Barbara Livsey (born May 27, 1946) – Right On (To The Street Called Love) (1970)
This powerful message song and soul/funk bomb by the Chicago group Barbara And The Uniques was co-written by Livsey and producer Bill Parker.
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Barbara Livsey was an unsung soul singer/songwriter who released singles and one album during the 1960s and 70s.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Livsey’s family moved to Chicago when she was twelve years old. She took music classes in high school and formed her first vocal group along with her cousin Mary-Francis Hayes, a duo called the The Du-ettes.
Their debut single was the superb jam “Mister Steel,” co-produced by Andre Williams and Otis Hayes (aka Little Otis) and released on M-Pac! Records in 1963.
They followed it up later that year with the breakup anthem “Move On Down The Line,” which was co-written and arranged by Milt Bland aka the great Monk Higgins, and again released on M-Pac! and produced by Hayes.
Williams returned the following year to produce and co-write another single arranged by Higgins, “Every Beat of My Heart” (1964) which was destined to become a Northern soul classic.
The group broke up around 1966 when Livsey got married and moved to Detroit. By the end of the decade, she was back in Chicago and started performing with her sister as Barbara & Gwen. They only released two singles, both of them on New Chicago Sound Records. The first was “Just The Two Of Us” (1969) b/w the gospel-flavored jam “I Love My Man,” which was written, arranged, and conducted by Eddie Silvers.
Their second and final single was the message song and soul/funk bomb “Right On (To The Street Called Love)” (1970), which Livsey co-wrote with V. McCullough and co-producer Bill Parker, who also co-owned the label.
New Chicago Sound then added singer Doris Lindsey to the group, and they became Barbara And The Uniques. Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites wrote their first big song, “There It Goes Again,” which came out on the New York-based label Arden in 1970 and charted nationally, reaching #16 R&B.
In 1971 they released another superb single on Arden. “You Make Me Feel So Young Again” was backed with “Take Me As I Am (Don't Try To Change Me),” co-written by Livsey, Parker, and McCullough, with production credited to “Fountain Records for New Chicago Sounds.”
Later that year came the stellar jam “I'll Never Let You Go” (1971).
By 1974 Livsey was using her married name, and the group’s name shifted to Barbara Blake and the Uniques. They recorded a full-length LP for Twentieth-Century Fox, which was released as their self-titled debut the following year. It was produced by the unsung Chicago genius and indie label owner James Vanleer.
One of the LP’s advance singles was “Teach Me” (1974), b/w the funky soul cut “Everlasting Thrill,” which was written by Vanleer who co-arranged it with Benjamin Wright. Its final single was “I Need Your Love So Bad” (1975) with the album’s phenomenal opening cut “Let Me Down Easy” on the flip, again written and produced by Vanleer, and co-arranged by Wright.
Happy Birthday to the great Barbara Livsey.
Further info:
“Soul singer Barbara Livsey cut one star-making album and vanished,” by Steve Krakow, Chicago Reader, June 14, 2022.
#soul #funk #Chicago #BarbaraLivsey