The Song of the Day is:
Willie Hutch – “I Choose You”
From the soundtrack to the film The Mack (1973)
Cuz your sugar
Oh your spice
Woman love, your every thing nice
Oh my goodness
Oh I feel real bright
Oh I choose you baby
Willie Hutch
Willie Hutch was one of Motown Records most under-appreciated artists. It speaks to their deep roster that a talent like Hutch would not be an A-lister. Though he’d already released two albums for a different label, his first real impact on the Motown label was as the lyricist for “I’ll Be There”. The song was a massive smash for the Jackson 5 and Hutch did wind up recording a slowed down, more mature version of the song on his debut with the label. Hutch was important behind the scenes at Motown as an arranger, writer and producer, working frequently with the stars of the label like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and a teenaged Michael Jackson. With his impressive skill set, he was a natural for soundtrack work, and those opportunities came with the blaxploitation films The Mack and Foxy Brown. Those two soundtracks contained some of his best works including “Brothers Got To Work it Out”, “Theme for Foxy Brown” and today’s song “I Choose You”. Hutch could easily alternate between hard driving funk and lush love songs, this song falling in the latter category (as did a surprisingly great cover of Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were”). Hutch’s musical and arranging style was similar to those of Curtis Mayfield and label mate Leon Ware and he possessed a voice reminiscent of Ronald Isley. His biggest chart hit was 1975’s “Love Power”, his only showing on the pop chart, though in my opinion he’s got many great songs worth checking out (his Motown greatest hits compilation is a very entertaining listen). Sadly, Hutch’s star power never matched his talent, and by the eighties he was even less visible. He died in 2005, at the age of sixty of undisclosed causes. Like many of the great blaxploitation soundtracks, Hutch’s contributions to the genre have been sampled extensively by rap artists. Perhaps most famously, “I Choose You” was prominently sampled by dirty south rap group UGK (Underground Kingz) on their signature 2007 hit “International Players Anthem (feat. OutKast).
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