Leroy Kirkland (February 10, 1906 – April 6, 1988) – Good Things (1967)

The unsung songwriter and composer co-wrote this Isley Brothers soul-funk gem from their Soul On The Rocks album on Tamla, produced by Ivy Jo Hunter.

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Leroy Kirkland was a guitarist, songwriter, composer, conductor, and arranger who worked with big band jazz greats before helping shape many songs for R&B artists in the 1950s and 60s.

Sources differ as to whether Leroy Edward Kirkland was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1904 or 1906. He learned to play guitar and played with jazz bands around the South during the twenties. Kirkland was next hired as an arranger and songwriter for Erskine Hawkins, the big band leader from Birmingham, AL whose “Tuxedo Junction” became a jazz standard.

He toured with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey’s big bands in the forties, then began arranging, writing, and conducting for R&B artists on Savoy Records in New York City in the early fifties. He also worked for OKeh and Mercury Records, and along the way co-wrote his own jazz standard, “Cloudburst,” which was recorded by Count Basie.

Several of the R&B songs he co-wrote or played on during this decade were collected on a CD released in 2023 by Koko Mojo Records, Leroy Kirkland, Thrill-la-dill (2023), part of their Koko Mojo Writer Series. One was the swinging “Talk About Me,” which he co-wrote with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, one of many times his Leroy Kirkland Orchestra backed Hawkins. Another was the upbeat jam “Good Lovin’” (1961) by Bobby Hendricks, the onetime lead singer of the Drifters. Kirkland co-wrote it with Danny Taylor and “Jesmet,” aka Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records. It was originally recorded in 1953 by the Clovers.

Kirkland played a behind-the-scenes role in the rise of Elvis Presley when he helped songwriter Otis Blackwell get his demo of “Don’t Be Cruel” recorded by the hot new singing sensation from Memphis.

As Blackwell recalled in his book Writing For The King:

“On Christmas Eve in '55, I was standing outside the Brill Building with no hat and holes in my shoes. It was snowin'. Leroy Kirkland, the arranger who worked with Screamin' Jay Hawkins, asked if I had any songs. I said, 'Yeah, I'm trying to get some Christmas money'. He took me to Shalimar Music where I met Goldie Goldmark, Al Stanton and Moe Gayle. So I said OK. Al Stanton was a friend of another fellow named Paul Cates, who was with the Elvis Presley people. He got my songs through. I was working for Shalimar, and Elvis was with Hill & Range. So they got together to co-publish. I played seven songs for them - one of the songs was 'Don't Be Cruel'. They bought it and showed it to the Elvis company. They asked me could I write some more stuff. So I made a couple of demos. I made the demos to 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Paralyzed' and 'All Shook Up'. When Elvis recorded these songs, he was copying the vocal style on the demos.”

During the early sixties, Kirkland co-wrote the great Etta James’ R&B love jam “Something's Got a Hold on Me” with James and the prolific but unsung songwriter Pearl Woods. Produced by Chess Records owners Leonard and Phil Chess and released in 1962 as the third single off her self-titled third studio album, it went to #4 R&B. It has since been covered by many other artists. But no one ever did it better than James, who memorably performed it live in 1966 on the short-lived music TV show The !!!! Beat.

In 1967, the Isley Brothers recorded one of Kirkland’s songs for their Soul On The Rocks LP. Released on Motown subsidiary Tamla Records, the soul-funk gem “Good Things” was co-written by Kirkland, Robert Bruce, and lyricist Buddy Feyne, and produced by Ivy Jo Hunter.

When the Pointer Sisters recorded their 1973 self-titled debut album, they included an inspired version of Kirkland’s “Cloudburst,” which he co-wrote with trumpeter Jimmy Harris. The following year in 1974, they performed it live on the Dutch show TopPop.

Rest in Power, Leroy Kirkland.

Further info:

“The Leroy Kirkland Story,” by Opal Louis Nations, Blues & Rhythm magazine no. 367, March 2022.

#jazz #R&B #soul #funk #LeroyKirkland