Listen: Something You Got /Alvin Robinson
Something You Got / Alvin Robinson

The voice. It’s why there’s not a song Alvin Robinson ever recorded that doesn’t hit dead center. Even though his steady income through the 60′s until the late 80′s was as a guitarist, it’s one of the wonders of the world that Alvin Robinson’s voice never took center stage, as in I wonder how that’s even possible. There are some great blog overviews of his recorded history, this one will lead you onto to others.

My first introduction to ‘Something You Got’ came via Them, one of the many highlights on THEM AGAIN. Not long afterward, my uncle gave me Alvin Robinson’s version, complete with the jukebox tab, basically unplayed, out of some malt shop account his vending company serviced. In most such locations, white rock soaked up kid’s dimes, bar only Motown mainstream hits when it came to anything black based. Not sure why he’d even take a chance on records like these, given jukebox companies needed to buy their records from one stops and seldom got anything but double A sided promos for free, which were clearly unusable in the players.

Listen: Something You Got /Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown
Something You Got /Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown

Years later, in a panic to get everything Maxine Brown centric, what did I discover but a version and vocal that could actually equal Alvin Robinson’s. A mid-chart (#55) Billboard Top 100 single in ’65, it was one of several duets they released together and their most successful. Three of the others, coincidentally, all peaked at #91.