Hey! Party Dad here with the first installment in my series of musical history lessons here on the EF blog. This week I want to talk about one of my favorite forgotten soul singers, the great Esther Phillips.
I first discovered Esther last year on one of my frequent trips to the dollar bin at 52.5 Records, and since then I’ve become a little bit obsessed with her. I’ve done fair amount of internet research on her, and the more I find out, the more amazed I am that she isn’t worshipped as a goddess by soul aficionados worldwide. I mean, she recorded 21 albums over a 30-plus-year career, and ten of the over two dozen singles she released cracked the U.S. R&B Top Ten, including four Number Ones! Perhaps the problem was that she was too versatile for her own good, and record companies never knew how to properly promote her.
The track I’m sharing today, 1976’s “Boy, I Really Tied One On,” is probably my favorite. It’s a tale of morning-after regret that’s both sad and funny, like a lot of the best Esther Phillips tracks. Priceless lines like “allow me the pleasure/of taking your measure/though I’m sure you ain’t nobody’s treasure” (keep in mind she’s saying this to someone she just woke up next to!) are set over a backdrop of eerie synths and chilling guitar harmonics, a killer clavinet bassline, plenty of strings and horns (this is a disco track) and a beat that would almost sound at home on a Bmore club track. It’s my personal hangover anthem, and I hope you like it as much as I do.
Esther Phillips – “Boy, I Really Tied One On (Party Dad Edit)”
More Esther after the jump!
