Bunny Sigler (March 27, 1941 – October 6, 2017) – Things Are Gonna Get Better (1974)
The unsung singer/songwriter and producer who helped shape the Philly Sound co-wrote this superb opening cut for his first LP on PIR, co-produced by Norman Harris.
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The unsung singer/songwriter and producer Walter “Bunny” Sigler helped craft the Sound of Philadelphia alongside its architects Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell. In his definitive book A House On Fire: The Rise And Fall Of Philadelphia Soul, music historian John A. Jackson described Sigler as “by far the most talented employee at Philadelphia International Records.”
See our earlier post on Sigler for more on his musical career.
Sigler got his childhood nickname “Bunny” because he had one front tooth that stuck out and was born on the day after Easter Sunday. He started singing in church, and was appearing at nightclubs by the time he was in high school. His highly emotional performance style made him a teen idol in Philadelphia.
In 1962, Philly-based V-Tone Records released his “Hold On” single, on which he was billed as “Bunny Sigler - Mr. Emotion.” He wrote its B-side, the Little Richard-inspired “Family Dance.” He released more singles on Decca Records in the mid-sixties but it was another five years before he had his first hit. His medley of “Let The Good Times Roll” and “Feel So Good” went to #20 R&B and #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967, covering the 1956 R&B chart-toppers by New Orleans duo Shirley & Lee.
It was released on Cameo-Parkway and co-produced by Leon Huff, at the time still under contract to producers John Madara and Dave White. Huff also played piano on the track, and went on to co-produce Sigler’s debut album for Cameo-Parkway. But the label folded within a year. Sigler’s contract ended up with Allen Klein, and he had to wait for it to expire before signing with Kenny Gamble and Huff’s Neptune Records label.
Sigler started hanging around the building where Neptune had its offices, practicing martial arts in the hallways, until one day Gamble suggested he come in and try to write songs. They soon discovered he had a tremendous songwriting talent.
Together with Gamble and Huff, Sigler co-wrote the upbeat jam “Sure Didn't Take Long (For The News To Get Around)” which was released on Neptune in 1969. Billed as “Bunny and Cindy,” Sigler sang it as a duet with his cousin Cindy Scott, aka Sundray Tucker, who was an early member of the Ordettes with Patti LaBelle before they changed their name to the Blue Belles. Another one of her cousins was Tammi Terrell, and Tucker’s sister Lynda Laurence joined the Supremes for a brief period in the early seventies.
The following year, Neptune issued Bunny and Cindy’s superb love anthem “Conquer The World Together” (1970), produced by Gamble and Huff, arranged by Bobby Martin, and co-written by Gamble, Huff, Sigler and Scott. It was re-recorded by Sigler and Gamble’s first wife Dee Dee Sharp in 1971 and released on Gamble and Huff’s brand new label Philadelphia International Records (PIR).
For the 1972 breakthrough debut album Back Stabbers by the O’Jays, which put both them and PIR on the map, Sigler and his writing partner Phil Hurtt co-wrote three songs. One was the stellar socially conscious opening cut “When the World's at Peace,” co-written with Gamble.
They also co-wrote the poignant heartbreak tale “Who Am I,” and the beautiful slow jam “Sunshine.”
According to Phil Hurtt, he and Sigler sang uncredited backing vocals on Back Stabbers. It was one of the few times the O’Jays had additional anonymous backing vocalists on any of their records. In Thom Bell’s estimation, they didn’t usually need it, because “those boys can sing!” However, when it came to most of the other groups that recorded for PIR during the seventies, Sigler frequently sang anonymous backing vocals on their records instead of the groups’ actual members.
Sigler explained in an interview with John A. Jackson, “Generally, the same three males and the same three females sang the background parts.” The female singers were the Sweethearts of Sigma (Carla Benson, Evette Benton and Barbara Ingram), and the males were usually some combination of Sigler, Gamble, Huff, Hurtt, and singer Carl Helm. Hurtt further revealed:
“The guys who got the most work on the background [were] me, Bunny Sigler and Carl Helm. We were a lot of different groups. We were everybody that came in there!”
Sigma Sound Studios owner and chief engineer Joe Tarsia confirmed this, acknowledging:
“I don’t care whether it was the Stylistics or Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, or whoever. All the backgrounds on all these songs were sung not by the groups but by either Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Thom Bell, Carl Helm [or] Bunny Sigler.”
As the seventies progressed and PIR turned into an R&B hit-making machine second only to Motown, Gamble and Huff came to value Sigler’s songwriting, production, and backing vocalist skills too much to risk helping him become a star singer. He released two albums for the label, That's How Long I'll Be Loving You (1974), and Keep Smilin' (1975), but neither was extensively promoted.
“Things Are Gonna Get Better,” the opening cut to Sigler’s 1974 debut LP on PIR, was arranged by former MSFB member Norman Harris, co-produced by Harris and Sigler, and co-written by Sigler, Allen Felder, and Ron “Have Mercy” Kersey. It was not released as a single, although it should have been, and he did get to perform it on Soul Train.
In 1975, Sigler and Hurtt were lured away from PIR by Atlantic A&R director Lebaron Taylor, a former program director for WDAS in Philadelphia. They joined his Young Professionals production team and worked with Jackie Moore, Major Harris, and their biggest success, Blue Magic.
Sigler finally scored a top-ten hit as a solo artist after he signed with Salsoul Records’ Gold Mind subsidiary, run by Norman Harris. “Let Me Party with You (Party, Party, Party)” went to #8 R&B and #43 on the Hot 100 in 1977.
Happy Birthday to the late great Bunny Sigler.
Further info:
“Bunny Sigler,” interview by David Nathan, SoulMusic.com, 1978.
A House On Fire: The Rise And Fall Of Philadelphia Soul, John A. Jackson, 2004.
“Interview with Phil Hurtt and Bunny Sigler - A Soulful Tale of Two Cities,” by Barry Towler, Soul Express Magazine, 2007.
“Bunny Sigler, Philadelphia Soul Mainstay, Dies at 76,” obituary, The New York Times, October 11, 2017.
#soul #funk #disco #TSOP #PIR #BunnySigler