Work To Do
The Main Ingredient
Afrodisiac, 1973 (not available on iTunes)
RCA Records

Since I seem to be naming everything The Main Ingredient, I figured I should give some love to the namesake. The Main Ingredient are from Harlem and the best-known member is the original Cuba Gooding (Sr.). The group was formed in 1964 but he wasn’t part of the group until 1971 when another member died unexpectedly. The early 70′s recordings that feature him on lead vocals became their best selling material.

This is their 1973 cover of The Isley Brothers classic “Work To Do” which came out the year before (it was also covered by the Average White Band in 1974). The Isley Brothers version will always be the definitive version but I like the way Main Ingredient took it down a notch and added the classic 70′s illustrative spoken interlude:

(phone ringing)
her: hello
him: it’s me baby
her: when you you comin’ home?
him: well i ain’t tonight
her: but why? baby why?
him: because you know, i got to stay out here and take care of this business i’m doin’
her: but i had something good for you tonight baby
him: i know, i know it’s good but i just can’t make it tonight, i got to take care of business
her: but i need you, i need you now
him: i need you too but we need the rent too, listen!

Also have give them props for being a little risqué for 1973 with the art work. It’s no Ohio Players album but that is a nipple.

Shout to Nat/Busquelo for giving me this record.

Songs are available for two weeks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Covers, Music Appreciation, Vinyl Recordings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.