Bobby Robinson (April 16, 1917 – January 7, 2011) – At The Party (1980)
This classic old school hip hop jam by the Treacherous Three was co-written and produced by the great songwriter/producer and Harlem record store owner.
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Bobby Robinson was a legendary songwriter, producer, and label owner who owned a Harlem record store for six decades from 1946-2008. He wrote and produced hundreds of R&B and soul records, and helped hip hop take off with some of its first-ever releases on his Enjoy Records label in the early eighties.
Morgan Clyde “Bobby” Robinson was born in South Carolina and served in the Army during WWII. When the war was over, he relocated to New York City, and in 1946 opened a record store on 125th Street in Harlem. At the time it was one of the few Black-owned businesses on the historic street.
He produced his first record in 1951, and set up the Robin Records label in 1952 (later Red Robin). Throughout the fifties, he founded more labels to release material by R&B, doo wop, and rock’n’roll artists, including Whirlin' Disc, Fury, Everlast, Fire, and in 1962, Enjoy Records. He ran some of them with his brother Danny Robinson.
See our earlier post on Robinson’s onetime business partner Juggy Murray Jones for more on how they co-founded Sue Records in 1957.
One of his first big hits was producing “Kansas City” (1959) by Wilbert Harrison on Fury Records, which topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, spending seven weeks at #1. Unfortunately, Harrison was under contract to Herman Lubinsky’s Savoy Records at the time, and lawsuits prevented Fury from profiting from the single’s sales or capitalizing on its success.
Robinson signed Gladys Knight & the Pips to Fury and produced their first hit “Every Beat of My Heart” (1961) which went to #1 R&B and top-ten on the Hot 100. It was a cover of Johnny Otis’ 1952 original. King Curtis’ #1 R&B hit “Soul Twist” was the inaugural release on Enjoy in 1962, written by Curtis and produced by Bobby and Danny Robinson.
The following year, they also produced another King Curtis record (although credited to the Rinkydinks for contractual reasons). “Hot Potato (Piping Hot)” (1963) later became the first theme song used by Don Cornelius for Soul Train.
Robinson wrote and produced the upbeat jam “Talk to Me Baby” (1965) for local singer Billy Hambric, b/w an inspired cover of the Luther Dixon-penned “Human.”
In 1966, Robinson produced a single for Wayne Logiudice (pronounced “Lock-o-Dee-Cee” according to the 45), a white R&B singer from Atlanta whose live shows were legendary and got a standing ovation from the crowd at the Apollo during a performance that same year after someone yelled out, “Go home, honky!” and he responded, “I am home, sucker!” The rockin’ jam “Come On Everybody (Let's Get Some Action On)” and its B-side “Ow! Boogaloo” were both arranged by George Baker Jr. and written by Robinson.
Robinson also put out a couple of instrumental singles under his own name. The first was “Uh, Uh, Baby” (1966) which he wrote and was arranged and conducted by Johnny Pate.
After Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Robinson wrote and produced “Let's Make That Dream Come True” (1968), a powerful tribute song by Bobby Porter, an R&B singer originally from South Carolina.
In the late seventies, Robinson was well aware of the city’s growing hip hop scene, and it remains an unanswered question as to why he didn’t release the first hit rap record. Instead, Sylvia Robinson (no relation) of Sugarhill Records beat him to the punch in September, 1979 with “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang.
Although many consider that group to have been assembled by Sylvia solely for the purpose of seeing if there was money to be made from rap, there is no doubt Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five were an established crew who had been rapping and performing at parties and clubs for years. In late 1979, Robinson co-wrote and produced “Superrappin’,” their first single as the Furious Five, released on his Enjoy label. It was a regional hit and a highly influential track.
Robinson’s nephew Gabriel Jackson came to live with him after his mother died in 1975, when he was twelve years old. He would practice rapping in his uncle’s apartment. When producer and label owner Peter Brown who ran P&P Records (among many other labels) visited Bobby’s Records in 1979 and told Robinson he wanted to put out a rap record, he recommended his nephew, better known as Spoonie Gee. That fall he recorded his first single “Spoonin’ Rap” (1979) for Brown’s Sound of New York, USA label.
Robinson then co-wrote and produced Gee’s second single, “Love Rap” (1980). It was released on Enjoy as the B-side to another influential early hip hop track co-written and produced by Robinson, “The New Rap Language” by the Treacherous Three.
The group consisted of Gee and fellow MC’s L.A. Sunshine and Kool Moe Dee, along with DJ Easy Lee.
The Treacherous Three later replaced Spoonie Gee with MC Special K when Gee left to go solo. Robinson co-wrote and produced their classic jam “At The Party” (1980). Its instrumental backing track was by Damond, Jeff, and Errol Eduardo Bedward aka Pumpkin, the multi-instrumentalist who backed most of the hip hop tracks Robinson would release on Enjoy over the next few years.
Happy Heavenly Birthday to the great Bobby Robinson.
Further info:
“An Old Record Shop May Fall Victim to Harlem's Success,” The New York Times, August 21, 2007.
“Bobby Robinson, Harlem Music Impresario, Dies at 93,” obituary, The New York Times, January 12, 2011.
“Bobby Robinson,” obituary, The Guardian, February 21, 2011.
“Bobby Robinson and his Happy House, presented by Matthew Barton and John Broven,” YouTube, February 15, 2018.
#soul #funk #hiphop #EnjoyRecords #Harlem #BobbyRobinson