BOB ANDY & MARCIA GRIFFITHS - Young, Gifted & Black
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 10:00AM 
It’s about time! That’s what I have to say about this latest set of Universal reissues of original albums that feature classic Trojan singles. As a fan of the song “Young Gifted & Black” by Bob & Marcia since childhood, I’m very pleased with this release in particular.
Marcia Griffiths started with Byron Lee’s Dragonaires in 1964. Later, as one of the I Threes, she gave sweet trio harmony to Bob Marley during his Island years. Along the way, she recorded her best-known singles, “Feel Like Jumping” (divine!) and “Electric Boogie” (unfortunately huge). Bob Andy was a songwriter and a former member of the Paragons (“The Tide is High”) by the time this album was recorded in 1970.
Their best-known hit, the title track, was a radical reworking of Nina Simone’s powerful paean to black pride, given mass appeal by Trojan, who furnished it with a delicious string arrangement in England, guaranteeing its message a mass audience. The choice of unlikely covers shows how the duo had a keen ear for the underrated classic (“Private Number” by Judy Clay and William Bell, and “Get Ourselves Together” by Delaney & Bonnie), and totally surprising (who would have thought Simon & Garfunkel’s “Keep the Customer Satisfied” would work in a Jamaican context?). Their versions of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” are more typical, but no less appealing.
This is a superb pop/rocksteady record, right up there with other duet albums like the aforementioned Delaney & Bonnie’s Home, and Bobbie Gentry & Glenn Campbell’s collaboration.
Reader Comments (1)
(This other writer for the site, on the other hand, really likes "Electric Boogie", especially its dub versions.)