Got To Change
McFadden & Whitehead
McFadden & Whitehead, 1979 (iTunes)
Philadelphia International Records (wikipedia)
This is another song from the album best known for the classic “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” That classic is so classic that it has become mainly the province of (black) block parties, family reunions, and weddings and it’s a song I don’t listen to at home. It (and the too-smiley picture on the cover…and that it came out in 1979) had me rushing through listening to this album assuming it was going all going to be happy/corny songs that weren’t as good as “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” Accordingly, I was very pleasantly surprised to find the somewhat darker “Got To Change” starting off the B-Side.
I knew “G. McFadden & J. Whitehead” had done a fair amount of songwriting for Philadelphia International by seeing there names on album credits over the years but I thought it was usually on the same albums with bigger hits written by Gamble & Huff. I didn’t realize until reading their wikipedia entry that they wrote as many hits as they did during their pre-recording-artist days.
From wikipedia:
The duo later joined Philly International Records, where they wrote hit after hit, the first being “Back Stabbers” in 1972 for the O’Jays. It became No. 1 across the board in one week.
McFadden and Whitehead also wrote hits such as ” I’ll Always Love My Momma,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake Up Everybody,” “Where Are All My Friends,” “The More I Get, The More I Want”, and “Cold, Cold World”. The production team also worked with Melba Moore, Freddie Jackson and Gloria Gaynor, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Gladys Knight, The Jackson 5, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lou Rawls, Archie Bell & the Drells and The Intruders, just to name a few.
Songs are available for two weeks.
