraLewis.mp3

I just remember this slummping in with Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black, the female singers we felt were British Invasion by association. It was a bit later I found her to be authentic American, signed to Atlantic. But I mean, no negative here, all positive, not only did the English bring our own urban music back to us, but they supported many an artist like Barbara Lewis, inviting them to the UK for double bills, support etc. Doris Troy was another lucky recipient. P. P. Arnold and Madeline Bell too. ‘Baby I’m Yours’ still sounds so solid today.